New Delhi: What do techies want from their jobs in the post-pandemic era? A new survey has found that not only are more attractive salaries or better work profiles but also more flexible, or blended, work environments.
The survey, conducted by HR solutions firm ANSR and Talent500 and released on Tuesday, found that India’s recruitment landscape has undergone a “tectonic shift” post the Covid pandemic, with tech workers having new expectations from their workplaces.
Titled ‘From Attraction to Retention: Understanding the Recruitment Landscape in the Current Times’, the survey ran for two weeks and asked questions to 10,000 technology professionals.
Technicians from cities including Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Pune and Bengaluru were asked questions such as ‘what job seekers are thinking today’, ‘what they are looking forward to’, and ‘how they view the job market’ .
The survey found that around 60 per cent of the participants were actively looking for better jobs while 28 per cent were open to explore opportunities. Additionally, 89 percent of participants preferred a remote or hybrid working model over commuting to work every day.
It also highlights the high number of “drop-offs” – that is, people who agreed to join a company but never turned up on the joining date.
Releasing the results, Vikram Ahuja, Managing Director, ANSR and Co-Founder and CEO, Talent500, said the survey also revealed some disillusionment with the startup space post-pandemic, especially the layoffs in the tech sector over the past year. looking at.
For context, Indian startups have laid off More than 20,000 employees in the past year – a result that experts are putting down to changing market conditions post-pandemic.
“I think the number of people has come down since the pandemic swept 2023. So I think a lot of people who are looking at new opportunities after the pandemic, theirAnd there is disillusionment within the startup space, Ahuja said during a media interaction on Tuesday.
Ahuja said the trend was also driven by layoffs by large tech firms such as Amazon and Facebook, and prompted people to explore “more stable opportunities”.
Salary – Primary Motivator
Apparently, money was the primary motivation for changing jobs, with 76 percent citing it as their reason. This was followed by people looking for international opportunities (53 per cent), working at their dream company (47 per cent), new technology (47 per cent) and work done by the company (46 per cent).
The survey revealed that social media has played a significant role in helping candidates search for their job roles. In this, LinkedIn helped candidates the most, with 85 percent saying they used the platform to gather information about an organization.
It is also the most used platform, with 93 percent of respondents saying they have been active there. After this comes the number of YouTube (88 percent) and Instagram (73 percent).
Candidate ‘drop-off’ ratio
According to the survey, one of the major concerns for companies is the “drop-off” rate. According to Ahuja, there have been complaints about “no-show” candidates.
“One out of every two candidates who accept the offer does not appear …So you’re seeing a rejection rate as high as 50 percent or a no-show rate of 50 percent, and we wanted to go deeper there because it’s obviously a big concern for businesses,” he said.
“We found that about 60 percent of professionals will continue to look for offers even after accepting an offer, and this is actually because they think there are better companies out there with better salaries and are likely going to be paid more.
According to Ahuja, the solution is for companies to engage more with candidates—both in terms of their job profiles and competitive salary offers.
“There is also a feeling (among candidates) that once they make an offer, companies do not engage with them enough. So companies now need to understand that in a competitive market they really need to be on top of their game. What’s on offer
It is a point on which Sandeep Agarwal, director and co-founder of TeamLease RegTech – a company that deals with regulatory technology – agrees.
“Till the last day, employers are sometimes not sure whether the employee will join or not. This can be scary for HR or hiring teams,” he told ThePrint, but added that it can vary from case to case depending on the “experience and maturity of the candidate”.
“I’ve seen people who have experience — I think they value what they get from the contract over time,” he said.
Hybrid Working – The New Normal
The survey shows that post-pandemic, tech workers are no longer happy with the old “work from office” policy and are increasingly demanding remote or hybrid working.
As per the survey, only 11 per cent of the respondents said that they prefer to work from their office every day.
Experts believe that this is the “new normal” and this trend has allowed greater participation from Tier 2 cities of India.
“Earlier, we observed that 5 per cent of the workforce in this sector prefers to work from home,” Agarwal said. We may see a boom in this segment, probably 20 per cent of the workforce is demanding it. This group will not be eager to come to the office and companies will eventually accept this model, as there are tangible benefits for both.
Having a hybrid model also means setting up the right infrastructure and ensuring “culture building”.
According to Vijay Sivaram, CEO of Quess IT Staffing – a human resources company specializing in the tech sector – increasing competition in the market means that companies are now tapping the talent pool in Tier-II cities.
“Hence, having a hybrid working model helps as it will benefit all the stakeholders. However, offices will require employees to come to work only a few times a week. I see companies adopting this method and that means two things – building the infrastructure to support this model and ensuring a remote working culture with adequate supervision.”
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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