Ahead of Union Budget, a Business Insider-Aspiring Minds Survey finds out the real problems faced by corporates while hiring talent

Ahead of the Union Budget 2016 where Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is expected to make key announcements under ‘Skill India initiative’ on account of the problems being faced in the area of job creation in India, an Aspiring Minds-Business Insider joint survey has findings that point out the real issues which companies, particularly the corporate sector in India, faces when they are hiring talent.

The survey has maximum respondent companies complaining about major skill crunch in India. 68 per cent of them agree that the entry level hires/graduates they see are not even job ready. It means there lies a huge gap in what they have studied and what is expected out of them in the industry. Does that mean the curriculum in our educational institutions does not match the industry standards? 56 per cent respondents, in their response to the effective measures to reduce skill gap, said they feel higher education efforts in the country need to focus on training for soft skills, closely followed by a demand to build a relevant course curriculum. Offering internships to give hands-on experience and an effective assessment mechanism are some other solutions they came up with.

But it’s not just the white collar sector where skill gap has left companies worried and whining. The survey highlights that 51% have reported a difficulty in finding the right talent for companies not only during white collar job hiring, but also in the blue collar sectors.

For ways to improve efficiency of blue collar job market particularly, 81 per cent HR professionals are of the view that assessments and certifications can add significant value to this lowest end of the job market. In the absence of a structured recruitment mechanism, they feel, skill certification can provide real benchmarks to assess the effectiveness of various parts of the blue collar job market including training, up skilling, recruitment, labor market dynamics and more.

The survey also notes that talent crisis is not particularly a situation that plagues India, but exists worldwide. 61 per cent companies that run businesses in other parts of the world say the problem of finding the right talent for their organisations exists across markets. It’s a challenge employers are facing globally today.

For India particularly, if corrective steps are not taken, 89 per cent companies said the talent crunch or skill gap shall remain and can adversely impact the country’s economic growth.

On asking the respondents whether they feel Skill India is important in the current scenario, 60% HR professionals said they were in favour of it.

This survey is an attempt to highlight the challenges that the corporate sector faces in job creation, it remains to be seen if Arun Jaitley will take these real on-the-ground problems in consideration while he rolls out the benefits under the Skill India initiative in Union Budget 2016 soon.

Aspiring Minds is a global leader in job-skills credentialing and matching. The flagship product AMCAT, is the world’s most widely-taken employability test helping over two million candidates find the ‘right’ jobs every year.

Aspiring Minds - http://www.aspiringminds.com/
AMCAT - https://www.myamcat.com/

(Image credits: Linkedin)