IT-BPM industry to slow down its hiring this year

The Dollar Business Bureau

The Indian IT-BPM industry could continue to witness a fall in hiring this year, largely due to automation of customary processes in the industry, Nasscom predicted on Thursday.

“Fresh hiring is static or is generally declining. Due to automation, we are not hiring at same pace,” said R Chandrashekhar, President, Nasscom.

Chandrashekhar noted that although hiring is currently low, the IT-BPM industry would need about 1.2 -2 million additional staff to meet the industry’s set revenue target of $100 billion by 2025.

The industry currently employs 3.7 million people, and it would need to up-skill 60-70% of its staff by 2025 to keep pace with the technological advancement undertaken across all industries, he said at the 13th Nasscom HR Summit 2016.

“Employees in this sector need to adapt to these changes and learn new skills. While technology will displace some jobs, it will also lead to creation of some new jobs – biotech, nanotech, smart technologies… to name a few.”

Due to changing technology, there will be a gradual shift of the industry towards automation and about 5-10% of existing jobs may be automated in the next 10 years, he said.

“The existing workforce that needs to be re-skilled in technology, expertise in domains and in (structured) thinking. There would be growth of digital technology from 5% of the workforce being skilled in digital technology currently, to about 38% in the next decade,” the Nasscom president said.

He underlined the need for the organisations to make employees more competitive through acquiring information about new technologies such as artificial intelligence, data science, Internet of Things and robotics.

Chandrashekahar noted that the companies are making considerable investments in training and acquiring digital skills to keep up their pace with the technological advancements.

In 2015-16, the IT-BPM industry recruited nearly two lakh people compared to 2.2 lakh in 2014-15.