Non-tech firms ride to rescue of laid-off techies

All is not lost for IT professionals getting laid off by their technology firms that are spooked by global headwinds.

Global capability centres (GCC or captives) and non-tech firms have stepped up hiring in India as multinationals increase digitisation initiatives, a report from Quess Corp, a technology-enabled staffing solutions provider, revealed on Wednesday.

“About 20 per cent of the lateral movement from IT firms has been absorbed into GCCs and non-tech firms that are going digital,” the report said.

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“Amongst industry players, GCCs have seen the largest demand flow which has grown 25-30 per cent in the last fiscal (2022-2023), while demand from non-tech Indian enterprises has doubled,” Vijay Sivaram, Chief Executive Officer, Quess IT Staffing told DH.

GCCs in India are rapidly growing in number and are estimated to employ over 3.6 lakh jobs in the coming year.

“Cost is a key factor for GCCs and multinational companies and India offer an abundance of affordable tech resources. This continues to fuel the demand from global players across sectors,” explained Janet Paul, Director, Human Resources, Securonix, a cloud solution provider.

According to the report, FY22 saw a significant increase in workforce demand with many firms displaying ‘talent hoarding’ behaviors which petered out for traditional tech product-based companies in FY23.

However, there has been an increase in technology adoption across non-tech industries, which led to a redistribution of skills, resulting in a correction of demand for professionals and a decrease in associated price premiums within the IT sector.

Bengaluru led the tech talent hiring, snapping up 55.23 per cent of the recruits, followed by Hyderabad (12.16 per cent), Pune (9.95 per cent), Chennai (9.48 per cent), NCR (5.67 per cent) and Mumbai (5.30 per cent).

However, remote working mandates and improved data services infra have also pushed hiring across tier 2 and 3 cities including Jaipur, Coimbatore, Indore, Kochi, Gulmarg, Siliguri, particularly in e-commerce and financial services firms. By deploying associates in these cities, companies are able to access a larger talent pool and offer employees the flexibility to work from anywhere.

A whopping 82 per cent of the aggregate demand emerged from specific technology skills including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) (20.84 per cent), Java Full Stack (27.62 per cent), Data Analytics (16.37 per cent), Cloud (16.34 per cent), and Infrastructure Management (25.94 per cent).

Apart from this, demand for professionals adept with niche tech skills related to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Big Data, 5G, Cyber Security, DevOps, RPA, and UI/UX was also considerable.

On the recruiters’ front, industries including energy and utilities (11 per cent), healthcare and life science (11 per cent), automotive and engineering (10 per cent), BFSI (7 per cent), and telecom networks (6 per cent) led tech hiring in India.