Reports predict hike & hiring cheer in 2015 for India

CHENNAI: Job scenario in 2015 is set to ring in ‘acche din’. According to multiple reports, released by human resource consultants, the overall business sentiment continues to be positive and companies are carrying over this positive outlook to 2015 for hiring and salary hikes. While some say that 2015 could be most positive in the past few years, others say India was the most optimistic in 42 countries it surveyed.
Recruitment consultant TeamLease Services expects 10-14% increase in hiring activity; with e-commerce industry alone estimated to add nearly 50,000 employees. TeamLease also expects tier II & III cities to benefit as companies look for good talent at lower costs.
Ashok Reddy, managing director and co-founder of TeamLease considers the 2015 hiring projections as one of their most positive estimates in the past few years. Reddy said that in the past, while employment outlook was down to single digit in 2009 and 2010 due to the impact of the global recession, it picked up in 2011 and 2012 before it went southward again in 2013.

Employment Outlook Survey of Manpower Group indicates that Indian employers anticipate a vigorous hiring pace for the January-March 2015 period with an employment outlook rate of 45%. Additionally, India reported the most optimistic hiring plans among the 42 countries that took part in the research. According to the survey, there is reason to cheer in the southern and western regions of the country which reflected strongest hiring intentions of 46% and 45% respectively.
Global management consultant HayGroup says that Indian companies are likely to offer average pay hikes of 10.5% in 2015 which is second best in Asia after Vietnam. HayGroup attributes high pay rises in Asian countries to the talent war in the continent, both for experienced hands and new graduates. However, HayGroup had higher forecast of 10.9% salary hike for 2014.

Another global consultant Mercer has forecast an average 11% salary increase, a marginally up from actual salary growth of 10.6% clocked in 2014. Importantly, two thirds (or 64%) of the organizations surveyed by Mercer across industries indicate aggressive recruitment in 2015, both for new positions and attrition backfill. More than half of these companies also stated that salary increase in 2014 was not very different from the previous year due to muted economic sentiment for most part of the year.
“Our estimate is arrived after factoring in our clients’ expectations that much of the hiring traction may come in the second half of 2015,” said Namita Bharadwaj, senior associate and cluster leader of automotive, manufacturing & engineering at Mercer. She added that though the hiring plans are definitely positive, companies are waiting for actual business results before finalizing their salary hike plans.