Large-scale layoffs by major companies globally, including India's technology and startup space, present an opportunity for firms to attract and onboard top talent.
“Opportunities arise from adversity.” -Unknown
Globally, many major firms have announced large scale layoffs (Meta – 11,000 employees, Google – 12,000 employees, Amazon 10,000 employees), the ramifications of which have spilled over to other sectors as well. India, too has seen recent layoffs, particularly in the technology and startup space.
While we have heard over the last few years from many companies about a ‘talent war’ and dearth of talent, the current time creates a unique opportunity for companies to attract and onboard talent which otherwise would be challenging to hire. The key question being “how can an organization use this opportunity to perform an informed hiring of talent where so far they have struggled to compete?
The first step would be to assess the internal talent requirements across functions and levels. With the talent insights available across multiple platforms, one can compare the talent profile of the company with competitors on a large scale, thus identifying specific gap areas. (see illustration below)
This static view can also be combined with dynamic insights e.g. digital talent as % of overall talent over time, growth vs competition and attrition/ retention in specific digital functions vs competition. Combined with qualitative assessment across the organization, this can help create a strategy to fill the various gap areas. Beyond the immediate view, there are often large scale strategic shifts happening in business for e.g. shift towards renewables in the power sector, a move towards digital transactions in the banking sector, greater focus on digital and data analytics across sectors etc. It is very important to assess and overlay these shifts in the workforce planning to get a more accurate picture of the talent requirements over the medium-long term.
The unlock for companies is to then use this information to identify the right talent and skillsets for hiring. These can be further classified on the basis region, location, education, professional background etc.– where it is possible today to get an understanding of the depth of the market for each of these variables to help prioritize the search. For example, this approach is currently being used by many global firms to plan their offshore strategies to help prioritize locations based on a combination of business and talent metrics. Another used case is to scan the competitor landscape for the availability of skills across the market – though one would be surprised at how many good hires are often from different but relevant industries.
The third and very important step beyond demand and supply is to create an Employee Value Proposition (EVP) which is line to attract this talent. The positive of the current unprecedented business conditions is that layoffs have expanded the set of companies for the next job which employees are willing to consider. Employees are flexible enough to select jobs in non-tech companies, across new domains and different working models.
However, the companies may also use certain levers to sweeten the deal, e.g. levers around location (on-site, remote or hybrid), capacity (full time/ part time) and type of employment ( contract/ permanent) can be exercised depending on the situation. One crucial lever in the success of this hiring is the integration with existing workforce, particularly when hiring from many different backgrounds. The right onboarding and cultural transformation initiatives can help create a more coherent workforce strategy and one that works for the organization over a long time. One can also consider boosting various employee referral programs to fully leverage potential candidate referrals through their employee networks – typically having a much higher chance of success of integration.
However, the window is small. People’s statistics reveal that on an average, 40% of laid-off employees find a job within a month’s time, while 80% of them find a job within three or four months. This varies, of course, depending on one’s skill, sector, years of experience, compensation levels, and expectations. Moreover, even though there is a 15-20% slowdown in hiring in the tech sector, people with skills like full-stack development, AI/ML skills, cloud architect, etc., are considered the crème de la crème of the tech industry and the demand for such skills in non-tech firms continues to be high. So, firms must make use of this opportunity swiftly and decisively to build the organization of the future.
This article is authored by Neetu Chitkara, Managing Director & Partner, Himanshu Priyadarshi, Associate Director and Nimisha Singhal, Consultant at BCG in India
