Economic downturn leads to reduced business for HR consultants; employees in HR companies are increasingly being laid off.
Economic downturn leads to reduced business for HR consultants; employees in HR companies are increasingly being laid off.
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Illustration/Sameer Pawar |
HR consultants, who are in the business of finding jobs for others are increasingly in danger of finding themselves with nothing to do.
This drying up of opportunities has to do with the economic slowdown, and the fact that most companies that used the services of HR consultants are discovering that recruitments through referrals and online job portals is considerably cheaper.
Mahesh Sheka, managing director, Dial-a-job, a Mumbai-based recruitment company, whose clients include Essar, Marriott, Intelenet, Four Seasons, DTDC, PCS Technology, and Manipal eCommerce explained that the heat of the slowdown has dried up jobs in the market.
"Companies like ours that are a start up are in more of a soup as very few companies are recruiting. We are witnessing a repeat of the 90s-like situation, when there were more people than there were jobs in the market. I laid off two people out of my staff of four," Sheka said.
Sheka said personnel working in HR firms were aggressively floating their CV in the job market, so they have something to fall back on if they are retrenched.
The senior vice president HR & IR of Group 4 Security Services Pvt Ltd, Shailesh Tewari, said companies consider HR personnel as an added expense.
"This is counterproductive in the long run, as HR is the mother department, and a good HR department plays an important role in holding on to the knowledge capital of the company.
Most of these layoffs are happening in IT companies, which should actually not sack people, but impose salary cuts if needed," he said.
"It is also challenging task to ensure expenses are curtailed productivity is enhanced. We should take a cue from Japan, which during the quality movement in the 1960s started making small compact cars and captured the world market when the US was selling big fuel guzzling cars like Cadillac," Tewari added.u00a0
