Recruitment firms to focus on SMEs
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 23 December 2008, 17:30 IST   |    2 Comments
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Recruitment firms to focus on SMEs
Chennai: To offset the economic downturn, recruitment firms are now moving on to not-for-profit and SME arena (small and medium enterprises) as IT majors continuously review their hiring plans. Some placement agencies are strengthening their own teams as a result of economic slump, reported The Times of India. "At this point, we are focusing on consolidating our own business. We are opening a new office in Bangalore shortly and our whole focus is on recruiting the best talent for our own organization," said Atul Vohra, Managing Partner, Transearch India. Hoping an immediate recovery of economy, Transearch set up a five-member office in Bangalore despite software majors going slow on recruitment at the moment. "The economic indicators haven't dipped that significantly. The market will come back strongly after the dust settles down," Atul added. Focusing on SMEs, the company hopes that the contribution from SME segment to its turnover will double by 2009-10. According to HR consultants, multi-industry practice is the best bet in these times. Arul Dev, Founder Director and Chief Executive, People First Consultants, mentioned, "We did not restrict our services to software recruitment during the IT boom in early 2000. We focused on other verticals as well. Many small and medium companies are now growing at an aggressive pace. Consultants can now pitch the talent pool to SMEs which was primarily utilized by MNC companies earlier." MaFoi Consulting is another firm focusing on SMEs. "We are focusing on those organizations which are in a transition and helping them professionalize their businesses from family-run organizations by providing end-to-end HR solutions and systems," pointed out Ajay Mallapurkar, Chief Executive Officer, MaFoi. The company has worked with over 1,000 client organizations across diverse verticals in the SME arena with turnover upwards of 100 crore. HR firms also look to strengthen their expertise in the non-profit organizations and public-private partnership space in India. MaFoi is focusing on providing skills to people displaced in the Mihan Nagpur SEZ (special economic zone). Amid the economic downturn and job freezes, surveys say that nearly 10 lakh new jobs were created this year and around 6.75 lakh new jobs are expected to be up for grabs next year. Health care and infrastructure are expected to witness more new jobs and the government is expected to pump substantial money.

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