Last year, when Naukri re-introduced its popular advertisement character, HARI SADU, it was an indication of the fading recession blues and the job street opening up with opportunities galore. Today a year later, the job market, across sectors, especially IT/ITeS continues to grow and opportunities are increasing multifold.

Staffing services firm Manpower's recent Employment Outlook Survey showed that employers in India have the strongest hiring intentions for the 2011 second quarter. India's net employment outlook — an indicator of recruitment intentions — rose to 51 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the three-month period starting April. The same stood at just 43 per cent for the first three months of this year.

Reflecting the bullish employment market, companies in India plan to recruit new personnel at a hectic pace over the next three months. But here is the difference! The key word is not quantity but quality. Having learnt the lesson the hard way during the downturn, organizations today are moving away from the massive hiring spree they once took and are rather concentrating on tapping niche talent.

With jobs abound but niche talent pool limited, the companies now are exploring new avenues of finding and recruiting talent. The HR/Recruitment and marketing teams have donned their thinking hats and are reworking their recruitment strategies to win the talent war. From traditional methods to tapping the social networking as a new platform, recruiters are leaving no stones unturned.

Tapping Niche Talent Pool – A challenge!
The hiring scenario has witnessed dramatic changes in the past decade with companies facing increasing talent crunch especially due to new sectors such as retail coming up on the horizon. And IT-ITES sector, considered to be the most lucrative from an employee’s point of view, has bore the biggest brunt of this transition.