Kolkata: Indian IT firms
are planning to hire more and more on third party contracts from IT
manpower solutions firms in the next couple of years.
Harsh Hada, Executive Director of the Kolkata-based IT manpower
solution firm, Web Development Company said, "Currently only three to
four percent of the entire IT professionals in the country are
recruited on contract basis. But the segment may contribute as much as
20 percent to the total workforce in three years."
While the contractual employment in IT depends on different factors
such as duration of projects and availability of skill required for new
assignments, the experience from the recent downturn may prompt
companies to take advantage of the ready-to-use talent pool and
flexibility in hiring associated with the third-party employment. In
third-party agreements, an IT-staffing solutions firm deploys
professionals to an IT company depending upon its requirements. These
professionals are usually under the payroll of manpower solution firms.
Anand Talwar, HR Head, ITC Infotech said that the IT staffing solutions
were used only in certain short-term contracts requiring unique skill
areas. The proportion of third-party recruitments in IT companies may
increase in service categories such as SAP. The proportion of direct
employment is likely to remain unaltered in verticals such as
infrastructure and in sectors where independent validation is required.
Recently, IT companies have been getting a lot of seasonal contracts
which may not require long-term employment. "The IT staffing model
provides ready workforce at a slightly higher cost but saves on the
long-term HR expenses. The hiring model helps cut down on the interview
procedure and provides access to an employee pool that is updated with
the latest requisite knowledge," said Suparno Moitra, Head, Nasscom,
Eastern Region.
