The Hindu Shine HR Conclave Held to Discuss the Need to Bridge Skill Gap Issues

GURGAON, India, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Shine.com, India's leading job portal, has organized the 37th edition of 'Shine HR Conclave' in partnership with 'The Hindu' at Chennai. Addressing the changing needs and expectations of today's employers, the conclave talked about the efforts needed to be taken to bridge the skill gap issues.

According to Nasscom, over 3.5 million graduates and post graduates are added every year to the Indian workforce. But only 25% of the technical graduates and 15% of the other graduates are considered employable while the rest are considered to be not industry-ready, thereby, leading to qualitative imbalance within the industry. Another report by The Forbes Human Capital Trends research shows that 'leadership skills' remains the top talent issue among businesses; with only 14% of companies stating that their leadership pipeline is 'ready'.

Considering the rapid pace of growing economy, India is witnessing an acute talent crunch at all levels, leading to further widening of skill gap. In 37th The Hindu Shine HR Conclave - Chennai Edition, the HR fraternity had gathered to discuss this burgeoning concern of 'Bridging the Skill Gap'. The conclave panel discussion was moderated by C Ramkumar, Head HR, TCS, where eminent panelists like David Raj, EVP & Chief Human Resource Officer, CSS Corp; Prem K Thomas, Chief HR Manager, Blue Dart Aviation; Rakesh Gupta, Chief Human Resource Officer, Royal Sundaram; Vijay Iyer, Chief Business Officer, HCL TalentCare; Jayanthi Vaidyanathan, Director HR PayPal India shared their perspectives. More than 200 senior HR delegates attended the conclave and interacted with the eminent speakers.

Sharing his concern over uncertain business environment, Rakesh Gupta, Chief Human Resource Officer, Royal Sundaram, said, "There is a need to reskill as new industries are coming up. In 2025, India would actually be having 25% of the global workforce, and in that situation what is required is to not only confine to pragmatic changes, but also getting into structural change."

Jayanthi Vaidyanathan, Director HR, PayPal India, shared, "By 2020, economy will be able to drive 1.3 billion people and around 60% will be in employable category in the age group of 16-55 years. And above all, the Indian government has embarked with lot of initiatives in this context."  

On the other hand, companies want their experienced employees to strengthen their competencies effectively across key functional disciplines and prepare for leadership roles for future succession. Also, among the newly minted graduates, the corporate recruiters look out for highly sought-after skills required as per industry standards.

Prem K Thomas, Chief HR Manager, Blue Dart Aviation said, "Today's colleges only want to churn out more people without giving them the much-needed industry touch. I have also found that to some extent, the faculty is also lacking and they don't know what is exactly going on at industry level."

There is a wide gap between the skills required to manage a bigger role and those possessed by top management as they lack business fundamentals, problem solving, leadership and decision-making skills.

Vijay Iyer, Chief Business Officer, HCL TalentCare added, "University curriculum has also not been able to keep up with the changing technology. Hence, there is a natural increase in the gap. As company's lifecycle are becoming shorter, their need to buy rather than make has become higher. Therefore, companies are working on the principle of getting ready talent rather than investing."  

Summing up the panel discussion, C RamKumar, Head HR, TCS, concluded, "Skill gap is widening and at some point of time we all are worried about the quality. To shorten the skill gap, look for innovative solutions and find out how we can shorten this gap. As HR manager, we should also understand, how we can reposition the problems better and offer customized solutions."

Shine.com, aims to create a platform for the HR Fraternity that enables everyone, right from strategic decision makers to young HR millennial, to connect with each other and promote thought leadership. Chennai is emerging as one of the major contributors to employment opportunities and skilled workforce, owing to its well-established educational infrastructure. There is a great opportunity for Chennai to meet the future demands of India and become the sourcing hub for unconventional talent, boosting jobs in Chennai.

Note: The '37th The Hindu Shine HR Conclave - Chennai Edition' was organized in partnership with HCL TalentCare as Skilling partner, Rigid Hospitals as Medical partner, Zoho Corporation as Technology partner, Titanium Motors as Automobile partner; and Conquer Infotech, Edenred India and NHRD as event partners.

About Shine.com

Shine.com is India's 2nd largest job portal with over 1.7 crore candidate database and over 3,00,000 job openings on site. Shine.com mobile app leverages the strength of a candidate's social and personal networks to help him or her find the perfect job. Apart from this feature that increases the chances of recruiters finding the perfect candidate on Shine.com, the jobs site also offers services in employer branding and social hiring.

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