2023 was year of the agile rabbit, time for the fire-breathing dragon in 2024
According to the Chinese lunar calendar, 2023 was the year of the Rabbit. It symbolizes swiftness, quick-mindedness and ingenuity—traits that India Inc. had to adopt to preserve its workforce without denting the coffers, survive the hesitancy in the global markets, and prepare for onslaught of new age technologies like artificial intelligence (AI).
The need to become agile, skirting around the gnawing over-hiring mistakes of 2022 (year of the Tiger—symbolizing power, over-confidence, adventure) became the mandate for banking, IT, startup, edtech, fintech, and retail sectors in the first quarter of 2023. They clamped down on recruitments, shifted the reserve strengths across other profiles and, in many cases, retrenched. But they soon realized that while layoffs were the sure shot and albeit easy way to reduce the flab, the companies were losing high potential talent along with those in generic roles.
Companies decided to emphasize on upskilling with the latest in digital technologies, and role out promotions and hikes to a select few because by the second quarter of the calendar, the job market had tilted favourably towards the employers.
For the employees across sectors, 2023 meant that the days of soft nudging to head back to office were over, and companies had clear mandates that their workforce was expected to be in office a few days a week. Some decided to stay put, but the lack of opportunities forced many to buckle and don the office badges after almost three years.
While manufacturing and financial services recruited on the back of production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes and expansion to smaller towns, it is the IT sector that had to freeze its open mandates, deal with delayed onboarding, and reshuffle the bloated bench of employees waiting in the wings. The attrition after a couple of quarters fell significantly, but the top performers started moving to a new segment of rivals. They are called the global capability centres or GCCs, which are wooing the IT sector’s top talent with better compensation.
On the compensation front, corporates brought out long-term incentive programs and stock options, which percolated to the middle order as a retention tool. The edtech and fintech sectors struggled to get candidates even though they were willing to give offers above the market prices. The deterrent for many candidates was the poor visibility of the companies, dependency on global venture capitalists for funding, and the mass scale retrenchments—pegged at more than 20,000—in the earlier months.
The year also saw hundreds of graduates awaiting their onboarding, including from engineering and management colleges. IT and consulting companies were largely responsible for the delays. Students with offers were on the lookout for other options as they were yet to be onboarded. Now for the first time , both Infosys and Wipro—among the largest recruiters of engineers—have decided not to head to campus this year, which means the job market will see an influx of young graduates jostling for space with laterals.
However, among the cyclical changes in the job market, what perturbed companies across sectors was the drop in women employees once the hybrid work policies started waning. India Inc. realized that women employees had picked up more responsibilities during the two years of work from home, and returning to office was a challenge. Diversity in a company is crucial for its functioning and talent attraction score, so companies are back to the drawing board to find ways to retain women employees.
While women dropouts alarmed the senior management, the reduction in moonlighters pacified them. Lack of multiple job offers and working in office space under the scanner, stopped the moonlighters.
The swift changes that corporates made in 2023 should all come together as companies expect deal pipelines to unclog after the first few months of 2024.
The one factor that will bring in both upheaval and immense opportunities is the advent of AI. Companies are calibrating how much of AI will get adopted, but may soon realize that it will play a part in all functions.
The coming year will see the rise of the niche skilled employees who bring in the expertise that AI cannot overtake. Those in generalist roles need to change their career trajectories swiftly while the workforce in lower hierarchies will find fewer roles available for freshers. While India Inc. is talking about opportunities with the advent of AI , there is also redundancy.
There may be more space created for the ambitious and bold. Because 2024 will be the year of the Dragon.
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Published: 25 Dec 2023, 10:17 PM IST