The demand for tech talent has grown exponentially to position India as one of the global tech giants that has been at the helm of the technological transformation in the post-pandemic age. Spearheading the global change in direction, India is at the forefront of this technological transformation. The onslaught of the pandemic forced all businesses, tech or non-tech to quickly recalibrate business processes and adopt the online mode of conducting business. The global disaster served as a catalyst for the digital transformation of all businesses. The supercycles of digitalization, have led even non-tech industries such as BFSI, healthcare, automotive, manufacturing, and FMCG to increase the recruitment of tech professionals. The overnight shift to a digital mode of operations movement triggered the need for more tech talent across non-tech industries. This development has led to a phenomenal increase in tech hiring which has continued to hold momentum even as the world slowly recovers from the impact of the pandemic.
In striving to remain competitive in the game of productivity and efficiency, the non-tech sector has been actively recruiting experienced tech professionals. There has been a steep hike of 35% in tech recruitment within non-tech industries in recent years amounting to over 1 lac active openings during the last couple of months. The incremental growth in salary in non-tech industries is nearly 10-15% higher than in technology-centric companies. This has been a significant factor contributing to the migration of tech professionals from niche tech sectors to non-tech sectors. There is also the recent trend of layoffs in the big tech companies to reconcile the over-hiring during the pandemic years. These trends in FAANG companies arising from multiple macroeconomic conditions are working to the advantage of the non-tech sector, which has seen a consistent increase in the hiring of tech professionals to adapt to the changing business scenario.
The non-tech sectors are promoting 5G automated hiring in the telecom sector and consumer electronics industries along with engineering, semiconductors-related hiring in the manufacturing, Electric Vehicle, and R&D sectors. Non-tech companies in the service sector are trying to move beyond IT and BPO to enterprise cloud networks and SaaS. This will lead to an uptick in the hiring of tech professionals who are conversant with these technologies and can replicate them across diverse industries. In addition to this, the non-tech sector is witnessing a significant increase in jobs involving data analytics and cyber security to optimize their online operations and safeguard customer information.
The sudden rise in demand for technical skills talent has created a substantial demand-supply gap, which in turn has led to a sharp increase in contractual roles across various non-tech sectors. This is expected to contribute to 18-22% of the workforce by 2025 from the current 12- 15% of the total talent pool. 4.5 lac tech professionals are currently hired in non-tech companies which is set to increase to 15 lac by 2025, projecting a 3X growth over a short time. Software Engineers, Data Scientists, Cyber Security Professionals, Cloud Architects, and Data Analysts are some of the most popular job profiles scouted by the non-tech domain. The need to fuse technology in non-technical sectors in a bid to promote ease of doing business in the digital age is the core reason behind the growing demand for technical expertise.
Digitalization has revolutionized the way in which business is conducted to the extent that going forward no professional organization can exist without incorporating digital technology in its systems. Every company must adopt the digital medium for its B2B, B2C, D2C, logistics, and marketing programs. Increased connectivity and cloud technologies have made digitalization an integral part of business operations. This trend is here to stay and will continue to pave the path to lucrative career opportunities for budding engineers and techies around the globe.
(The author is Mr. Sunil Chemmankotil, CEO, TeamLease Digital and the views expressed in this article are his own)
