IT-BPM industry will add 3.75 lakh new jobs in FY’22 states TeamLease Digital

• Contract staffing to command 17% growth over last fiscal
• Digital skills (7.5% growth) to be the most sought after role

Mumbai, 8^th December, 2021: TeamLease Digital, the specialised staffing division of TeamLease Services today launched the first edition of their report titled TeamLease Digital Employment Outlook Report. A comprehensive report, it brings forth insights on how job creation and hiring is panning out in the IT-BPM sector. According to the research findings, aided by increased investments in the sector and rapid adoption of technology by enterprises; the IT BPM industry is on a positive hiring trajectory. The sector is expected to add 3.75 lakh new jobs and reach a head count of 4.85M in FY22.

The optimism is not just restricted to overall hiring, it is also impacting the model of employee-employer contract as well. While full-time employment commands the volume, with 17% growth it is contract staffing that will gain significantly from the positivity in the market. IT contract staffing is expected to reach a headcount of 1.48 lakh employees by March 2022. The acceptance of contract staffing is not restricted to corporates even candidates are opening up to the concept of contract staffing. Unlike before nearly 10-15% of contractual IT-BPM joiners in FY22 are from full-time employment.

Key findings

• India ITBPM will grow from 4.47M to 4.85M by March 2022 at 7.5% growth and contractual headcount will grow from 126,461 to 148,211 which is about 17% growth over the last year
• Digital skills are the skills that are most in demand -13 digital skills will rule the hiring in FY2022 and they will grow about 7.5% over FY2021
• With the last 2 quarter results, talent mobility from full-time employment to contractual employment is showing encouragement for the contracting industry to grow rapidly in the quarters and years to come
• IT services companies, Global capability centers (GCC) and Product development companies are the top contract staffing consumers and they contribute in excess of 70% and the same trend will continue to exist in near future too
• Attrition- Teamlease Digital predicts 49% for FY2022 when compared to 40% in FY2021 in the contract staffing space; however, the attrition in contract staffing has grown only by 9% over last fiscal than full time which is witnessing a 11% rise
• Similar to the full-time employment, IT contract staffing also has registered a good Q1 (20,500 people were hired) and Q2 (21850 people) and  this trend is expected to continue to grow in Q3 (net addition of 24,400)

An in-depth research, the report also delves deep into the areas / skills / roles that are in demand, demand-supply dynamics and above all what are companies doing to address the demand-supply gaps.  As per the report digital skills is what the industry has set its eyes on this fiscal. Amongst digital skills, 13 skills sets are going to largely in demand and are in fact expected to record a 7.5% growth in this fiscal over FY21. The trend is similar in the contract staffing space too. TeamLease Digital predicts that the demand for contract staffing for Digital Skills will grow by 50%. This is a 19% Increase when compared to last year.

Top trending digital Skills and their growth

While there is exponential demand for digital skills so is the supply gap. According to the research report the demand-supply gap is widening for data engineering, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence skills. The companies are expected to practice different upskilling and cross training initiatives to reduce the supply gap. The majority of the companies are opting for upskilling with or without certification (70-75%), Create talent pipeline from graduate population (10-15%), Embrace contractual hiring (5-10%) and Cross train from other industry/domain (5%).

Sharing his views on the insights, Mr. Sunil C, Head- Specialised Staffing, TeamLease Digital said, “The Indian IT-BPM sector is at the cusp of an unprecedented growth. Apart from being the largest private sector employer (employees around 4.47M people), the IT-BPM industry is transforming India into a hub for “Digital Skills”. 43% of our customers are expecting to increase Digital Skills hiring by at least 30% or more this year, however, what is concerning is the demand-supply gap. Addressing the talent deficit will require organizations to re-look at their HR strategies. Organisation can solve the talent deficit through three main models: Build: Hiring fresh recruits in addition to ensuring upskilling, re-skilling, and near-skilling culture and training in the organization will lead to great results. Buy: To fix the talent problem and survive the talent war, organizations have to resort to lateral hiring as the demand-supply gap is increasing. Borrow: Contract staffing with an organized and experienced contract staffing organization can also help in hiring, training, deploying, and managing talent based on the skillsets where there is an urgent need. Globally, organizations have adopted a combination of these three modes with borrow proportion increasing exponentially (approx. 18% in the US & 16% in Europe). As IT-BPM employment is poised to double in the next few years, organizations should adopt all three modes in decent proportions to stabilize the talent pool and reduce dependency on one segment of talent.”

“The IT BPM industry is poised to touch 10M employee base in next 5 years and the contract staffing is expected to move up from 3% to 6% of this base.” added Sunil

As per the study even attrition is gaining traction. While last year’s attrition was due to the pandemic and business uncertainty. This year’s attrition is owing to increased business, higher numbers of resignations. In fact, the attrition rate this is the highest in the history on IT-BPM industry. In FY2022, Full-time employment attrition is set to cross from 13% to 24% and contract staffing attrition is expected to grow up to 49% from 40% in FY2021.

A comprehensive report, Digital Employment Outlook Report is qualitative research which has surveyed and interviewed more than 100+ employers/ leaders consisting of contract staffing heads, subject matter experts, TeamLease Digital leadership, ITBPM Ecosystem Stakeholders ITBPM ecosystem stakeholders like CHROs, Talent acquisition leaders and Digital Transformation Leaders.