Bengaluru, Sept 16
The global headhunting company, Heidrick and Struggles, which looks into the human resource requirements of companies including Google, Teva, and Visa Global, says with its operations slowing in India’s neighboring markets, the country is positioned to offer better market opportunities for the company.
“We’re seeing a lot of businesses in India pivot from product-based offerings to service offerings and industrial technology. All of this shows growth potential and we would like to expand our teams in the next few years,” said David Hui, regional managing partner of the Industrial Practice APAC and the Middle East, Heidrick and Struggles.
Over the last 10–15 years, the company has seen growth coming from China’s market. However, with its operations slowing down in China, the company sees India as its potential market, explained Hui. “ With China definitely slowing as an economy, India is important for us over the next 12 to 24 months. It is well positioned to step in and take up some of that capacity,” he added.
Q2 revenues
Hedrick and Struggles’ Asia Pacific revenues for Q2FY22 were down by 6.5 per cent from the same quarter last year. The company generated overall revenue of $298.7 million, an increase of 14.9 per cent compared to June 2021. It has three business verticals - Executive Search, On-Demand and Hedrick Consulting.
According to the company, India’s capital goods production is scaling up to become a net exporter. Other sectors that are on a growth trajectory are heavy engineering and complex engineering. Hui told Businessline: “Given the geopolitics of the region and recent supply chain disruptions, India is in a prime position due to its stability, growing workforce, resources, and infrastructure to step in and establish itself as a leading economy.”
Talent retention
An issue that Heidrick and Struggles want to address soon is talent retention. Hui explained that it is one of the most common problems highlighted by their clients. He said, “Hiring talent in the first place is hard, but then keeping it is very difficult. All our clients have cited talent retention as their number one challenge from a human capital perspective.”
India has a young, highly educated, and sophisticated workforce. Hui added that quicker the companies develop policies and procedures to engage with their employees in a positive way, the more likely they are to retain them. The headhunting company has three offices in India – Mumbai, New Delhi, and Bangalore.