Data science, engineering and entrepreneurship have emerged as ‘hot’ skills in demand that IT companies look for among candidates this year, according to Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar.
The human resources’ digital agenda is driving the focus on niche skills, he told newspersons on the sidelines of the two-day Nasscom HR Summit. In technology skills, data scientist tops the chart, followed by product engineering and mobile apps.
In the domain, engineering tops the list followed by BFSI and mathematics.
Entrepreneurial skill is the most sought after, followed by influencer skills and ‘growth hacking’ (people who can spot growth opportunities and how to ride that wave), he said, sharing key highlights of the Nasscom HR survey.
Today, it is a global war for talent, because many countries face shortage of skills, especially digital skills, and many of the countries face challenges in terms of demography (in Japan), availability of skills like STEM education (in the US), and within the technically qualified people with digital skills.
The war for talent has shifted from scale to skill with companies stating that they are looking to hire more laterals (moving from one company to another) this year.
Focus on building digital skills is the biggest opportunity and challenge for the industry, which currently has about 150,000 people focused on these technologies, and is looking to rapidly scale this up through multiple initiatives of training, certifications, acquisitions, higher education and self-training.
Social media tools have become an integral part of the recruiting function with almost 45 per cent of the respondents using this as the preferred mode, he said. Nasscom announced its annual rankings of top 20 IT-BPM employers in India for fiscal year 2015. Tata Consultancy Services is the largest employer, followed by Cognizant Technology Solutions and Infosys.
The top 20 employers account for 1.25 million India-based employees. This is almost a third of total employment in the sector.