As the job market recovers in India and takes its first wary steps towards stability.
There some positive indicators:
– 60% of companies in India will be adding new headcount and 45% will be in the middle management bracket.
– 88% of employers are offering 6 % – 15% increments; decidedly not ground-breaking but a start that is predictive of a positive trajectory in the coming financial year.
– 80% of employers who believe that hiring activity will range from steady from strong over the months to follow
(*2017: India Salary and Employment Outlook – Michael Page)
These are all favourable indicators that reflect a positive and growth driven trajectory for the economy that has hitherto weathered strong headwinds owing to de-monetization and GST.

As hiring processes become more scientific, the recent trend to brand a company to its prospective force of employees is gaining favourable currency.

Candidates constantly share their hiring experiences on Social Media thus building a brand or bringing down the company’s reputation (depending on the experience).

– 23% of prospective employees consider corporate culture as defining reason when applying whereas 22% consider strong market presence while 16% consider financial performance and Longevity as reasons.
– 53% of prospective employees evaluate potential employers based on Corporate Brand/Reputation while 33% consider the reputation of management and 21% look and turnover statistics(- RoundPegg.com)
– 60% of job seekers have had a poor candidate experience and 72% of them have shared their experience on an online employer review site such as Glassdoor.com. (Forbes)
– Virgin, for instance, created a new candidate experience for the thousands of people they are unable to hire out of the 150,000 applications they receive annually, and have created a new seven million dollar revenue stream by creating a better experience for them(Forbes)
– Another study, states that 83% of HR opined that “employee experience” is either important or very important to their organizations success, and in order to enhance the experience, they are investing more in training (56%), improving their workspace (51%) and giving more rewards (47%).( Forbes)
– IBM has used people analytics to predict retention risk for employees in key job roles and notifies managers so they can prevent them from quitting, which has saved the company over $130 million dollars.(Forbes)

Clearly, this points to the dawn of a new era in Employer Branding (making for a new and heightened candidate experience) with a view to attracting, recruiting the best possible talent.
This will provide an edge to all future candidates who evaluate employers prior to building their wish list of suitable prospective organisations.