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In a bid to retain talent, companies in India have offered salary hikes of up to 15% this year.  Currently, higher salaries are used across all sectors in India to retain top performers.  With a shortage of qualified people and poor talent from most local Indian education institutions, international and local Indian companies are engaged in a talent war.  Some Indian companies have also turned to other countries, such as the Philippines, in search of qualified English-speaking workers, particularly for jobs in call centers.

Labor retention in India is most challenging in the technical sectors such as IT, biotechnology and engineering.  In the biotechnology sector, for example, statistics show that more than half of Indian executives who gain good work experience move on to higher education abroad and then obtain employment abroad as well.  In other cases, high-caliber executives in India are poached by local competitors who offer more senior positions for career advancement.  Local Indian companies are also losing good talent to international companies who generally offer higher salaries and better work experience than local Indian companies.

Another challenge for companies and recruiters in India is in finding qualified workers among young Indian college graduates.  Despite the large number of Indian graduates each year, many of them still struggle with verbal English skills.  A recent market survey revealed that many technical graduates from India’s engineering colleges are not employable in high-growth sectors due to the graduates’ inadequate command of English and lack of sound technical skills.  Most of these graduates have to enroll in technical training programs to increase their chances of employment in the IT and/or engineering sectors.