Now, a national web portal to find jobs

FM Pranab Mukherjee’s proposal in the budget to launch a project for modernisation of employment exchanges in public-private partnership has received mixed reaction from heads of recruitment agencies and human resource departments of firms in India.

According to the proposal, a national web portal with common software will be developed. This will contain all data regarding availability of skilled persons on the one hand and requirements of skilled persons by the industry on the other. It will help the youth get placed and enable industry to procure required skills on real time basis.

“Such a scheme involving the government allows companies to reach out to talent outside the main cities by broadening the available pool. A centralised online database, will help companies reduce their cost of recruitment while providing visibility to rural/semi-urban candidates,” said R Elango, HR head of MphasiS.

Prameela Kalive, head of talent management, Zensar Technologies, said that if the project is managed properly, a number of companies will look at spotting talent from the “national web portal”. “It allows us to access talent from different parts of the country, which otherwise is not possible,” she said.

Reactions from recruitment agencies vary. While some say there is barely any clarity on what form this portal would take, others say it is just not enough. “It could take a very long time for the government to create such a database. Also, the kind of jobs that would be created is not very clear,” said E Balaji, executive director, Ma Foi Management Consultants.
Ashok Reddy, managing partner, Teamlease said, “The move toward modernisation is welcome, but it’s not enough to galvanise the job sector.”

Vivek Ahuja, managing director, Confiar Global, said that a web site would give the job seeker the exact information an individual desires to lap the best job. “It will certainly make the process simpler and will keep the job seeker informed about what is happening in the market. No unnecessary panic will be created,” he said.

Balaji wonders if rural job seekers would be comfortable using the internet because they are the main target for this initiative. “The budget was very rural-centric and similarly even the job portal initiative was to attract the rural folks, but the question that arises is whether they would be internet savvy or not to make use of this opportunity,” he added.

“If government is looking at partnership from private players in this, it means that there are more reforms coming in this sector,” said Sudhakar Balakrishnan, CEO of Adecco India.