Ever since January this year when a soft drink major sought 70 girls to be placed as “business developers” in seven districts of Andhra Pradesh, Jitendra Kalra, CEO, Dr Reddy’s Foundation, has been noticing a major shift in the nature of demand for talent from corporate India. “This was other than the usual need for people in Hyderabad, Vizag and Vijayawada. Instead, it was into Nellore, Kurnool, Karimnagar, Prakasam, Tirupati, Warangal and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh.”
Customer relations and sales training at Dr Reddys philanthropy LABS
The demand that Kalra is talking about is for the youth trained under the LABS (Livelihood Advancement Business School). It is the flagship programme of Dr Reddy’s Foundation since 1999, and promotes tailor-made programmes targeted at youth in the age group of 18-35 years from economically weaker sections of society.
“Typically,” he says, “we are seeing such demand coming from soft drink companies, water purifying firms, retail players, microfinance companies, auto showrooms, insurance and financial services.”
Country-bound - ITC will leverage its e-Choupal infrastructure to create an “employment exchangecum-employability skill building platform”
- Dr Reddy’s Livelihood Advancement Business School is building new training modules to bridge the skills gaps in rural locations
- Hiring company TMI Network has formed a centre that will work with local bodies in Tier III and Tier IV towns to impart training, especially in English and soft skills, to rural youth
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That is good news in a slowdown and is coming with good reasons. Says S. Sivakumar, Chief Executive (Agri Businesses), ITC: “Per capita income in rural India has grown by 50 per cent over the last 10 years, mainly on account of rising commodity prices and improved farm productivity. Development of basic infrastructure, generation of employment through guarantee schemes, better access to information and funding are also bringing prosperity to rural households.” While many corporates may want to service the rural markets, equally important is getting the right people who can connect to this customer profile immediately. Says Sivakumar: “There is a huge mine of talent pool in rural India. However, the challenge is that these resources are not ready for deployment on an immediate basis in traditional corporate jobs. They do a great job, when you deploy them after giving them some relevant skills.”
Essential skills could be “finishing” knowledge of IT, communication or soft skills supplementing their formal education. But then, not all corporates can individually invest in the expensive proposition of skill building. Therein step institutions like Dr Reddy’s Foundation that is now working on evolving training modules in areas like rural insurance and food production (backend for food retail).
Sensing an opportunity, Hyderabad-based hiring firm TMI Network has also formed a centre for employability coaching and will work with local bodies and colleges in Tier III and Tier IV towns. “We have identified few businesses that we think have the potential to grow over a 3-5-year period starting with financial services and retail,” says T. Sreedhar, MD, TMI Network.
S. Sivakumar
But how do employers and training institutes access the “trained” job seekers from rural India? To address this issue, ITC is working towards leveraging the existing physical and digital infrastructure of e-Choupal to create an “employment exchangecum-employability skill building” platform. It will be a web-based platform through which employers, jobseekers and trainers can engage and transact with each other.
Explains Sivakumar: “It makes business sense to build a last mile to reach these resources only if any organisation has a large and continuous requirement. But the need is typically sporadic; so corporates would like to access human resources from these locations as and when they need them.” Making of a win-win for corporates and talent alike?
