Oindrila Sarkar By

Express News Service

BENGALURU: The services sector which had contributed around 66.1 per cent of India’s Gross Value Added growth in 2015-16 will remain the key driver of India’s economic growth in 2017. The services sector which covers a wide variety of activities such as trade and hospitality, IT/ITES, storage and communication, financing, insurance and real estate, business, community, personal and social services will become the most important net foreign exchange earner and the most attractive sector for Foreign Direct Inflows (FDI) into India, thereby providing a boost to the number of jobs that will be created here.

According to Dinesh Goel, Co-Founder & CEO, Aasaanjobs, “Being a part of the industry, we’ve had opportunities to closely observe various employers and their hiring practices and interact with industry think tanks and consulting companies. Some clearly visible trends include – laying more emphasis on leadership and analytical skills rather than simple job-specific skill sets and communication flair while hiring. Moreover, the demand for more flexible work environment will continue and the industry will witness emergence of HR practitioners with new skills, including people analytics, internet marketing, branding and knowledge on new technologies like virtual reality and wearables. In the recruitment space, digital platforms and marketplaces will flourish which will make hiring processes faster and more scalable. Use of technology and AI Chatbots in hiring processes will become common.”

With Gig economy in the trend, the coming year will see companies modeled around freelancing and task based jobs, rise majorly. Companies will look for talents for short term tasks and reward them instantly for their work, though the long term salaried employment market will be holding its fort. Employers will draw up plans to support their employees’ career goals and interests and- appraisals will be linked to overall development of the employees, rather than simply achieving targets.”

P.N Sudarshan, Partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP tells us that , “as the technology outsourcing market matures, Indian IT Services industry will go through a transformation, IT Services 2.0 if you will. While phase one was about decades of double digit growth at high margins leveraging global delivery model through cost efficiencies, phase two will see Indian vendors help global enterprises in their strategic business transformation using digital services, while optimizing the delivery and sales infrastructure - through a mix of strategic investments, consolidation, and collaboration – to maximize shareholder value. IT Services 2.0 has the potential for Indian Industry to redefine and shape global technology market.”

As for the hospitality sector it will see a strong recovery evidenced by improving occupancies for the first time in 8 years, says Rahul Chaudhury, Co-founder, Treebo Hotels. “This augurs very well for the jobs outlook in the sector. This will be particularly strong in the budget hospitality segment as the industry gets more organized and demand for skilled manpower becomes higher. We are looking to nearly double our 400-strong team this year and will hire across functions including technology,” he said.

Capillary Technologies which is an e-commerce platform providing services to retailors believes that the key focus for retail sector is to hire key talent, which can help them take the leap in transforming the business through digital. According to Abhijeet Vijayvergiya, VP and Country Head-India, “To be specific the hot jobs in retail sector will be for Chief Digital Officers, Digtial Marketing Experts, Customer Experience Experts.”

Rashi Menda who spoke about the jobs outlook in the luxury ecommerce sector said that the past year has been turbulent and with players like Tatas and Aditya Birlas entering this online fashion space it’s becoming a necessity to have an offline store and 2017 will see huge developments in artificial intelligence and virtual reality in the ecommerce space.

Furlenco believes that GST will be the biggest macro-economic factor which will help them grow and in turn hire more people. “We are hungry for awesome talent and we expect 2017 to be another watershed year for us, so we will continue to hire, albeit only the best,” said Ajith Karimpana, CEO & Founder, Furlenco.

But there seems to be a shift in the ecommerce services space as companies will move from recruiting bright freshers to experienced employees in 2017. With professionals like Raghu Lakkapragada from Amazon and Prabhakar Sunder from Myntra joining Voonik as COO & CFO respectively, Sujayath Ali, CEO and Co-founder, Voonik tells us that they will focus on hiring experienced laterals now.

The travel and logistics sector will be affected by demonetisation and the implementation of the GST and companies operating in this segment like Travelyaari feels that people should join this industry with an open mind in 2017 as there will be an overhaul and ready for the challenges. With demonetization business processes will see a lot of changes.

“The air, train, bus, cabs and auto industry will see a lot of technological disruptions and innovations and there will be lots of efforts to streamline these industries further,” said Aurvind Lama, CEO and Co-founder of Travelyaari.

“The first half of 2017 might show a global economic slow-down and non significant figures in hiring; creating an illusion of a retarding growth curve for the Freight Forwarding sector. However, during the second half of the year, the sector shall regain equilibrium and acquire more than average growth,” said Vinay Sethia, Co-founder of Air Freight Bazaar adding that services created under logistics will rise by 3-4 per cent in 2017.

With the established players, there will be a boom in the healthcare startup space, according to Medwell Ventures. Healthcare will be the fastest growing services sector and the skills demand in healthcare will make it one of the leading recruiters in 2017, says Kumar Krishnaswamy from Medwell Ventures.