When LG Electronics India recently looked to hire middle to senior level executives for various functions, including marketing, sales and finance, it found there were not enough people around.
"Earlier, we could choose from at least 10 applicants who fitted the bill for every position. But now, especially in the last 3-4 months, we consider ourselves lucky if we get more than three," says YV Verma, senior vice-president, LG Electronics India.
With India Inc growing at a breakneck speed, trained professionals are in short supply. Companies are finding it increasingly difficult to hire skilled staff, including chartered accountants, sales and marketing executives, and scientists.
Although data on the total requirement of professionals in marketing and sales are not readily available, human resources managers and placement agencies point out the difficulty in getting quality manpower.
According to Gurdeep Hora, managing director, Synergy Consultants, a leading Delhi-based placement agency, his company is finding it difficult to fill up nearly 80 positions in large telecom, marketing and financial services firms.
Hora says in the information technology sector, the demand for middle-to-senior level executives has shot up by 40 per cent, while in engineering and manufacturing, there has been a 20 per cent spurt in demand.
"The demand from the organised retail sector is booming as was the case with BPOs two years back. Opportunities have more than doubled in this area," he adds. There is an overall shortage, the 1,000-odd business schools in the country notwithstanding.
Chartered accountants today have become a precious commodity. Ajay Shriram, chairman of DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd, was recently looking to hire a few CAs.
But he found it extremely difficult to lay hands on even one. "They have all joined outsourcing firms," he says.
India will churn out close to 8,000 new CAs this year, but the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) reckons the industry demand for the tribe can be as high as 10,000.
"Domestic companies are looking to invest in new businesses and expand their existing ones in a big way. Also, a slew of multinational firms are now entering India in both services and manufacturing, which is creating a huge demand," says Sunil Goyal, former president and council member, ICAI.
According to Goyal, this year, nearly 800 students who cleared the CA exam were placed in a single day. It is the same story with scientists.
With a large number of pharmaceutical companies hoping to cash in on emerging global opportunities in generic drugs, finding scientists is proving to be a challenge.
"Recruiting junior level scientists is not an issue. But what one does not get easily in this business are thinkers," says Swati Piramal, chief scientific officer and director (strategic alliances), Nicholas Piramal India Ltd (NPIL). Of the 300 scientists now employed with NPIL, almost 50 are from foreign universities.
Piramal estimates the country will require a pool of 15,000 scientists and PhDs each year for the next five years, while the country currently have a capacity to fill just around 10,000 of those vacancies.
"The shortage in niche areas like pharmacology and bioanalytics is even bigger. Before the patents regime, scientists were trained and rewarded for copying. But now, working on new drugs and filing patents are a whole new ball game for our scientists and it will take some time for them to learn," she adds.
Take the example of pilots. With almost 10 new airlines scheduled to come up in the next one-year and domestic carriers extending their services to overseas destinations, the demand for trained pilots far exceeds supply.
According to industry estimates, there are close to 1,200 commercial pilot licence holders in the country, and the demand will be close to 1,800.
The shortage has resulted in high attrition rates across sectors.
"The attrition rates have begun to increase dramatically to reach 30-35 per cent even in the case of several top companies. In such a scenario, it is becoming difficult to standardise salary structures for both white and blue-collared employees," says Verma of LG.
