Paycheck.in gets calls from job portals

About two years after its launch, Paycheck.in, part of the international Wageindicator concept that gives a transparent data on wage rates across sectors and countries online has attracted the interest of three job portals who wish to associate with the Web site as a value-addition for their brand. 

The Web site is also on the threshold of compiling its final report on the study it commissioned to study wage rates of carpenters, autorickshaw drivers, barbers, construction workers and other informal sector employees across 21 cities in India.

The Web site, run jointly by three entities, Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A), IT Professionals Forum -- Bangalore and Indian Institute of Science -- Bangalore has confirmed that it is in advanced talks with the Cybermediadice, Naukri.com and Timesjobs.com to be associated on their portals.

"Mutually beneficial terms are still being discussed with the interested job portals. However, it is important to remember we are a not-for-profit Internet-based labour market research tool. Once the partnership with a job portal happens, we hope to receive more hits and more people wanting to fill up our questionnaires," said Amar H S, Secretary, IT Professionals' Forum, India. 

The WageIndicator Foundation, under which Paycheck.in has been established is a non-profit organisation and a joint initiative of FNV (Dutch confederation of trade unions), the University of Amsterdam/AIAS (Institute of Advanced Labour Studies) and career Web site Monster.

Internationally, income for the foundation is generated from banners, development assistance, data (commercial and scientific), research (commercial and grants) and licences for salary check and questionnaire.

The Web site contains specific domains like womenpaycheck.in and ITpaycheck.in which have generated a good response across India. Subsequent to its launch in 2005, the Web site has seen the number of hits a month ago up to as much as 12-15 lakh visitors at times. 

It also consists of a questionnaire which takes the information relating to the user's sector, geographical position, profile, salary package, perquisites and other wage-based information anonymously which could be compared by someone interested in the same position.

However, only 1/3rd of the visitors have filled the portal's questionnaires which is an essential tool for collecting information.

To encourage visitors to the Web site to fill up the questionnaires, prizes like a trip to Africa or an iPod are also being offered by paycheck.in and similar wage Web sites affiliated to the Wageindicator Foundation.

Biju Varkkey, a professor at IIM-A, a stakeholder of the Web site in India, says that not only does the site help potential recruiters and candidates guage the criteria for offering or taking up a particular job in a particular sector of a city, it also provides critical information for wage indicator studies across the world.

The Web site plans to come out with trends and specified sector studies in the coming few months.