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White-collar hiring slows as companies taking longer to fill up top posts

Recruiting firms say that there is a 20-40 per cent decline in the overall momentum of action across appointing stages in the last few months.

ET Now Digital

Updated Aug 10, 2022, 18:26 IST

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New Delhi: Top companies in India have slowed the pace of hiring white-collar professionals in the wake of the global macroeconomic uncertainty and a high chance of the US economy entering a recession, as well as a growing discomfort about domestic key economic indicators such as high inflation, liquidity management and the broader interest-rate trajectory.

Citing search consultants and headhunters such as Longhouse Consulting, Ciel HR services, Michael Page and Xpheno, ET mentioned that firms are delaying the recruitment cycle time, postponing decision-making, and evaluating more candidates for a single post than they did in the last one year.

Recruiting firms pointed out that there was a 20-40 per cent decline in the overall momentum of action across appointing stages in the last few months even as new instructions continued to come in.

Anil Ethanur, cofounder, Xpheno, told the financial daily: “A moderation of hiring action across key talent sectors is underway with a visible reduction in hiring velocity over the last 6 to 8 weeks. While hiring volume continues to be topped up, the progression of candidates down the hiring funnel has notably slowed down.”

A drop in the speed of closing a vacancy is mainly because of the increased turnaround times for hiring responses, decisions and paperwork till the closure of a candidature.

“The velocity reduction overall translates to up to a one-third reduction in closures on certain functions and roles, in comparison to the closure rates 6-8 weeks ago,” added Ethanur.

Executive-search companies such as Longhouse Consulting said “open-ended” directives had soared to 50-60 per cent from 10-20 per cent earlier. Typically in open-ended mandates organisations hunt the market for the right talent and employ only if they really like a professional or if they find someone exceptional at the appropriate cost.

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