India’s automobile industry is one of the largest in the world and is likely to witness demand in the coming years. The increased demand at home and the government initiatives are both likely to encourage automobile manufacturers to manufacture more of their cars in India. That has resulted in a typical automobile employer hiring more workers than ever before. Let’s take a look at the opportunities and challenges being faced by this industry in talent procurement.
Opportunities
The automobile sector currently contributes 7.5 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It has often been considered a microcosm of the nation’s overall economic health. So how is the automobile industry doing at the moment? The following observations will draw a clear picture:
- Growth of industry
According to Decoding Jobs Sectoral Report by Taggd 2023, the automotive industry is expected to post a growth of 30% in 2023. It witnessed a growth of 37 percent in 2022. That has also translated into recruitment with a thirty percent positive recruitment shown according to the same report.
- Opportunities for youngsters
There is also good news for freshers as nearly a fifth of the recruitments (19 percent) are expected to be made from freshers (Decoding Jobs Sectoral Report by Taggd 2023).
Decoding Jobs Sectoral Report 2023 by Taggd also observed the highest recruitment intent for hiring employees with at least one year of experience. Nearly two-fifths (38 percent) of vacancies shall be for people with one to five years of experience. Taken together, that means 57 percent of the recruitments shall go to people with less than five years of experience.
- The automobile industry is no longer a boys’ club.
Traditionally automobile industry has been considered male-dominant. However, that scene is changing. The hiring intent of 2022, according to the Decoding Jobs Sectoral Report by Taggd 2023, had suggested that a fifth (21 percent) of new recruits would be female, and it increased to nearly a fourth in 2023 (24 percent). The trend is a result of companies a conscious initiative by companies like MG, Bajaj, Tata Motors, and Hero to accelerate the gender diversity drive.
- Skills required
Most of the new jobs are for posts like Program managers, electronic and mechatronic engineers, experts in fuel cells, system integration, system engineers, AUTOSAR architecture, and battery management system. These are highly specialized jobs, and a gradual shift in this direction has been visible over the past few years. In general, tech employees are increasingly in demand as employers try to manufacture in India.
- How can one get a job in the automobile sector?
According to Decoding Jobs Sectoral Report 2023 by Taggd, campus recruitment is less than a seventh of total expected recruitment (14 percent). The most common means of recruiting in the automobile sector remained the recruitment portals (27 percent), followed by the website or referral-based recruitment (25 percent).
- Mode of working
Most of the jobs in the automobile sector are to be on-site only, with only a small percentage of workers having access to hybrid modes.
- Salary hikes
The biggest hikes in the automobile industry in 2022 are given to freshers (that is, workers with less than three years of experience). According to Decoding Jobs Sectoral Report 2023, they witnessed an average hike of about twenty percent.
Challenges
Not everything is rosy with the automobile sector; here are challenges faced by recruiters in the industry when procuring new talent:
- Lack of talent
It may seem counterintuitive in a country like India, but the automobile industry is witnessing a challenge of limited talent. Simply put, there just isn’t enough new talent to recruit, as employers often have to compromise by recruiting employees that don’t have desirable skills. As India develops a lively automobile manufacturing sector, this trend might change over time.
- Need for multiple skills.
Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have brought a dramatic shift to the automobile sector. That has meant the manual and repetitive labour in the industry has declined. Employees can no longer survive on a single skill or limited skillset but must continuously acquire new skills.
- Retaining employees
The automobile industry is also unable to hold on to recruits both at the sectorial level and individual employers’ level. The recruiters are witnessing a high drop in offer levels as well as high attrition levels. Low packages in the industry compared with other industries remain one of the biggest reasons for the same. Companies also need to appreciate better the efforts of their employees to upskill.
Addressing these challenges
The following are some of the measures to address these challenges:
- Increasing awareness
All stakeholders in the industry need to work together to increase awareness about the demand for talented employees in the industry; so that they can attract fresher talent to the industry.
- Introducing mentorship programs
As noted earlier, the employees in the automobile industry are increasingly expected to learn new skills. Often these skills must be learned on the job. In such cases, it is sensible to create mentorship programs where new employees can learn and take advice from experienced employees. Not only will that help younger employees feel at home with the enterprise and get a clear career direction, but it can also give a sense of fulfilment to experienced ones.
- Rethinking job roles
The automobile industry also needs to rethink many job roles to improve their recruitment and hiring. With the ever-increasing use of robotics and AI in the industry, the physical advantage that traditionally made the job male-dominant no longer exists. Thus, there is scope to bring greater gender diversity.
- Better salaries
Many skilled jobs in automobiles pay comparatively lower wages than the same jobs in other sectors (like IT). That is primarily due to the sector’s competitiveness, but if the industry is to survive in the country, the recruiters must start offering better packages.
The bottom line
The automobile industry is bullish when it comes to expected demand for automobiles, expected industry growth, and recruitment, but some challenges must be addressed along the way. Taggd is the perfect recruitment portal for getting a job in the sector and already has got several clients in the industry.