An upskilled diverse workforce speaks productivity

The job market is getting tougher, so that job seekers need to bring up to date knowledge to the table if not experience. On their part, organisations can ensure upskilling of the available human resources and select a diverse team for better productivity.

For example, new research from ISACA in its new Privacy in Practice 2022 survey report, sponsored by OneTrust, indicate that Indian companies have unfilled positions in both legal/compliance (31%) and technical privacy roles (43%).

Read more: Learnings from the pandemic about recruiting healthcare technology workers

This, at a time when data protection and data privacy are of paramount importance. At a global level this issue has only worsened since last year.

21% of Indian respondents also indicate that it takes three-six months to fill positions for legal/compliance privacy roles, while 25% indicated a similar time frame for filling open technical privacy positions. To overcome the skill gap, 50% of the respondents in India have indicated they train non-privacy staff who are interested in moving into privacy roles.

21% of Indian respondents also indicate that it takes three-six months to fill positions for legal/compliance privacy roles, while 25% indicated a similar time frame for filling open technical privacy positions

Given the current emphasis and importance on data protection and privacy, respondents also largely expect that privacy professionals will only become more in-demand.

In seeking professionals to fill these roles, respondents worldwide indicate they are looking for three key things: compliance/legal experience (62%), prior hands-on experience in a privacy role (56%) and technical experience (48%).

However, they indicate that candidates do not always have the skills required for these roles, the most common skills gaps occurring in experience with different technologies and/or applications (64%), understanding laws and regulations to which an enterprise is subject (50%), and lack of technical experience (46%).

Upskilling Can Be the Answer

Organisations are putting in effort to make a future ready workforce by upskilling youth.

For example, Geekster, an ed-tech focused on providing technical education to aspirants, announced an ambitious target to upskill over 1,000 students in the next two quarters under Full Stack Web Development Program. The brand has so far already trained close to 300 aspirants under the course. Over 250+ aspirants out of the total trained, have already got placed with reputed corporates. With its pay-after-placement offering, aspirants have been able to pick up pace in their career trajectory.

Geekster also recently announced expanding its manpower by 50% to reach out to a wider audience. The new target from the brand comes in line with the recent hiring, wherein now it is aiming to upskill a larger batch. Its unique pay-after-placement model has been attracting enthusiasts to learn and fuel their growth trajectory.

There is a huge gap between what employers eye and what candidates pursue. Once this is addressed and the candidates get the right skills in demand in the industry, it opens a plethora of opportunities for the students

“There is a huge gap between what employers eye and what candidates pursue. Once this is addressed and the candidates get the right skills in demand in the industry, it opens a plethora of opportunities for the students,”  said Ankit Maggu, Founder, Geekster.

“Geekster is trying to fix the same by giving top quality industry relevant education to aspirants and with the pay-after-placement we are encouraging users to learn and widen their career horizon without any financial concern. We have been witnessing an exponential growth in the number of users on our platform, and with the rising number of successful placements, we can expect climbing traction too,” he added.

A Diverse Workforce Equals More Productivity

Another challenge the job market or organisations face is the lack of a diverse workforce. People have even lost faith in AI software for hiring because of concerns that hiring algorithms may produce biased evaluations.

According to a study the public generally has a negative attitude towards the use of algorithms in hiring, and the majority do not consider them fair and effective. Also, males, higher education and higher income people have more positive perceptions towards hiring algorithms than their counterparts.

As we have grown it has become increasingly clear that having people from all walks of life in the company has helped with more perspectives on different topics, which in turn has helped solve problems more efficiently and creatively

Bringing cultural diversity in a workplace means bringing together individuals with different talents, viewpoints, and unique perspectives into a team. Keeping this in mind, Aisle, an Indian high-intent dating app, with a team of 21 members coming from 10+ states in India, has maintained gender ratio at 1:1, something not so common in a modest size team such as theirs.

Most of Aisle’s team members speak more than 2 languages and this has given an edge to the company in building products for different cultures and regions with ease. Team Aisle includes people all the way from Assam to Andamans who bring their culture, language and beliefs to the table.

This cultural diversity has helped the company build customized experiences for Indian singles from different regions in the country. In 2021, Aisle launched three customised vernacular dating apps ‘Arike’, ‘Anbe’ and ‘Neetho’ for Malayalee, Tamil and Telugu singles respectively.

Read more: Not business as usual for Indian IT as a post-pandemic workforce reconsiders career choices

Able Joseph, Founder and CEO, Aisle, is well aware that creating a diverse team does not happen overnight, “We try and identify processes that can inspire change. From the very start, we have been transparent with our employees and focused on making everyone feel connected to the vision of Aisle. As we have grown it has become increasingly clear that having people from all walks of life in the company has helped with more perspectives on different topics, which in turn has helped solve problems more efficiently and creatively.”

“We have a wide culturally diverse team who have brought in new ways of thinking with a diverse set of solutions to everyday problems which has enabled us to introduce more region-specific features for our audiences,” he adds.