As the world becomes more and more industrialised, and sweeping demographic changes take place in it, two very important areas in which global talentrecruitment is at a premium, are in manufacturing and healthcare sectors.
Figure – As per Manpower Group Survey 2019, five of top 10 shortage trades are from Manufacturing, and Healthcare also figures in this List.
In the manufacturing sector, roles are becoming more and more complex, and there is a requirement to continuously upgrade skills of those who are in this sector. Countries in Europe, North America, and others like Japan, Australia and New Zealand, which are heavily industrialised are now looking at recruiting global talent to manage their manufacturing complexes. Search for good talent is not easy, as from the kind of machinery, to manufacturing processes, to tools and equipment, everything is unique to a particular industry sectors, and to the employers who employ a variety of machines, unique to their requirements. This is compounded by the fact that increasingly machines are being controlled digitally, thus there are changes in the roles of machine operators, who need to understand digital controls in order to be able to optimally utilize these machines. Given the complexity of these machines, they are also very expensive and thus any lack of capability of the operator can cause serious losses to the organization. In this kind of scenario, sourcing of candidates becomes extremely important, in terms of the screening and testing of candidates, to ensure a close fit. Traditional talent catchment areas like neighboring countries are no more able to provide either the quantity or quality of manufacturing talent that is required to fulfill the requirements of employers. Countries are changing their Visa Rules to facilitate this change. As an example, the German Skilled Immigration Act, is a new law which expands the possibilities for qualified professionals to come to work in Germany. Now, it´s easier for skilled workers with vocational, non-academic training from non-EU countries to migrate to Germany in order to work.
A diverse global workforce can also improve an employer’s brand.
Thus, many forward-looking employers are looking globally forrecruiting the right kind ofmanufacturing talent. But the challenge here is how do employers understand the complex sourcing, screening and selecting of candidates, that are required by them from distant destinations and countries, from where they haven’t sourced this kind of talent before.
Similarly, in the healthcare sector, roles are becoming increasingly complex and divergent because of the advent of technology, and the refinement in the process of providing healthcare services. Demography is also playing a big role in the change that is happening in global talent sourcing for the healthcare industry. As a case to point, geriatric care has become a focal issue with countries like Germany, Japan and many other industrial developing nations, with negative population growth and a large number of citizens in the higher age brackets. Here too, the traditional catchment areas are not being able to provide the right quantity and quality for recruitment of healthcare talent, and employers have no choice but to look for fresh catchment ideas from where to recruit the right kind of talent. Healthcare sector recruitmentis further compounded by regulatory aspects of visa approval.
Figure – The Author (Fourth from left) in Japan signing MOU with Japanese employers to provide Healthcare Staff from India
In both these sectors, India has become a destination for global employers who are looking to recruit quality talent in the manufacturing and healthcare sectors. It is interesting to understand why India over the last few decades has become a manufacturing talent powerhouse. First of course is the fact that India has become a manufacturing hub for global manufacturing organisations. Local talent is being trained on not only the competence that is required to handle state of the art manufacturing equipment, but also in the processes that go into making world-class products. Global manufacturing companies like Mercedes, Toyota, LG, Samsung, General Motors, Intel, Apple and many others have set up manufacturing plants in India, from where they manufacture products for the world. To upgrade its archaic technical training establishment, the Government of India set up the National Skill Development Corporation, (NSDC), to bring in global best practices in manufacturing training, among others. The author was fortunate to be heading the Standards& QualityPractice in NSDC in the early part of this decade when international collaboration in technical training was a major focus.
Many entities from leading industrial economies like Germany, United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, Switzerland and Japan were invited to set up their subsidiaries, and collaborative units in India, and over time these have had a significant impact on the quality of training for the manufacturing sector that is currently being provided in India. The erstwhile Industrial Training Institutes have been reformed and are now turning out globally competent technicians who are today among the worlds best in the world. Multilateral funding agencies like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank have also chipped in to enhance the quality and modern training standards of the technical training establishment in India. Nothing better demonstrates the global competitiveness of Indian manufacturing talent then the impressive performance being provided by the Indian youth in the world’s best talent competition, the Worldskills competition. In every edition of the Worldskills competition Indian candidates are winning medals beating the best of global talent in various manufacturing segments like automotive, food production, construction, manufacturing, and many others.
Our company Magic Billion has been supporting the recruitment ofIndian manufacturing talent by clients globally. Employers in many countries are giving us repeat orders, and this is a great recognition to the talent that is being sent by us.
Figure – Magic Billion’s CNC Operators on their arrival in Europe. Alsoin picture Leaders of Emsil Group, and Aditi Banerjee, our Co-Founder.
In fact, employers globally are so pleased with the talent that we are providing to them that they are referring our names to other companies, which are now soliciting business from us.
When working with organisations like ours, global manufacturers have the added benefit of having a 360° global talent solution, which allows them to seamlessly source, screen, skill, and to receive trained and certified talent from India, which is attitudinally and culturally suited to their requirements.In healthcare too the most important reason why discerning global employers recruit talent in healthcare sector from India is because by nature Indian talent is extremely caring and are extremely empathetic when looking after patients. Indian education system is in English, and most of the degrees and other educational qualifications that are being provided in India have global recognition. So for most countries in the world it is easy to equate the degrees, which are provided to candidates from India, with the equivalent of their education system.
Figure – Magic Billion’s 360-degree Global Talent Solution
Figure – Magic Billion Training Centre in India has State of Art Training Facilities in Welding, HVAC, and all Mechanical Job Roles
Figure – Japanese employers recruiting our Healthcare Candidates
So, in terms of sheer scale, diversity of job roles, and having talent of the right kind of attitude, there is no country in the world today which can be as attractive as India, as arecruitment destination for manufacturing and healthcaretalent.