B&E: How badly was the job market and particularly your organisation affected by the slowdown? How did you manage through the phase?
SM: I would like to share two perspectives here. There was a huge recession in the international market, predominantly US, while what was happening in our market was slowdown. Let’s be very clear that we were just lucky to be in this part of the world. We made a lot of hue & cry in 2008 because of this global crisis, but if I were to ask that did it touch the kind of scale that it touched in US, the answer would be no. What happened here was that on the face of it companies never stopped hiring. They just pushed it back by a couple of months and adopted the wait and watch policy. So, it would be wrong to say that we were not affected by the slowdown. However, we used this period to launch some new initiatives.
B&E: Could you throw some light on your new initiatives?
SM: Just like all large corporates in India that were talking about the rural markets, we too focussed on tapping the talent pool in the rural markets. We tied up with ITC and through its e-Choupal initiative, we forayed into rural India. We launched a website Rozgarduniya.com will enable job seekers in rural India, to access and apply for jobs through the ITC e-Choupals. Another key initiative has been our collaboration with Dish TV, whereby we are offering an Interactive Jobs search service MonsterJobs Active to the Dish TV subscribers. Basically it is a user friendly interface that will allow job seekers to search for jobs across the country in various industry verticals from the convenience of their homes. The convergence of Internet and TV will make job services easily accessible to TV viewers across cities of India. I strongly feel that job search on TV has great potential in bridging the unmet need of the audience whose access to the Internet is limited. The range of information also includes services like Resume Writing and Resume Blaster; services through which a jobseeker can get their resume written by a professional resume writer and can also send their resume to thousands of placement consultants in one go.
B&E: What was the big idea behind the Rozgarduniya.com initiative?
SM: Rural India has a huge untapped talent pool and Rozgarduniya.com will provide a platform to bridge the demand and supply gap. Job opportunities available to the rural population through this initiative will help improve employment in addition to facilitating corporate expansion plans in the rural market. Rozgarduniya.com was designed after Monster conducted intensive research with the rural youth to understand their profiles and rural internet usage behaviour.
B&E: After a relatively tough period, do you think that the job market is on the path to recovery’
SM: Let me put in this way, we will come back in the latter half of 2010. The job market started getting back on track from March-April 2009. There has been an almost 100% growth in job listing during the period April 2009 to February 2010 and hiring is happening across sectors.
B&E: Which are the key hiring sectors right now?
SM: Apart from the usual suspects like IT, banking, financial, insurance (BFSI), production, manufacturing, engineering, two new sectors – heathcare and education – have seen a huge surge in hiring. As far as recruitment goes we are just at the tip of the iceberg as far as there two sectors are concerned. We are also focusing on FMCG, telecom, security companies, logistics and construction business in a big way. It is heartening to see that the recovery is not restricted to a particular sector, but is consistent across all the sectors.
B&E: What is your strategic roadmap for the future?
SM: Earlier most job sites were just catering to the top 20 cities but now my large audience will come from rural India. We believe Rozgarduniya.com will act as a catalyst and play an instrumental role in the government’s vision of inclusive growth in India. It is our hope to expand this unique offering to over nine states and about 40,000 villages through the ITC e-Choupals in the future.
B&E: Naukri.com, your main competition in India has diversified into areas such as matrimonial and real estate portals. Any such diversification plans on the anvil for Monster?
SM: We have a couple of ideas but we are waiting for the right time to make the next strategic move.
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
“We will change your outlook” - The Sunday Indian on B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED! A must read...
The Sunday Indian:-
B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!
For Exclusive Footage by Sunday Indian Click Here
Outlook Magazine's B School Ranking Scam Exposed
Business Standard Exposes the Outlook Magazine Money Editor
Don't trust the Indian Media!
IIPM enters into media education
IIPM makes record 10,000 placements in five years
TSI exposes b school ranking scamsters Mahesh Peri of Career 360 and Premchand Palety of C fore. - For Complete Sting Operation Video Click Here
Pioneer Exposes the fraud called Mahesh Sharma and Mahesh Peri of Career 360 and Barbel Schwertfeger of mba-channel.com
IIPM: An intriguing story of growth and envy
Prof Arindam Chaudhuri of IIPM on MF HUSAIN
