Part 2: Meet Sanjay Singh, VP Whirlpool - The Road from Gurgaon to Amsterdam

Posted on June 18, 2008
Filed Under Global Staffing Perspectives, Interviews, Recruitingblogs.com |

MEET SANJAY SINGH, Vice President, Human Resources at Whirlpool Asia

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Sanjay Singh
Vice President, Human Resources
Whirlpool India
Email
Linkedin Profile
Whirlpool of India, Limited
Plot No. 40, Sector 44
Gurgaon-122 002, Haryana, India
India Tel: +(91) 124-4591-420
Mob: ++(91) 98-118-74309

INTERNATIONAL SOURCING SURVEY QUESTIONS, Part 2

Six Degrees: Does your staffing organization “DIRECT SOURCE” from competitor companies to hire talent?

Sanjay: Not in the real sense of the term, we do not direct source, but yes employee referrals do form a major part of our recruitment activity.

Six Degrees: Can you identify specific “How-To” obstacles of the countries you are responsible for, - particularly in terms of HOW EMPLOYMENT LAWS ARE FACTORS - specific to direct sourcing & hiring, and cultural differences in the recruiting process.

Sanjay: The private sector as such does not fall under the purview of the employment laws laid down by the government. But recently some legislations have been passed which require the private sector to maintain a certain proportion of people from certain sections of the society. These sections of society are recognized and categorized into further specific clusters under the schedules laid down in the law.

The sections and clusters are mainly categorized on the race, sub-cast and region; and are thus provided with varying amounts of quota in educational institutes, government corporations, government undertakings and civil services. Similar quotas are being suggested for the private sector and organizations have already started taking affirmative action.

Non poaching pacts might exist between companies; but they are more tacit than legislative in nature.
For example, the two FMCG players – ITC and P&G have a non poaching agreement along with an agreement that a previous employee of one company will not be hired by another.

As far as headhunters are concerned, there is no law governing their operations.

Six Degrees: How are US and Asian recruitment culture different? How are they similar?

Sanjay: In US there is a high degree of reliance on the company recruiters; whereas in Asia, head hunting firms are preferred, particularly for senior positions.

In US it is easier to source candidates digitally, but Asians are still not very comfortable with the idea of their profiles being online for others to view.

Six Degrees: Which recruitment software tools do you use in your day to day recruitment activities & do they translate effectively within all of the different countries where you recruit?

Sanjay: We use Taleo to manage our day to day recruitment activities. Since we use it at most of our locations, so yes it does prove effective.

Six Degrees: How many applicants do you estimate are hired from your corporate website as compared to how many are hired through referrals?

Sanjay: Corporate websites have not caught up to their full extent in India as of now. Recruitments which happen through the internet are majorly through job sites.
We have recruited around 100 people in India since January this year. Out of the total of 100 recruited, 3 were through our corporate website and 33 through referrals. The remaining were through external job consultants.

Six Degrees: This question is different, instead of quality, WHERE ARE THE “MOST HIRES” collected from? (In terms of Quantity #)

Sanjay: The most number of hires collected in decreasing order are from – job consultants, Employee referrals and Campus recruitments

Six Degrees: What is the source of your “LOWEST COST OF HIRES” - (least amount of invested resources for the easiest hires, regardless of quality)

Sanjay: The lowest cost of hires has to be Employee referrals for us. Even though the reward paid to the referrer is very lucrative, the ultimate cost of hiring adds up to less than what we spend on other sources like job consultants and campus recruitments. I would like to mention that this is not because the number of recruitments through referrals is low.

Job consultants are the most expensive source of recruitment.

Six Degrees: Whether you are hiring IT engineers, accounting, - whatever talent you are seeking, - is your country’s CULTURE a factor in the RESPONSE RATE you get when sending an email requesting a CV versus calling the candidate directly at their work? Are they open/eager to sending their CV, are they more shy/cautious or even suspicious depending on the method you use to contact them?

Sanjay: Absolutely yes. Indians are shy and value privacy.

Calling a candidate either at her/his workplace or on the mobile phone is more often than not bound to invoke a suspicious reaction. The first thing that the prospective candidate will invariably say is ‘where did u get my number?’ people are not very comfortable with the idea that someone sourced their phone number for this purpose and is calling them with a very direct offer. I guess it has something to do with the circumventive fashion in which most Indians start a conversation, introduce themselves and then get to business. It is changing for sure but will take some time before people start accepting purely business motivated communication.

Requesting a CV through email counts lower on the invasive, suspicion invoking list of methods.

I think the best way to let down their guard is by mentioning the name of the source, if it is a person they know.

Six Degrees: A) What methods/resources produce the FASTEST amount of time in producing hires (what types of talent?) (Including, but not limited to: newspaper advertisements, Company website, online search engine ads, job Fairs/Open House events, Blogs, online forums, technical websites, social networking sites, etc)

Sanjay: I would say job sites and online networking platforms do the trick.

Six Degrees: B) What SPECIFIC TECHNOLOGY TOOLS do you use that produce FASTEST amount of time in producing hires. Please state the software, databases you use in detail.

Sanjay: Again job sites and online networking platforms.

Six Degrees: C) Is it acceptable, or common, in your country’s culture to offer a referral fee for a successful hire to someone who recommended the candidate? Yes or No? What is the formula, method or basis for developing a money reward for a referral?

Sanjay: Yes it totally acceptable and common. Like I mentioned, referrals are one of the important sources of recruitment for us and we do pay, like most of the organizations; a lucrative reward to the referrer if the candidate is hired.

Method and basis for establishing the reward differs for different organizations. Some organizations pay a reward which is equal to the half or full month’s salary of the candidate hired (nothing is deducted from the salary of the hired candidate). Others pay a percentage of the current total salary of the referrer. Still others decide it randomly according to the position for which the candidate is being referred.

Six Degrees: Do you use blogs specific to each country’s talent within target industries/competing companies?

No

Six Degrees: What are the BEST JOB BOARDS ** SPECIFIC WEBSITES** to each of the countries you recruit for, BOTH overall and SPECIFIC TO each industry (For Example: IT, Finance, Marketing etc)
(You can review relevant job such as http://www.topjobsites.com/ for reference.) List the websites with their links please.

Top of the mind recall:
www.jobsdb.com

India:
www.naukri.com
www.monsterindia.com
www.timesjobs.com
www.jobsahead.com
www.naukrihub.com
www.jobstreet.com

China:
www.51job.com
www.cjol.com
www.chinaHR.com
www.zhaopin.com

Australia:
www.seek.com.au

Six Degrees: Can you provide a list of SPECIFIC recommended/effective (not all) local newspapers AND ALL known major associations & conferences and industry-specific website portals *** BY COUNTRY ***
NOTE: This answer would be valuable information to our readers!!!

Sanjay: Newspapers: Times Careers, Times Classifieds, HT Careers, Express Classifieds

Six Degrees: What Search Engines in addition to common ones like Google, do you use that are native to the countries you are responsible for? Please Detail with links.

Sanjay:
www.khoj.com
www.guruji.com
www.searchindia.com

Six Degrees: Which 3rd party agency/ recruitment search firms have you successfully used and would recommend to others for the types of positions (IT, accounting etc) you recruit for?

Sanjay: ABC consultants, Personal Search Services

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