Amidst slowdown and layoffs, human resource personnel in the IT industry have to gear up for innovative resource management techniques, said Pramila Kanive, VP and global head (talent management) of Zensar Technologies.

“The expenditure on employees is still predominant among other costs incurred by any company. There is a lot of apprehension among the employees as far as their jobs are concerned,” she said adding that the HR has a major role to play in this hostile market conditions. Kanive was addressing media persons on Saturday during a press meet organised by the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) and Zensar Technologies. She said that HR in IT companies are now looking at optimum utilisation of human resources by introducing new policies.

“Focused development and retention plans for critical talent, enhancing linkage between performance and compensation, lowering tolerance bar for non-performance and building diverse talent pool with respect to gender, age, nationality, skill sets are some of the new strategies adopted by the HR,” Kalive said.

According to Kalive, the HR is now looking at multiple-skilled employees.

“It is clear that there is no perfect candidate for any job profile. However, if a candidate is 80 per cent perfect, he/she can be given supplementary training that enhances the performance,” she said. Kalive stressed that HR personnel must not compromise on the long-term goal of retaining the talent pool of the company.

A panel discussion on ‘expectations from IT industry’ saw the participation of Loksatta editor Mukund Sangoram, business editor of Mail Today (Delhi) Ravi Srinivasan, deputy chief of Mumbai bureau of Financial Express M G Arun, managing director of Zensar Ganesh Natarajan, Ameet Nivsarkar and vice president of NASSCOM.