Kumkum Aggarwal, VP, Gi Group India

HR departments in the organizations are always triggered to look up to the experts for advice. That’s where the HR consultancies are being seen in the light of sunrise.

My many years of experience being part of consulting firms at different levels gives me immense confidence that many industries have been benefitted by consulting experts in recruitment , trainings and other functions of HR.

My favorite is to talk about Recruitment Consulting coz of obvious reasons - The recruitment industry is probably one of the oldest among the service industries in the world and it is still the largest segment of the HR industry with an annual turnover of over $400 billion globally. This side of business still have huge scope of growth due to sectoral opportunities in retail, hospitality, and PSUs. Emergence of disruptive technologies also has its own way to contribute to the growth.To add to thoughts if you see all the major players are performing well in the industry by giving best of their services to their clients. The industry has shrunk by the global recession occurred in the past years. But, it has always shown its capability of surviving even in the recession period. Indian recruitment market has major focus on permanent and temporary recruitment segments. It assesses the key opportunities in the market and also outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the industry. Further, key players of the industry have been profiled and growth of the industry has been predicted taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends.

HR consultancies too have evolved from the classic 'personnel administration' function to one that enables business growth through planned talent acquisition, development and retention. These consultancies link with an organization's service excellence teams in driving projects that help continuous process improvement with tangible benefits. Now as new sectors are coming up, there is a problem of huge talent crunch that subsequently will give rise to other consequential problems - training of staff, retaining people, providing competitive compensation and other organizational dynamics issues. With this, should an organization really focus on these issues by engaging all its resources? What is the surety that the organization really is aware of the true problem going on in the establishment?

HR management and Recruitment consultancies have a preponderance of professional people. They not only are superb strategy makers but also armed with legal aspects of human resource management. Consultancies encash on their strengths like consultants with: -

a) Ability to understand, persuade, motivate, and work with clients from all walks of life

b) Personal drive, initiative and entrepreneurial spirit.

c) Ethics and integrity. If pondered closely, all these are needed for an organization's health and growth. Undoubtedly, this marks the reason for the organizations luring experienced and successful consultancies to tie a knot with them.

So having spent some wonderful years in Recruitment consulting industry I can anticipate a bright future of consulting companies in India.