Ways To Hire Blue Collar Workers
Date: 14/06/2022
In India, more than 80 percent of the population works in the Blue Collarsector. Around 300 million to 400 million people are working as Blue Collar workers like construction workers, factory workers, delivery executives, machine operators, electricians, cooks, and security guards. The availability of Blue Collar workers is in abundance but there are hardly good sources or platforms available to find these workers in a more systematic manner.
Increasing demand
Witnessing the growth of e-commerce and the gig economy in the last five years, India is now considered the largest gig economy center in the world. Companies like, Amazon, Flipkart, Zomato, etc are always in search of workers who can deliver gigantic customer orders. Hence, the demand for blue-collar workers has increased exponentially in logistics and e-commerce businesses. At the end quarter of the 2021 year, India saw around 7-8 million new job openings for blue-collar workers. It clearly indicates the growth in the blue-collar job market post-Covid-19 pandemic which was the worst hit due to the decline in businesses around the globe.
Covid-19 waves keep reoccurring, but nobody wants to go through the same pain and loss they faced in the first two waves of pandemics. People are now more aware and familiar with the scenario a lockdown can create for their livelihood and business. The world is moving towards the perspective of the ‘new normal to cope with the given time. Many companies and businesses are changing their conventional ways to stay relevant with time. The Blue-collar sector also cannot remain immune without a change. In whatever way possible, change is needed in the hiring pattern or methods in the blue-collar sector to fight the gap between demand and supply of workers in unprecedented times.
Here are some of the ways that can be considered in hiring blue-collar workers:
Contractors or Placement Agencies
It is one of the conventional ways to hire informal workers i.e labor workers or we can say, blue-collar workers. Here, you can contact contractors to provide the required number of workers. These contractors register numerous blue-collar workers and allocate them to recruiters on a contract basis. They work as a middleman who is the connecting point between the recruiters and job seekers. They make work easier for both employers and job seekers. Both don’t have to work hard to find potential opportunities and candidates. But they charge heavy money to provide such services but push candidates to take low-paying jobs that have the harshest working conditions to earn hefty commissions. Sometimes these turn out to be fraudulent which makes this source less credible. But still, most of the blue-collar workers in India are hired through these informal contractors.
Apprenticeship, internship, and training
To attract young candidates, you can start with apprenticeships or internships. Millennials who have recently completed their ITI diploma or certificate and want industry exposure can get attracted to your company. And in return, your company can hire these youngsters for much lesser salaries. This is the best opportunity to encourage newly ITI pass out to join your company.
Other than this, you can also offer training to the freshers while they are on the job. Initiative to provide digital training, learning, and development for blue-collar workers, even after having the digital gap. The adoption of technology for upskilling has increased by 50 to 60 percent in the manufacturing unit. And the initiative is seen as a positive step for the future economy, as the increasing demand for skilled laborers needs to have good knowledge of technology.
There is an abundance of job seekers in the Indian job market, but only a limited number are well-skilled enough to overcome that gap. You can take the initiative to train the fresher for the first few weeks or months. You can execute this program by having partnerships with local schools and colleges to coordinate in offering apprenticeships and other programs.
Improve the well-being of the workers
One thing that the Covid-19 pandemic has made the country realize is the importance of the labor force, the blue-collar workers. How the economy came to a standstill, as the migrant workers departed from the cities and walked back to their home state amid the lockdown. They had no option but to move back, as they were left with no source of income or means to support even their basic food necessity in the city. The incident left the entire country to question the state of migrant labor. And this impacted businesses all around the country. To make sure that this doesn’t get repeated, try to be more considerate about your labor workers. Their basic needs and requirements like food and medical facilities at least need to be taken care of if any unforeseen situation takes place in the future.
Some sense of security and safety will also drive job seekers to apply for your company. For example, Anuradha Razdan, Hr of HUL, shared about how their company took ownership of 12000 plus blue-collar employees of the company. Made sure the workers and their families were safe while they were contacted once a week.
Search on online medium
In India, people who are in the blue-collar section are more likely to use mobile phones after the boom of 4G phones. And most of them probably seek new job opportunities through online mode. And this means that you are missing out on a huge number of well-qualified and trained candidates who are available and looking for new job opportunities online. In today’s time and scenario where the world is turning everything digital, it is important that you adopt a mobile-friendly hiring process. This makes your recruitment easy and fast which can also reach a wider audience and candidates. But unfortunately, there are limited job portals solely dedicated to blue-collar workers.
It is advisable to post your job requirements on niche job sites that can help to target the right and relevant job seekers. ShramIN is one of the best hiring portals for employers who are seeking blue-collar workers for their company.
ShramIN is different from the rest of the available job portals that usually cater to white-collar jobs like administrative or managerial work. There are hardly any job portals available that display job requirements for construction workers, manufacturing/factory workers, ITI candidates, and skilled/ semi-skilled and unskilled workers. And this makes this job portal very inclusive in nature as it involves the section of the society which is 80% of the entire nation, blue and grey collar workers.
ShramIN is a free job portal for job seekers and employers. It supports the multilingual feature, where users from any region and language can comfortably access the app in their own native language. Therefore, Shramin.com is more capable of reaching the wider population of the nation than the rest of the available job portals in the market.
Video Job Description and Resume
In the time of digital media, things are getting evolved each year. Similarly, in the job market a trend of video job descriptions (JD) is emerging, where recruiters or employers can portray the details of job descriptions through a video instead of a paper document. It is an easy and less time-consuming way to convey information to the job seeker.
Along with video JD, there is also an option of a video resume, where candidates can share their profile through a video instead of a paper document. It is one of the best alternatives for blue-collar workers. Because it helps in creating an opportunity for illiterate people to express their skills and experience without stressing over CV documents, which otherwise become a barrier in their application for them.
If you are not using video as your medium for recruitment then you are missing out on the pool of possible skilled candidates for your job requirements. If you want to be an ace blue-collar recruiter, then you must start using video format because it engages more of the audience who can become potential candidates.
ShramIN is one such platform where employers can post unlimited video job descriptions without paying any charges. Even job seekers can upload video resumes. Its entire virtual ecosystem helps both sides to get connected without having much struggle and confusion. Video resumes are a better medium for people who are not literate enough to frame their resumes on a sheet. It is an inclusive way to cater to the Indian audience which can cover a wide section of the population.
These are a few ways you can follow to hire well-qualified and skilled blue-collar workers in India. In the digital era, it is important to be present in the virtual world along with offline connections to get the required human resources. ShramIN will help you in all aspects to get relevant blue-collar workers’ applications for your job posting. You can register as an employer on the website www.shramin.com or you can also download the app ShramIN Recruit App.
Also Read :
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