Despite tech disruption, non-tech jobs continue to hold their own

When it comes to non-tech roles, women lead in both HR job functions, generalist and TA, occupying nearly two-thirds of total positions. (Illustration by Suneesh Kalarickal)

As the world rapidly moves online, organisations are not overlooking the non-tech talent pool either, emphasising the need for the human touch. On average, tech companies hired 57 percent tech and 43 percent non-tech roles during the last week of December 2022, according to a report by job search firm Instahyre.

Founded in 2016, Instahyre claims to have over 10,000 clients, including Google, Amazon, Flipkart, Salesforce, Walmart, Swiggy, etc.

Breaking up the data, after analysing over 1.5 crore candidate profiles and more than 4 lakh job profiles, the job portal’s "State of non-tech talent report 2022" found that in the human resources segment, the roles of HR generalist and talent acquisition (TA) are two of the most popular HR job functions.

HR generalist, which constituted 52 percent of total job postings in the HR function, is the most in-demand job function among freshers whereas mid-level talent specialises more in TA (48 percent contribution).

Sales and operation roles continue to be in demand

Sales and business development roles always remain in demand and are considered one of the biggest contributors to any organisation’s growth. As per the report, business development is the most popular job function, the preferred for specialisation of 65 percent of overall sales talent. Customer service is the next most favoured role by talent across all experience levels.

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Further, non-tech roles in accounting /finance (46 percent) and operations management (54 percent) are the most popular in the market. With remote and hybrid work cultures, organisations are finding it easier to keep improving their operations teams with good talent.

“It is anticipated that the growing trend in recruiting accounting and finance experts would continue. That's because these workers are becoming valued corporate partners with distinctive strategic insight, rather than just experts in financial planning,” an Instahyre spokesperson told Moneycontrol.

Also, these jobs will continue to be in demand as compliance and IT rules keep getting updated, he added.

The gender angle

When it comes to non-tech roles, women lead in both HR job functions, generalist and TA, occupying nearly two-thirds of total positions. But operations and accounting roles are mostly held by male candidates, at 79 percent and 66 percent, respectively.

Marketing has more of a balance. Content writing and PR/communications job functions are led by women—62 percent and 59 percent, respectively. On the other hand, SEO/SEM has over 75 percent of males filling the roles.

Pay packages

Though being an HR generalist at fresher or middle levels gets them a higher average salary package of up to Rs 10 lakh per annum (LPA), with experience, senior HR talent draw a higher average salary ranging from Rs 12 LPA to Rs 18 LPA.

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The report also demonstrates the package split among different employee levels. For freshers, accounting/finance gets them the highest average salary of up to Rs 10 LPA while mid-level talent draws up to Rs 13 LPA. On the other hand, senior ops talent and leaders in accounting /finance get the highest average salary of up to Rs 15 LPA and 23 Rs LPA, respectively.

Earlier, Moneycontrol reported that traditionally non-tech firms have had to pay a premium to hire IIT talent but this is now changing due to the downturn in demand for tech talent, as per professional services firm Aon.

“Non-IT firms are now trying to scale digital capabilities and going back to campuses for tech talent again,” said Jang Bahadur Singh, director of human capital solutions at Aon in India.

This is closing the gap between salaries offered by the IT sector vs the non-IT sector, especially in IITs. Non-IT sectors such as manufacturing, auto, retail, BFSI, etc, recorded the highest salary for entry-level jobs for IIT engineers, at an average of Rs 13.9 LPA, slightly lower than offered by IT firms. This compares with the average for graduates from colleges in Tier I cities (Rs 9.7 LPA), Tier II cities (Rs 7.1 LPA) and Tier III cities (Rs 4.7 LPA).

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