Location no bar: Smalltown talent finds favour among employers as remote working helps cut costs

When the coronavirus pandemic hit in March 2020, Sanket Jha, a digital marketing professional working in Mumbai, went back to his hometown Ranchi. Two months later he lost his job. But Jha was able to find three freelance opportunities soon after. He is now in negotiations with a Mumbai-based private bank for a remote posting.

“I was pleasantly surprised that the bank didn’t insist that I should be physically present in Mumbai for this digital marketing position. This way, I save up on high rental costs in Mumbai and would need to travel for meetings only once every quarter,” said Jha.

Amidst the coronavirus outbreak, where remote working is still the preferred option for India Inc, prospective talent from smaller towns is gaining traction.

Recent employment surveys have also shown a similar trend. The Monster Employment Index for February 2021 showed that Ahmedabad has seen the highest traction in terms of hiring activity. The Naukri JobSpeak report for February 2021 also showed that Tier-2 cities such as Chandigarh and Jaipur were showing hiring growth while metro cities, including Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Delhi, showed a decline.

“There is a definite rise in jobs, especially for candidates in locations such as Jaipur, Jabalpur, Indore, Pune, Chandigarh, Tirupati and Secunderabad. Companies save on costs if candidates work remotely since salaries are directly proportional to the employee’s location,” said Madhukar Sahoo, a recruitment consultant from Pune.

However, Sahoo added that since hiring has only begun to see some activity from 2021, the absolute number of people hired from smaller towns may not be very large. But compared to 2020 (January-March), he explained that has been close to a 55 percent jump in hires from smaller towns.

There is a definite cost saving for companies. Employees are paid according to their work location. So, an employee based in Mumbai will be paid 20-25 percent more than someone based in Pune with similar work experience/skills. The story is the same with Chennai trumping Madurai, Delhi beating Jaipur/Chandigarh, and so on.

Employees save on rent and travel costs and save time by not having to go to office. For instance, a one-way commute by train for a working professional in Mumbai would take at least an hour.

 Who is hiring, and who is being hired?

Recruitment consultants said that at least 40 percent of the hiring mandates are open to candidates from any location compared to less than 20 percent a year ago.

Nikita Dey Thakur, MD at ShineRise HR Consulting, told Moneycontrol that pharmaceuticals, banking, financial services and insurance companies are among those handing out mandates for recruitment of remote workers. ShineRise HR Consulting specialises in hiring talent from smaller towns and Tier 2/3 cities.

“In the initial phase of the lockdown, when workers had migrated back home, we were seeing FMCG clients also handing out short-term contracts for workers from smaller towns. That trend is no longer visible since these offices, retail stores and malls are almost fully operational and remote workers are not being preferred,” she added.

With respect to skills, data analyst, AI/ML (artificial intelligence/machine learning) experts, digital marketing and content strategy related jobs are in top demand for candidates from remote locations.

Srividya Thevar, 29, who was working as a data analyst with a consumer appliance company in Bengaluru, had returned home to Madurai in May 2020. “I was asked to return by August since the office was operational at 50 percent capacity,” she recalls. “But I was unable to return since my mother was diagnosed with Covid-19 and I was on an extended break.

Thevar took another job a few months later. “Since November 2020, I have been working with a general insurance company based in Mumbai as a data analyst. Even though I am on a 12-month contract, I am hopeful of it getting renewed since my salary is about 18-20 percent lower than what one would get paid in Mumbai,” she said.

While digital sales jobs (remote) were also in vogue during the period between April-July 2020, hiring experts said that these jobs have now moved back to metro cities.

“Online sales roles were being preferred because of the strict lockdown and 100 percent shutdown of non-essential stores and offices. That is no longer the case. Hence, digital sales roles with remote working are not available,” said the head of human resource at a Mumbai-based private life insurer.

 Will this continue in the post-Covid era?

HR consultants expressed concerns about how sustainable the remote working scenario would be. While hiring officials admitted that freelance roles could be remote, full-time job opportunities wouldn’t be aplenty.

“Once the public has received the Covid-19 vaccines, companies wouldn’t be fully comfortable with hiring people permanently located in their hometowns in Tier 2 locations. Hence, candidates also need to be cognisant of this fact… that this is a temporary phenomenon,” said Philip Jacob, a recruitment strategist from Delhi.

Jacob added that the majority of the companies handing out hiring mandates mention that these are 12–18-month contracts that can be renewed depending on market conditions.

At present, only senior citizens and individuals between 45-59 years with comorbidities are allowed to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Experts pointed that the experience gained from hiring individuals from smaller towns could also nudge companies to hire more freelancers and second-career women from these locations.

“These won’t be permanent jobs but would be for niche projects at BFSI, consulting and advertising firms. But at least there is a source of livelihood being created,” said Bhushan Sikdar, MD & CEO of recruitment firm CritiHire Solutions, which specialises in non-metro hiring.