58% organisations say hiring numbers expected to increase in 2021: Mercer Mettl report

Nearly 58% organisations have said their hiring numbers are expected to increase in 2021 compared to last year, the State of Talent Acquisition 2021 report by Mercer Mettl has revealed. For 22.12% companies, hiring numbers are expected to remain the same, 16.35% will see a decrease and 3.85% wouldn’t hire at all, the report added.

While the return to normalcy will depend on how the pandemic plays out in specific geographies, positivity is back among many hiring managers, the report said. Compared to the last year, 44% of the respondents anticipate increasing their hiring by up to 30%

The October-December quarter is when many job offers are going to get rolled out, after companies start their hiring circles in the third quarter of the calendar year,” Siddhartha Gupta, CEO of Mercer Mettl told ET.


Product and technology would lead job creation with 53% leaders looking to hire for these roles, followed by operations (39.42%) and sales roles (39%). Marketing, business management, human resource and finance would be among the other roles in demand.

The challenges created by the ongoing disruption seem to have pushed decision-makers to believe that their businesses and hiring can continue unabated in the remote-work setting. Infact, the disruption caused by the pandemic has accelerated the pace of tech adoption in hiring processes across many India Inc companies. 76% of the respondents now recognise technology as a value-add for businesses, found the report.

South Asian countries, such as India, China, and others, have registered a faster rate of tech adoption at 47%. In India, 53% of respondents who leveraged virtual hiring witnessed a significant decrease in their otherwise long recruitment cycle, found the report. 50% of companies reduced their expenses with massive savings in hiring costs. One-third of the respondents identified future-proofing opportunities with virtual hiring.

There were challenges too. Respondents in large-size (2000-plus) companies report the lack of a data-driven and technology-enabled hiring process (28%) as their most significant challenge, followed by unstructured and time-consuming interviews (22%). On the other hand, respondents in medium-size (27%) and small-size companies (33%) attribute their hiring problems to their inability to find and attract top talent as per business requirements. Medium-size companies are those with 500-2000 employees while small-size companies constitute those with upto 500 employees.

Findings suggest that 54.26% of the survey respondents are prioritising virtual screening tools, such as communication skills assessment, as communication has assumed much greater importance in creating a unique proposition for companies. Furthermore, respondents also seek a more holistic candidate assessment by actively employing screening tools, such as technical and domain assessments (44.68%), behavioral assessments (42.55%), psychometric assessments (38.30%), cognitive assessments (24.47%) and coding assessments (22.37%).