A Comprehensive Guide To Hiring Tech Talent In India (2024)

The demand for tech talent is on a meteoric rise, as evidenced by research conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which predicts that by 2032, the overall employment of software developers, quality assurance analysts and testers will increase by 25%. However, hiring quality tech talent in today’s corporate environment can be challenging. In fact, based on a Gartner survey, 86% of companies report finding it hard to recruit qualified technical talent.

On the other hand, most companies now have access to a global talent pool as a side benefit of the growing influence of the remote work culture. Everyone is looking for skilled tech talent they can hire cost-effectively and India tops the list of IT outsourcing service providers. There are a couple of problems, though. While you may be solving your skills issues, India is a diverse country with 28+ states, each with their own labour, legal and employment regulations. 

So, how can you hire quality Indian tech talent without hassle?

You can choose to partner with an Employer of Record (EOR) services provider like Rapid, which has deep expertise in the Indian market. Rapid offers tech companies abroad many attractive features, such as quick 5-minute onboarding, assured compliance with Indian regulations and seamless HR and payroll management. 

In this article, we will discuss the factors contributing to the demand for Indian tech talent and the best practices you can follow to hire Indian tech talent in 2024 efficiently. 

Factors That Contribute To The Demand For Indian Tech Talent

Several factors make India one of the best places to source quality tech talent, such as:

1. Key Tech Hubs in India and Their Specialties (e.g., Bangalore for IT, Hyderabad for Startups): Tech talent tends to flourish best in environments that support entrepreneurship. Moreover, Indian cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad lead the way for skilled tech professionals.
   
   While Bangalore is considered the Silicon Valley of India with more than 5,500 well-established IT and ITES companies, Hyderabad has shown tremendous growth as a startup hub in recent years, with an increase of 16.29 percent in job creation in the IT sector in FY 22-23. With such tech hubs in the picture, India is expected to overtake the US as the country with the highest software developer population by 2024.   

2. Education Level and Diversity of Tech Professionals in India: India has had a huge STEM talent pool for years now, as evidenced by a report from UNCTAD, that states that out of five million STEM graduates worldwide in 2012, India accounted for 29.2% of them. Moreover, some of the most influential tech leaders in the world, like Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-Founder of Infosys, believe that India will be responsible for providing 25% of the world’s STEM talent in the coming years. 

In addition to this, Indian tech talent is diverse owing to its rich culture, who contribute different skills and perspectives for an innovative workforce. As Mr. Gopalakrishnan states, “India is the best place to innovate, be creative, create new business models and develop new products and technologies for the world.”

3. Better Work Ethics and Relatively Low Salaries Compared to the UK and the US: Indian tech professionals are well-known for their flexibility and adaptability, which makes them better suited to working in a fast-paced field like tech. Moreover, they can also learn quickly and work in high-pressure environments, making them a top choice for tech founders overseas.

Furthermore, the cost of living in India is substantially lower than that of the UK or the US, which translates to tech companies abroad often finding quality local talent at a lower cost. Besides this, tech companies can also save on training costs for Indian employees since the Indian government promotes a high level of education for tech professionals and makes the expenditure to guarantee such outcomes.

Best Practices For Hiring Quality Tech Talent in 2024

Coming to the crux of this blog post, let’s deep dive into the best practices you can follow to hire quality Indian tech talent in 2024:

1. Look for Talent in the Right Places

Most technical developers are not actively looking for jobs, thereby making it your responsibility to look for premium talent in the right places. For this purpose, generic job boards and LinkedIn do not cut it.  

You can instead try out coding platforms like GitHub and GitLab, tech forums such as Stack Overflow and Medium (to find developers who are creating guidelines pertaining to a role). Tech recruiters can also find stellar candidates by sourcing blogs. Through their regular content centres around hiring and sourcing, these blogs draw tech talent through indirect channels. 

Freelancing websites can also be a goldmine, with the best talent, including developers, software engineers, technical writers and creative designers advertising their services on such platforms. Furthermore, in today’s digital-forward environment, social media platforms can be another clever source for talent sourcing. Lastly, there are tech events hosted by startups and scaleups, which are also prominent places for aspiring tech professionals looking to network and find their next job. 

2. Give Detailed Shortlisting Criteria To Your Tech Recruiters

Before you begin the hiring process, it is important to determine some criteria for the tech talent you will be recruiting. For instance, more than 90% of tech talent is male, about 75% of professional developers are aged below 35 and more than 90% of developers have at least one part-time job, as evidenced in a 2018 Global Survey conducted by Stack Overflow.

Therefore, to know what to look for in the next team member, creating an "ideal persona" of the tech talent you are recruiting for is essential. Which technical abilities, skills and qualities are necessary for the position? Which desirable attributes in the candidate can help them better align with the existing team? What constitutes a deal-breaker that would rule out a candidate? Developing an ideal candidate profile can make the job of your tech recruiters much easier.

You can focus on the most relevant applicants and narrow your search by creating detailed shortlisting criteria. Additionally, it will assist you in creating more compelling job descriptions, interview questions and screening questions that will help you attract and evaluate the best-suited tech professionals.

3. Construct a Structured Interview Process To Assess a Candidate’s True Skills

Tech recruiters do not need long hours to assess a candidate’s true skills. In fact, most interviews only explain 14% of the candidate’s capabilities. There are many false negatives in technical interviews. This is where a structured interview process comes into play.

Structured interviews have a pre-defined format comprising standardised questions and general scoring criteria. Tech interviews must also include skill tests and live coding assessments. SMEs should build detailed question sets focused on skills such as coding, ERP, business intelligence, finance, etc. You can also invite experienced developers and testers to participate in the interview discussions to evaluate the applicants’ practical skills. Structured interviews can help tech recruiters evaluate prospects through a fair and accurate hiring process. 

4. Offer Competitive Compensation and Benefits

When you want to attract the best tech talent, you cannot only offer an attractive compensation package; companies with the best talent also offer eye-catching benefits. If you are a foreign company hiring in India, you may find it difficult to form a compliant benefits policy for local employees. This is where an EOR service provider like Rapid can provide you with an added advantage. 

Rapid has over 25 years of deep expertise in the Indian market and partnerships with trusted health benefits and insurance providers like Plum that can offer best-in-class employee benefits in India to both full-time and freelance employees. Plum offers a detailed, three-level plan for your local employees. Its insurance plans cover OPD, dental and eye care, maternity, accident, disability and more. Plum’s health insurance plans also include consultations with doctors and veterinarians and health checkup packages, among several other extensive benefits.

5. Enable Cultural Compatibility 

Talent comes second to cultural compatibility. If you are looking for candidates to be a part of your workforce long-term, ensure that their values and aspirations align with your company’s growth. 

In a fast-paced world like tech, it is important that future employees have a can-do attitude and are willing to learn quickly. While impressive compensation can be motivating, as a tech company, you can also ensure certain perks and benefits, such as a flexible workplace and providing learning and development opportunities.

Post the pandemic, there has been a significant change in the workplace model with a boom in remote working, which means ensuring flexibility is key to attracting good talent. Once you have made the right hire, have faith in their productivity and efficiency to give them the resources they need to succeed and the freedom to work whenever and wherever they please. You should also encourage diversity as a component of the corporate culture.

6. Ensure Smooth Onboarding and Integration

Giving new employees a clear introduction to the company's vision, work culture and hierarchical structure helps them adjust faster to a new workplace. If you are hiring tech talent remotely, it is important that you ensure a smooth onboarding and integration process that absorbs them into the organisational culture seamlessly.

Moreover, tech is a fast-paced field. An efficient onboarding process can enable your recent hires to hit the ground running and quickly contribute their skills to the job. Not to mention, a smooth onboarding and integration workflow also leads to greater employee retention. 

Rapid offers remote employee onboarding in 5 minutes instead of the usual 6 months by supporting companies with everything from contracts to payroll, benefits and compliance.  

7. Nurture and Retain Talent

For tech professionals to progress in their field of choice and stay up to date with the rapidly evolving digital landscape, learning and development are essential. In fact, a HR Digest article reports that companies that invested in employee learning and development in 2022 saw a 58% increase in workforce retention. 

There are many ways you can nurture tech talent in your business to retain them long-term. You can provide them access to online courses and certifications on platforms like Coursera, UpGrad, edX, Udemy, etc. This way, they can train themselves better in topics like programming languages, cybersecurity, data analytics and other tech subjects. Additionally, you can promote internal mobility for your workforce by offering them transparent appraisal criteria, regular reviews, constructive criticism and clear career routes.

Onboard Tech Talent in India with Rapid (100 words) 

It takes a tried-and-true framework backed by the aforementioned best practices to find and hire top tech talent in India.  Even then, as a foreign company, navigating the legal complexities of the Indian tech hiring landscape can be challenging. However, using an EOR platform like Rapid, with deep local expertise in tech talent and a strong network of hiring partners, can make it super easy for you.    

Rapid helps you create locally compliant contracts, conduct background checks on prospective Indian employees, onboard new hires seamlessly, manage payroll and taxes, support human resources management and maintain compliance throughout the employee lifecycle. With Rapid, you can stop worrying about setting up a legal entity to hire top-notch Indian talent and instead focus on business growth. 

Schedule a FREE demo to onboard tech talent in India with Rapid today!