Employers’ Perception on the Antecedents of Graduate Employability for the Information Technology Sector

Abstract

This chapter aims to analyze the perceptions of the employers in the Information Technology (IT) sector in India on the antecedents of graduate employability. With an increased emphasis on organizational flexibility in today’s volatile and complex business environment, the employability of the workforce has gained crucial significance. Flexibility has been acknowledged as a predictor of organizational performance (Sushil, Global J Flex Syst Manag 16(4):309–311, 2015) and its strategic driver (Sharma et al., Global J Flex Syst Manag 11(3):51–68, 2010). Flexible strategies and business plan often demand the need to scale up the quality of manpower or shift the required skill set to swiftly adapt to the market changes accordingly. This flexibility is not confined to the quantity of manpower only but also encompasses the quality of skills deployed by the manpower (Srivastava, Global J Flex Syst Manag 17(1):105–108, 2016). Therefore, it is imperative for the potential job seekers to understand and continuously adapt to the changing knowledge and skill requirements of the employers to develop and maintain their employability. The employers in this dynamic sector demand a range of knowledge, skills, and other attributes from potential job seekers. However, the graduates passing out of higher education institutions fail to meet these expectations of the employers. Therefore, the sector is struggling with the challenges of talent crunch and qualitative demand–supply mismatch of manpower. The identification of factors that influence graduate employability is based on literature review. This chapter is empirical and examines the perceptions of the employers on the factors that impact employability and validates the association between the research constructs. Opinion surveys are used to elicit responses from a sample of 236 respondents, i.e., technical/HR personnel at the middle-level/upper middle-level management positions spanning across 71 reputed IT companies in India. These respondents are actively involved in the staffing of graduates seeking technical jobs in IT sector. The perception of these employers has been investigated using bivariate and multivariate analysis techniques. The key insights drawn in this chapter enable potential job seekers to clearly understand the employer demands in the IT sector and equip themselves with the required knowledge and skills. This also contributes to enhancing the manpower flexibility in organizations. The chapter has significant implications for the policy-makers and key stakeholders to bridge the employability gap in this sector.