Hays stakes its claim on India for the long term

15-April-2009 | By Graham Simons

Multi-sector recruiter Hays plans to embark on further expansion into India following the opening of its Mumbai office.

It aims to add locations in Delhi and Bangalore, according to Nick Cox, managing director of continental Europe and the rest of the world.

Cox told Recruiter that although there had been a marked slowdown of India’s recruitment market, the staffing firm would be in India for the long term. Hays employee Roop Bhumbra, a British Indian, set up the Mumbai office in India’s financial district in January and would be moving to Delhi to open an office in India’s capital, which will focus on commercial placements in the summer, with a third office following in India’s IT hub of Bangalore to follow, Cox said.

Hays will concentrate on middle management professional roles in its core areas of accountancy and finance, construction and property, IT, and sales and marketing. But Cox said the firm could expand its banking operations, as well as leveraging the firm’s experience gained in the Gulf into oil and gas on the sub continent.

According to Cox, Hays’ specialist advice and expertise would give them a competitive advantage as its indigenous competition are headhunters working on retained business and networking assignments along with generalists working on lower-level recruitment.

Cox added that Hays had gained from opening in a downturn by putting down roots to engage more with clients and taking its specialisms
to market first, adding that anyone else entering the India market would be a fair way behind.

“We will be in India for 25 or 50 years. We opened in a downturn but India is not in recession. We are going to be there for the long term.
Whether we would have opened six months ago and took advantage of what was a very buoyant market is irrelevant. It is a long-term structural play for us.”