The most exciting opportunities of this decade for India’s HR professionals are driven by a few well-defined factors. For some of you, these concepts may seem alien, but I will explain.
What are these factors?
India’s demographic dividend
According to the Economic Survey 2018-19, India’s demographic dividend will peak around 2041, when its working age population, i.e. those in the 20-59 year age group, is expected to grow to 59 percent, which offers great potential for rapid economic growth.
But as you know, when such growth happens, not everyone grows equally. Some people are going to make the best of this opportunity, while some others will just about hold on.
Which category you will belong to depends on the choices you are making now. Are you able to identify the big opportunities and position yourself to take advantage of them? Or are you going to be caught unawares?
Growth of formal sector
As the informal sector adopts digitisation and becomes organised, it means great news for HR professionals as well.
Why? Well, nearly 90 percent of SMEs in India earlier operated in the grey market, primarily to avoid taxes. As a result, they did not comply with any laws, never bothered about contracts, and stayed away from all kinds of compliance. So they did not need HR managers or services.
Now, however, with small and medium businesses being forced to pay taxes owing to the digitisation of businesses, they will also want to benefit from corporate regulations, obtain formal finance from banks and NBFCs, and begin using business contracts.
And suddenly, any company employing more than 10 people needs at least HR compliance, if nothing else. Which means the market for HR jobs and services is about to boom.
Emergence of startups
Startups in India, particularly tech startups, have emerged as the primary vehicles of wealth generation.
According to this Economic Times report from February 2023, a Nasscom survey has found that India added over 1,300 active tech startups in 2022, taking the total number of active tech startups in the country to between 25,000 and 27,000.
As a result, India is the third largest tech startup ecosystem in the world after the US and China. It also added 23 unicorns (startups with a valuation of over USD 1 billion) in 2022, the second highest in the world.
I will go into greater detail about what you can do for startups in my next email, but for now, just keep in mind that it is very easy to find five startups that will pay you INR 20,000 per month to help them with their HR and compliance needs.
The remote work revolution
Like the proverbial silver lining, the remote work culture created by the Covid pandemic has made international clients and employers accessible to Indian professionals. And HR professionals are certainly in a position to take advantage of this development.
You can work as a remote HR for an international organisation, earning 3-4x as much as your domestic job, while working from your home. This work also helps you build a track record if you wish to migrate abroad, to countries like Canada, Dubai, Singapore, the US or UK.
Why would international clients choose you? As an answer, take a look at what the average HR manager earns in the US.
Source: Workable
Even if we accept the lower figure of USD 81,000 it translates into INR 66.33 lakh per annum. By contrast, here’s the average salary of an HR manager in India.
Source: Glassdoor
Thousands of remote-first companies and startups are being born today. Remote work allows companies to benefit from a much larger global talent pool, and save costs by hiring talent from smaller, less developed economies.
For an Indian HR professional, working remotely for a US client can be far more rewarding because in the US, costs are at least 21x higher. You could do the work for a much lower fee than an HR manager in the US, and still earn many times more than what you would in India.
Excited?
Want to know more about each opportunity? Want to find out how you can build the HR career of your dreams?
Join our FREE, LIVE, online bootcamp on ‘How you can use labour law skills to go from HR manager to business leader’, April 15-17, 6.00-9.00 pm IST daily.
For more useful updates, please also join our Telegram channel. Just log in to Telegram and look for the Lawsikho Lawyers Community!