India Inc facing middle manager hiring challenge: Survey

New Delhi: Middle managers are the toughest hires for Indian companies with as many as 80 percent of organisations finding such recruitments the most challenging task, as per a new study.

Nearly 80 percent of the 600 employers, surveyed across India by TimesJobs.Com, said that middle managers continue to be the critical drivers of their business growth.

"This critically makes filling positions in this cadre the most challenging in the organisation. Further,internal skill gaps compel 64 percent of employers to look for external hires," the study found.

Around 48 percent of organisations said the most challenging task is to get the right managerial and leadership skills in hiring of middle managers. Another 26 percent said that getting relevant domain skills is the most difficult aspect of filling these positions.

"Hiring middle managers is difficult since employers need a candidate with job-specific skills, domain expertise, experience, leadership quality and adaptability to get along with professionals at the two ends of the organisational hierarchy," TimesJobs.Com COO Vivek Madhukar said.

A significant majority of survey respondents said that mid-manager performance needs improvement. Around 84 percent of organisations felt that the overall quality of their middle management is below average, while 53 percent found the leadership skills of their middle manager to be poor.

To meet these skill and performance gaps at middle level, over 55 percent organisations are actively searching externally to hire for mid-level positions, as per the survey.

"Since the talent pool is limited and demand is high, it is wiser to focus on training, grooming and developing leaders and managers from within the organisation," Madhukar said.

Around 40 percent organisations said that unless they empower their middle managers, they would not be able to hold on to them for long.

Another 40 percent said they are focusing on job rotations, as it helps in offering middle managers an opportunity to expand their knowledge and understanding to take up bigger roles.

About 20 percent of companies are offering training, re-skilling and learning opportunities to middle managers to help them acquire new skills, the study added.