Talent war: Focus extends to new cities

Reverse exodus is as defining of these times as masking and social-distancing. With permanent work-from-home fitting in with various positions, companies are looking for talent in tier-2 cities, and the offer letters are gold-rimmed with the irresistible perk of letting the new recruits operate from those cities. “The e-Commerce volume growth in tier-2 cities outpacing tier-1 cities in 2020, emergence of start-up hubs across tier-2 cities, access to better healthcare, less pollution, and overall well-being, and an ever-increasing GCoE/Service Provider footprint in these cities have further cemented the rising prominence and unmistakable potential that tier-2 cities hold,” states a release on the study’s findings. Following the assessment, 15 companies stood out for a variety of parameters: “City Attractiveness, Ease of Operations, Ease of Doing Business, Connectivity, Talent Availability, Migratable Talent, Cost Index, Climate, and Safety, to name a few.” According to the study, the top 15 cities are: Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Visakhapatnam, Indore, Kochi, Bhubaneswar, Nagpur, Vadodara, Surat, Thiruvananthapuram, Mysuru, Madurai, and Goa. The study further notes that “the southern cities of Coimbatore, Kochi, Madurai, and Thiruvananthapuram have improved their ‘City Attractiveness’ over the last year, significantly moving up in the rankings.” Another observation: “Coimbatore has the highest number of engineering colleges, which translates to a consistent supply of fresh STEM talent, and migratable talent due to emerging IT and ER&D hubs being set up there.