SUMMARY OF ORION CASE

Orion was a leading provider of business intelligence (BI) software. Its Indian office opened
in 1995, and until 2000, the company was led by an expat tasked with establishing operations
in India. When Subrata Das became the organization's CEO in 2001, it gained a fresh chance
at life. Every few days, a congratulatory letter from the sales team for the 'biggest purchase
for Orion India' appeared on the company notice board. In Orion, annual planning for the
following year was completed in December, and all budgets were authorized by the regional
headquarters. Ambitious growth goals need an increase in sales, pre-sales, implementation
consultants, and support personnel. The sales team was organised by industry verticals such
as Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), Retail, and Manufacturing, and team
members were often sector experts with strong IT knowledge. They were in charge of front-
end sales and relationship management. Orion's pre-sales experts were software technical
gurus who specialised in a specific set of industries. After the programme was sold, the
implementation consultants worked with the client to ensure that it was integrated into the
customer's system to the client's satisfaction. The rationale for not hiring these employees
was to avoid the stress of having to keep them working on projects at all. The sales team was
divided into industry verticals like Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), Retail,
and Manufacturing, and team members were frequently industry specialists with extensive IT
experience. Front-end sales and relationship management were their responsibilities. Pre-
sales professionals at Orion were software technical gurus who specialised in a certain
industry. Following the sale of the programme, the implementation consultants worked with
the client to ensure that it was properly integrated into the customer's system. It was decided
not to hire these individuals to prevent the stress of having to keep them working on projects
at all. Although Orion is an Indian software company, it is often confused with a travel
services company of the same name. Even though the company had a global brand, several
people outside of the software industry mistook it for a vacation agency. Working with a
services provider that deployed all products was favoured by software professionals (different
companies) They didn't want to focus their knowledge solely on one product. For eight
months, the company had been hunting for a supply chain consultant but couldn't afford to
pay hefty raises. They decided to make it simple for them to recruit people from outside of
India. In India, one aspect of the recruitment process was proving to be a problem for HR.
Before making an offer to any candidate, the HR team has to get the terms of the offer
approved by Singapore (complete with comparative pay internally and externally
benchmarked). Frequently, candidates would accept the offer and request a one-month or
two-month joining period before expressing their incapacity to join them. In such
circumstances, HR had to start from scratch, which put the organisation back a long way. She
looked at her list of things to do while she waited for a solution and realised it was time to
make a change.
Q.2 What could Sukanya do to expand the pool of candidates for ‘Orion’?
- Finding qualifies candidates can be a challenge. Sukanya can use the following ideas to help
approach the hiring process from the new direction, realize new opportunities to widen the
candidate pool, and ultimately streamlining the hiring process.
1. Recruitment Sources: There are a dozen ways to source for candidates, however, all are
not appropriate for all kinds of positions. Based on the position requirement, the state of the
market environment, and other contingent factors the organization needs to identify the most
appropriate sources of recruitment. While traditional sources such as newspapers
advertisements, placement consultants continued to be used, many new forms of sourcing are
also finding their way into the market. The HR team of Orion can try recruiting through
social media or recruiting website to attract candidates. They can seek out passive candidates
on social media by posting engaging postings on their social profiles. The choice of the
source will be the key to having a cost effective recruitment.
2. Job Analysis: The HR team can process a couple of documents which aid in enhancing the
quality of the recruitment. These documents are job description and job specification. They
can process a well-articulated document that describes the duties and responsibilities of a job
and a job specification document that specifies the minimum acceptable qualities required for
a person to complete the job satisfactorily. A job description can come in handy to explain to
the candidate what the job is like and the job specification document can aid the recruiter in
doing an effective search or sourcing.
3. Highlight the company culture: Employees/Job seekers are looking for much more than
just competitive compensation and benefits packages. They want to be a part of a company
that resonates with them on a personal level. Company cultures play a vital role in hiring
process. The HR team of the Orion can think of the aspects of their company culture, their
workplace and the team that makes their brand unique and then leverage these as selling
points when they post job listings and interview potential candidates.
4. Employee Referral Programme: The HR team can start an employee referral
programme. Employee referrals have been a very popular source of recruitment. The
advantage lies in the fact that instead of one recruiter trying to source for a position, all the
employees become recruiters. This is done by actively soliciting applications from their
friends and ex-colleagues. The company should offer rewards or cash incentives for
successful referrals. The HR team can design a process that is easy for employees to use and
that offers the right mix of rewards to encourage employee participation.
5. Partnering with a recruiting firm: The easy way to instantly and dramatically expand
and diversify the candidate pool is by partnering with a respected, trusted recruiting firm. The
HR team of Orion can partner with the right recruiting firm to accelerate the company’s
hiring timeline, gives access to the top passive candidates and ensures an efficient and
effective interview process, resulting in successful hires.
6. Relaxing minimum qualifications: When there is a shortage of talent, one method to
widen the catchment pool of people is to lower the requirement of minimum qualifications. A
lowering of the minimum qualification also does not mean that the quality of hire comes
down. The HR team of Orion can lower the requirement of the minimum qualification and
then train the candidates for the quality of the hiring to be maintained.
7. Making contact quickly: Once a good candidate is identified, speed is essential. With so
many companies competing for candidates, the first company to make contact often gains a
huge advantage. Once the candidate is shortlisted the company should put desirable applicant
in touch with a live person as soon as possible so they won’t lose them.