Concept Note

Part -A

Maintenance of Workforce Market Intelligence

System (WFMIS) for IT–ITeS Sector Skills Council

NASSCOM

IT-ITES Sector Skills Council, NASSCOM 4E-Vandana Building (4th Floor)

11, Tolstoy Marg,New Delhi-110001.

T +91 11 41519230/60 F +91 11 41519240

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Table of Contents

1. About Workforce Market Intelligence System (WFMIS) ............................................................................. 4

1.1. Definition ............................................................................................................................................. 5

1.2. Objectives of an WFMIS ....................................................................................................................... 5

1.3. Components of a robust WFMIS .......................................................................................................... 7

2. Importance of WFMIS .................................................................................................................................. 8

2.1. WFMIS Stakeholders ............................................................................................................................ 9

2.2. Major Challenges ...............................................................................................................................10

2.3. Existing WFMIS ...................................................................................................................................10

2.4. Risk Management ..............................................................................................................................12

3. Current Scenario – IT-ITeS SSC NASSCOM WFMIS .....................................................................................14

3.1. Development Status ...........................................................................................................................14

3.2. Technical Specifications .....................................................................................................................14

4. Next Steps ..................................................................................................................................................15

5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................16

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1. About Workforce Market Intelligence System (WFMIS)

While India’s population growth has declined over the years, the work force is still projected to grow by close to 2 percent

or some 7 million or more a year over the next few years. Majority of the economy and the population are still rooted in

traditional activities and structures. The labour market in India is primarily spread across the agriculture sector, the urban

informal (unorganized) sector, and organized sector. The percentage of the total labour force in agriculture has witnessed

a decline over the last decade; however, it still employs the highest percentage of the total labour force. As the workers

migrate from the rural agricultural sector to the other sectors and technology comes into play, it is imperative to devise

a strategy to effectively absorb this additional workforce to sustain India’s current growth rate.

To bridge the widening gaps at the required and available skill levels, it is pertinent to assess and evaluate the existing

skill levels of the vast labour force in the country. This will facilitate the identification of key skill requirements across

sectors, geographies, and so on. To achieve this objective, it is critical to conceptualize and develop a framework that

encapsulates information about the different facets that define the labour /work force market. It is imperative to

integrate the information to provide a single window for all information on labour market to the different stakeholders.

Current Challenges in the labour market

The existing Indian labour market faces a number of challenges. IT-ITeS Workforce MIS is splintered and needs to be

reworked and rewired in all aspects. One of the challenges is the inappropriate job matching, which results in a number

of problems negatively impacting economic growth. The productivity of both the employee and the employer is

impacted because of the mismatch between business requirement and the prospective employee’s skills set. In many

instances the human resource is over qualified for the job at hand ultimately leading to job dissatisfaction and attrition.

Moreover the present manifestations of Indian WFMIS platforms are not interactive nor dynamically updatable, with

functionalities that do not cater to the gamut of market requirements. The only way to solve this problem is to provide

a platform with the right architectural design w.r.t. functionalities, content and analytics regarding the workforce and a

framework that is capable of identifying and matching the qualified human recourse to occupations. This would result in

higher employer and worker satisfaction and consequently in greater RoI.

There are other challenges that add to the weak labour market information system. Some of these challenges are:

Lack of information about job vacancies

Lack of information about skills required by employers

Employers demand w.r.t the required skills set and number of employees for specific occupation

Mismatches between labor supply and demand

Inadequate levels of labor market regulation

Labour intermediation services, such as a WFMIS, help overcome all these challenges.

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1.1. Definition

Workforce Market Intelligence System, commonly known as WFMIS, is a platform for manpower management that also

has the ability to collect, process, analyze, and disseminate workforce market information. WFMIS acts as a one-stop

data and information source on the workforce market. Wide variety of data reports can be generated from WFMIS

along with performing trend analysis and cross referencing.

1.2. Objectives of an WFMIS

WFMIS is ‘one single source’ of all information available on the workforce. Information therein must be relevant across

the industry, trade, geography, and timelines, must cover information on the necessary skills, education, and so on w.r.t.

occupations in the industry sector. WFMIS must support informed decision making, by providing research authenticated

reliable workforce market information to the stakeholders.

The WFMIS system is also updated on regular basis to ensure that data held is not obsolete and that such data meets the

needs of the WFMIS user.

The benefits are expected to include quick and easy access to a wide range of workforce market data and

information. Some of these data points include:

Educational and training offerings and sources

Occupation related training course duration and costs

Accredited institutions formal and non-formal regarding occupation related course offerings

Occupation related certifications across various IT-ITeS sub- selectors

Sources of funding for education

Population of the workforce present and future across IT-ITeS sub- sectors

Economic and job opportunities data and information national and global

The WFMIS acts as an active labour market policy instrument that collects, evaluates and provides labor market

information to both the labor supply side and the labor demand side.

The implementation of a WFMIS is aimed at the following strategic targets:

Nationwide transparency

Concerning supply and demand on the markets for workforce training

Fast access to job offers and job requests; acceleration of the matching process for both employers and job-

searchers

Use of all available possibilities to support workforce market functions uncomplicated and red-tape-free ways

of communicating offers and notices.

A WFMIS can also have the following objectives:

Develop action-oriented research and information tools

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Be a portal for cutting-edge and timely market data

Contribute to raising awareness of workforce development issues

Give high quality service to all customers, which may include but not limited to, job seekers, claimants, and

businesses, government and other relevant organizations.

Provide timely and accurate information on the workforce market

Serve businesses by recruiting and referring the best qualified applicants to jobs, and provide resources to

diverse job seekers in support of their employment needs.

Develop and distribute quality workforce and economic information to promote informed decision making.

WFMIS can be developed this sector-specific workforce market. This WFMIS can then feed into the master WFMIS at

the national level. The information from the sector specific WFMIS will be integrated into a single overarching national

WFMIS, which is considered as ‘Master WFMIS’.

Given below is a WFMIS framework recommended by the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC):

* WFMIS is not limited to the illustration given below.

Source: NSDC’s WFMIS Concept Note

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1.3. Components of a robust WFMIS

A robust WFMIS focuses on the following items:

Skills assessment

Skills development policy

Curriculum design

Competency standards

Skills delivery to the correct employers

Even though there can be multiple components of WFMIS, the key components that make up a robust WFMIS are:

Electronic Labour Exchange (ELE)

Skill Bank

Labour Market Intelligence Information

Each of these components are described in detail.

The Electronic Labour / Workforce Exchange (ELE): ELE is the core component of WFMIS. It facilitates online and offline

services that cater to job seekers and the employers. The services offered by ELE serve both to the employers and the

job seekers. When a job seeker needs to find a suitable job opening for his or her skill set, the job seeker simply checks

ELE in WFMIS and finds a suitable job opening. The job openings are mapped with the occupational standards that are

defined for a specific job role. The job openings are directly mapped to the defined job roles, which helps the job seekers

easily locate the

Services for Job-seekers: WFMIS can offer a number of services that can be classified as online services for

the job-seekers. Some of these services are:

Resume services;

Career counseling

Job search

Career counseling

Presentations

Institutional referrals

Services for Employers: WFMIS can offer a number of services that can be classified as online services for the

employers. Some of these services are:

Job posting

Database access

Candidate search

Requirement updates

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Skills Bank: The skill bank plays a vital role in WFMIS. The skill bank can provide the following information:

Worker information: The skill bank contains information of works and their current state. For example, a work

can be classified as qualified or non-qualified. The worker can then be labeled as employed or unemployed.

Employer access: The skill bank is available to the employers for worker profile evaluation. The employer can

choose to filter out the skill they are targeting.

Supply-Demand Reporting: The skill bank can be created in such a manner that it provides information about

the supply and demand. The skill bank can also cater to the following:

o Determining the supply

o Labour demand

o Reporting on shortage

o Lack of specific skill set

o Occupational projections.

Workforce Market Intelligence Information: WFMIS also plays a vital role in providing the information on the labour

market scenarios. It can be defined to provide the following information:

Local economy data: current and historical data

Population: Historical and current population data based on geographies

Labour market: Current and historical data on the labour market of specific sectors, such as IT-ITeS sector

Training opportunities: Available formal and non-formal training opportunities

Advertised jobs: Job posting through third-parties and companies

Research reports: Reports on labour market scenarios in state and country.

WFMIS will help both employers and employees provide details on specific demand, as well as where the access to the skilled workforce exists.

2. Importance of WFMIS

WFMIS after coming into existence helps to reduce the information deficit on the labour market. With the appropriate

information and reporting on the labour market, the complete scenario on the labour market is known within specific

sectors.

Source of Information: If people do not have information about job openings, they may stay unemployed.

Selection of correct profession: If people do not have information about professions, they may choose a

profession where there is no demand for workers. If more persons make the right job choice and companies get

the right workers, productivity increases.

Source for jobs: If more persons find jobs, their income increases and therefore, the general wellbeing of the

society increases.

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Without the existence of a WFMIS, the flow of information is not smooth and the links are missing between the

stakeholders like job searcher and the employers, which in this case is the labour market. Such scenario is shown in the

graphic below:

The figure shows that there is a strong disconnect between the workforce/labour market and the job searcher.

WFMIS becomes important when one wants to see an optimal workforce market that has an information flow between

different stake holders. An example below demonstrates the flow of information between different stakeholders, mainly

job searchers, labour market, and available trainings with the institutions. With the WFMIS implementation, the

information flow from the labour market is correctly channelized to the job searcher.

Workforce intermediation services like the WFMIS become the key driver for the flow of information in the labour

market. However, it is important to note that WFMIS itself cannot generate any form of employment. For example,

WFMIS does not provide any solution to address any type of economic problem. If there is a shortage of jobs due to

recession or market down fall, WFMIS will not be able to provide any kind of solutions to these problems. The solution

may depend upon wage rigidity or reforming the workforce market regulations.

2.1. WFMIS Stakeholders

WFMIS, as stated earlier, is a one single source of information that provides qualitative and quantitative information on

the labour market. The information is generated from different labour market producers and plugged-into WFMIS for

proper distribution. The information producers are the stakeholders that constantly provide information to keep WFMIS

updated and from generated outdated information and reports. The stakeholders of WFMIS can be either the source of

information or the recipient of information. For example, a job searcher is a recipient of information. An employer can

acts as both the source and recipient of information.

It is important to note that each stakeholder plays a vital role in the WFMIS existence. In brief, the main stakeholders of

the WFMIS are:

Job Searcher

Available Trainings

Labour Market

Job

Searcher

Available

Trainings

Labour

Market

Information Flow

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Government – State and central government. WFMIS will help the governments respond to quick changes in

the labour markets that are largely impacted by the economy of a country. With the recently updated data,

governments can utilize the data to set a plan of action.

Policy makers and planners – WFMIS will help policy makers and planners to define and modify policies based

on the labour market conditions.

Employers – WFMIS will help the employers to locate the correct talent against their requirements.

Job Seekers / Employed or unemployed – WFMIS will help the job seeker to locate the correct job profile and

understand the job requirements defined for a specific job role.

Educational and Training Institutions – WFMIS will help the training institutes to align their courses based on

the requirements set by the employers.

Industry Associations and NGO’s – WFMIS will make the industry associations and NGOs aware of the market

conditions so that they can provide necessary support to the remaining stakeholders.

Guidance and Career Counselors – WFMIS will create a link between the job seeker and the guidance and career

counselors to help the job seeker to locate an appropriate job. The guidance and career counselors can also help

the job seekers to understand specific job profiles and help them define a correct career path.

3rd Party Training Provider- WFMIS will create a link between the training necessary for multiple

occupations/jobs, the requisite certifications and employment oriented assessments and the jobs themselves.

2.2. Major Challenges

WFMIS with all the benefit offerings brings a few key challenges. These challenges mainly arise due to the large

population, large demographic area, and different parties being involved in generating labour market information.

In India, there are a number of organizations that are part of the labour market. Most of these organizations work in

isolation and therefore, it is a major challenge to collate the information in one place. It is essential for labour market

information to be collected in a coordinated manner so that the market information is timely and accurate.

At present, the workforce market information is decentralized with different parties being involved. With the centralized

workforce market information collection, the accurate results and reports can be generated through WFMIS.

Another key challenge is timely availability of the labour market information reports. If the reports are published with

uniformity and at time, then WFMIS can be used to publish these reports.

Information collection is mainly from the organised sector, which comprises of a total of 6% of the workforce. There is

no accurate data available from the unorganized sector.

2.3. Existing WFMIS

A number of countries have already setup WFMIS. Most countries have chosen to setup a single WFMIS whereas large

countries like United States of America has multiple state-wide WFMIS. The table below lists the countries and broad-

level features of WFMIS they own.

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Some of the existing WFMIS are:

S. No. Website URL Country Council / Owner

1. https://lmis.camc.ca/lmis/index.jsp

Canada

Canadian Aviation Maintenance Council

2. http://www.labourmarketinformation.ca

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca

Service Canada and Human Resources and

Skills Development Center Canada (HRSDC),

Government of Canada

3. http://www.nomisweb.co.uk/ United Kingdom Office of National Statistics

4. http://www.deepwr.gov.au/lmip Australia Department of Education, Employment,

and Workforce Relations

5. www.nyc.gov/wib United States – New

York

New York City Labor Market

Information Service

6. http://www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/C

ontent.asp?pageid=1009

United States –

California

Employment Development Department

7. http://www.labourmarketservices.gov.bc.

ca/labour_market_information.html

British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education and Labour

Market Development (ALMD)

8. http://www.mlss.gov.zm/index.html Zambia Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS)

9. http://www.lmis.gov.jm/home.aspx Jamaica Ministry of Labour and Social Security

10. http://ec.europa.eu/eures/main.jsp?acro=lm

i&lang=en&parentId=0&countryId=AT

Europe European Commission

11. http://www.lmisghana.org.gh/index.php?opt

ion=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=

1

Ghana

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Source: WFMIS Concept Paper by NSDC

2.4. Risk Management

Because there are a number of stakeholders involved and there are external factors that influence WFMIS, there are high

chances that the WFMIS project fails to meet its defined objective. While designing the WFMIS, a few key risks should be

envisaged and accordingly, risk plan must be prepared.

Some of the risks are:

Each individual SSC will develop their own WFMIS, which will integrate to the master WFMIS operating at the

national level. The risk here is that is the SSC-level WFMIS designs are not consistent or the technology used by

each SSC is not well integrated, then there will be a possibility that the each SSC-specific WFMIS will work in

isolation and not integrate with the master WFMIS.

Another key risk is that the stakeholders do not agree to follow the WFMIS initiative. In this case, the information

may not get populated on time or may not get populated at all.

An incorrect architecture of WFMIS does not clearly state the roles and responsibilities of individual

stakeholders.

A security risk may be imposed if the WFMIS architecture does not cater to proper authentication and

registration process. More security risks can be imposed if there are not access policies defined for WFMIS.

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3. Current Scenario – IT-ITeS SSC NASSCOM WFMIS

3.1. Development Status

The development of WFMIS has been completed is hosted on Amazon EC2 cloud. WFMIS is live to public at the URL:

www.sscnasscom.com and www.sscnasscom.org.

Architecture of WFMIS on Amazon Web Services:-

Cloud Architecture for WFMIS

3.2. Technical Specifications

The following are the technical specifications for WFMIS:-

Technology WFMIS Component

Operating System Ubuntu Linux

WSGI HTTP Server Gunicorn

Cloud Services Nginx

Database Server MySQL 5.0.15 or higher

Programming Language Python

Frameworks Django

Content Management System Divio Django CMS

Search Engines Elastic search

Dashboarding / Reporting D3.js, Angular

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The content on WFMIS can be edited and updated through the CMS admin panel. SSC NASSCOM team regularly

updates the content depending on the requirements.

The challenge ahead is to continuously update, maintain and optimize WFMIS to ensure a learning experience for the

site visitors.

To optimizing the website we need to trace any bug or any flaw in the design or logic and to resolving it will be

the major priority.

To optimize the performance of the website to ensure a better result at times of heavy traffic.

To implement version control of code using a Git-Hub repository to reduce the risk of making changes to the

website without any restore point.

Taking feedbacks from the stakeholders and evaluating them to find ways for improvement.

Understanding the source code and coding structure and documenting it properly for future.

4. Next Steps

IT-ITeS SSC NASSCOM has already set up an WFMIS. To move ahead, a number of tasks need to be performed:

Continuous up-gradation and maintenance of WFMIS to ensure there is up-to-date information available

Update with the regular news and events

Integrate with the social networking sites

Dynamically fetch information from the job portals and various companies’ Websites

Dynamically fetch information on industry statistics for analytical evaluation – source of information can be

MHRD, MoLE, UGC etc.

Link to NSDC’s main WFMIS portal, which eventually links up all WFMIS as well.

Version Control

Testing & Debugging

Performanace Optimization

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Provide updated information across geographies, sectors, states, training organizations, and so on.

5. Conclusion

To conclude, WFMIS:

Acts as a key labor market policy instrument.

Bridge the gap between the workforce demand and supply. The WFMIS cannot be used to generate jobs. It only

helps in facilitating the flow of workforce/labour market information.

Has a structure that is largely dependent on a country’s need and labour market requirements.

Has many stakeholders to contribute.

Needs to be dynamically updated with the new labour market information.