Udhyoga Nimitham: How this Karnataka HR guru is helping India's young get employed via WhatsApp

Doesn't it seem off to you that though lakhs of youngsters are equipped with graduation and postgraduation degrees every year, there is still a percentage of unemployment existing in the country? In 2019, the unemployment rate in India was 5.27 per cent but just last year, this jumped to 7.11 per cent. While there are several reasons for the increasing rate of unemployment in India, what are we actually doing about it? Isn't it an alarming number? These were the questions that hit Achuthananda S who has been working as a Human Resource professional for the last two decades.

Unlike many of us, Achuthananda did more than just think about it. He started a small group on WhatsApp called Udhyoga Nimitham to connect job aspirants in Karnataka with HR professionals from different companies. He says, "Right from my college days, I wanted to contribute to society and find solutions to some of the major problems. Being an HR professional, I've observed that youngsters who hold a degree also find it difficult to get a job." Initially, Achuthananda formed the group on WhatsApp with only 50 members that had more job seekers than HRs. "I was pleasantly surprised to hear that one person got a job within the first ten days of forming the group and he even personally thanked me for it. I was happy and satisfied that the group I created was making some difference. But I still had to deal with a bigger challenge — getting more HR professionals on this group. Most of them asked me how it was going to benefit them. I had to remind them that they need not wait or hunt for people to fill vacancies. I felt that this platform could be one of the easiest means to interview candidates. Slowly, the number of members on the group increased to 250 and had a healthy balance of both sides," explains Achuthananda.

Achuthananda during one of his sessions

However, realising that WhatsApp doesn't allow more than 250 members in one group, he ended up creating three to four other groups that eventually consumed a lot of his time. "That's when a friend suggested moving to Telegram. A separate group was formed for men and women on Telegram. I retained the HR professionals in a group on WhatsApp. Whatever job requirements were posted on WhatsApp were shared with the groups on Telegram. Candidates who were interested would connect with the respective companies and HR professionals," he explains. And get this, Achuthananda does all this for free. He says, "Parents would have already spent a lot of money on college fees, books and so on. Why do these candidates need to spend more money to get a job?" He adds that there is a strict 'no bribery' policy that he follows. 

Currently, there are 21,000 job aspirants on Telegram and a total of 700 HR professionals on WhatsApp. "Once word spread about these groups, I started getting calls from people of other states to include them too. So I formed another pan-India group that now has 1,500 candidates who are located across the country. Whenever there are job requirements outside Karnataka, I share them with this group." Now, Achuthananda has his own website and more than 2,500 people have got jobs through this initiative. He also mentors college freshers about key skills that make one employable. "Before the pandemic started, I would conduct these free sessions for college students. I would explain the skill sets that one needs to develop. However, since the pandemic, I've had to put that on hold but the job hiring process is still going on," he concludes.

For more information, you can visit: udhyoganimitham.com