Rishi Khiani

Founder, Kaam.com

The Indian hotel market including domestic, inbound and outbound was estimated at US$ 32 billion in FY20 and is expected to reach US$ 52 billion by FY27. International hotel chains are increasing their presence in the country, and it accounts for around 47% share in the tourism and hospitality sector of India by 2020 and 50% by 2022. As per the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), in FY21, the Indian hotel industry has taken a hit of >Rs. 1.30 lakh crore (US$ 17.81 billion) in revenue due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hospitality industry employs about 8% of India’s total workforce. 80% of India’s hospitality workforce is migratory and nationwide job discovery has always been a challenge for job seekers. The age-old technique of word-of-mouth, recruitment agencies, references, and networks for staffing solutions has proven to be insufficient in recent times. This also restricted upskilling and stunted future growth opportunities. The hospitality industry is facing an over 60% demand-supply gap in the workforce. The high demand in the unorganised sector is often met by untrained but experienced staff. Training and skilling employees on the job are inevitable but time-consuming with more than 21% of jobs posted for entry-level positions.

The introduction of modern technology has given rise to the cloud kitchen culture in the hospitality industry. The number of cloud kitchens in India has shot up since the pandemic. A Redseer report estimated the size of the market would touch $3 billion by 2024, from just $400 million in 2019. The growing internet penetration and rise of food delivery companies have led to a surge in demand for cloud kitchens.

Modern technologies like Web3 technology, blockchain, machine learning, AI, and multimedia will enable employers from the hospitality industry to recruit efficiently from a larger yet fragmented talent pool. The technology goes beyond just providing a job with a community approach to upskilling and future growth opportunities. The technology with its new-age tools and industry-driven skilling can create a fast-track channel for recruiting and staffing applicants.

Kaam.com is India’s leading tech-enabled staffing and employment platform for the hospitality sector that has been co-built with The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI). The platform provides a suite of value-added financial services like salary advances, insurance, and benefits from ecosystem enablers like travel, boarding and commerce.

Kaam.com leverages multimedia to create a modern interactive profile that replaces the dated CV. The hybrid online-offline approach to sourcing talent addresses the existing inefficiencies within the recruitment process. The main goal of Kaam is to become larger than a job portal by using new-age technology and understanding the job applicant’s

skills. The recruitment further benefits the employees with its extensive packages and offers with the aim to reach 5 to 7 million employees in the upcoming months.