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Retailers plan front-end hiring soon

Views 0 Views    Comments 0 Comments    Share Share    Posted 24-08-2009  
BANGALORE: Front-end hirings in retail stores, which were shelved as retailers sought to ride out the slowdown, have resumed. The country’s biggest retailer Future group plans to hire around 4,000 people for front-end jobs as they get set to roll out more stores over the next few months. “There are signs of a revival in the market and we need to prepare ourselves ,” CK Kurien, general manager (marketing) at Future Group told ET.

Part of the optimism stems from expectations from the upcoming festive season. Companies in the banking and telecom space are also seeking out for manpower from training companies.

“The demand is up by around 20%,” said E Balaji, chief executive officer of Ma Foi, an international HR service provider. Of any retail store, around 80% of the team consists of front-end employees and the balance 20% form the managerial team.

Companies which train staff, like NIS Sparta and Manipal Education, too are reporting a renewed demand for more manpower from their clients—in some cases as much as 20% more than the demand in the last quarter.

Kurien said that some of the manpower that Future group has inducted are currently being trained in the learning centre of the company and will be absorbed next year as the company expands into smaller towns and cities. The Kishore Biyani-owned group operates Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Staples and the Central stores.

“I expect a 14-20 % rise depending on how the rural market unfolds,” said Balaji. He said that conditions are not markedly better, but the festive season has added hope to various sectors. Both front-end, and key managerial positions are being filled in retail, BFSI, telecom and FMCG, and signs of recovery are beginning to show.

Taken together, “many thousands will be hired as the year progresses,” he said. He however cautions against the impact of the drought. “The rural market, hitherto mostly insulated from the slowdown, will be hit, and with that expansions in those areas will be put on hold.” And that would mean less job creation and a bleaker scenario. But for now, things are indeed sunny.

“While pre-slowdown levels are still some way off, recovery is well underway,” said Manoj Chawla, Senior VP, NIS Sparta, the manpower training company . NIS client list includes HLL, Britannia, Hero Honda and ITC among others, and it is a part of ADAG. According to him, hiring was hit 33% last year, but expects it go to back to its pre-slowdown levels within six months.

“We currently are training around 7,000 people for this year, for various sectors,” he said, adding that this was mostly in the banking, retail and telecom sectors. Since manpower companies train people on specific demand by their clients, all of the trainees are assured of a job. But that was delayed by a few months or so as players went slow on hiring plans owing to weak consumer demand. BFSI is showing more appetite for front-end people, says Anand Sudarshan, CEO, Manipal Education, which has clients like ICICI Bank and HDFC.

“Earlier this year, they were not sure how many they will hire. Confirmations were not forthcoming. Now there are no caveats—they are confirming that they need the people we are training,” he said. He says that even education service providers are being bullish on the sector. Sanjay Shivnani, CEO, Vocational Education & Training, Career Launcher, which has clients like Nokia, Godrej & Boyce, HCL and Samsung, said that while there was a dip in the retail frontend hirings, the graph is climbing up now, along with the financial services and FMCG sectors.

Source:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Jobs/Retailers-plan-fr
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