Retail talent crisis: Head-hunters combing all sectors

The retail industry is giving out impossible mandates, while head-hunters are in a scramble, scouting every possible related sector to source talent, says this news item in the Business Line.

- Dilip

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Source: BL, Feb 22, 2006

Retail talent crisis: Head-hunters combing all sectors

Anjali Prayag

Bangalore , Feb. 21

THE Indian employment market has never witnessed such intense combing operations before. The retail industry is giving out impossible mandates, while head-hunters are in a scramble, scouting every possible related sector to source talent:

At the entry level, it's the BPO, travel, hospitality, telecom and BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) sectors that are being targeted while at the senior level, IT, FMCG, white goods and telecom are getting hit.

In the next two years, the country is expected to have 80 million sq ft of retail space, throwing up at least three lakh jobs in the sector. While 75 per cent of this would be frontline staff, the rest would be supervisors and specialised managers.

Therefore, more and more `established economy candidates' are moving, realising the advantage of the new industry, in terms of salary and career growth, according to Mr Perry Madan, Associate Partner-ITeS, BFSI and Retail, Elixir Web Solutions, a Delhi-based recruitment firm.

Says Mr Sunit Mehra, Country Manager, specialising in CEO and board searches, "People from these sectors have an elaborate distribution set-up which is invaluable for retail as well."

The talent crisis is at all levels. Ms Mukul Rastogi, Divisional Manager, HR, ITC Ltd, Lifestyle Retailing Business Division, says, "Retail companies are grappling with quality and quantity at all levels." Right from entry level to sales jobs and specialised managerial jobs, there is a shortfall in all categories and this will intensify, leading to intense inter-sectoral movements in the job market. "We have seen a reverse flow taking place from BPOs," she says.

Mr K. Sudarshan, Managing Partner of EMA Partners International, an executive search firm, points out that the industry is now in the initial phase when cross-industry movement is necessary. "In the next phase, they will be hiring from each other which is when salaries will also stabilise." In any case, companies such as HLL, Asian Paints and Cadbury have a bottoms-up strategy and will not mind losing people as they have enough talent in the pipeline, he says.