Festive season boosts manpower demand in India

Festive season hiring is in full swing, and companies have started to build their manpower capacity to ensure high festive sales. Businesses have a fantastic opportunity to increase the visibility and accessibility of their items in the marketplace during the festive season.

A rise in consumer purchasing power during the festive period contributes to high sales across all consumer product categories. With a rebound in urban demand and discretionary spending, as well as price increases to offset the effects of rising raw material prices, the FMCG sector’s revenue growth is anticipated to double in the upcoming fiscal year.

To support the increase in sales, productive manpower requirement rises. With advanced recruitment technologies, organisations can increase the efficiency of the hiring process to have productive manpower deployed in response to today’s competitive market demands.

The demand for skilled workers in India has been growing, and with the current pandemic, acquiring new skills is particularly important. For candidates today, being able to adapt to changes in technology is key in every industry, as digital transformation is becoming more and more common.

Rise in consumer sentiments with the easing of pandemic wounds, especially during the festive season, there is an increased demand for in-store promoters, counter staff, merchandisers, customer support, onboarding partners, auditing, packing, customer service, loader-unloader and sales roles.

The development story of hiring in the festive season is expected to be scripted as:

Additional Job Creation during Festive Season

Hiring momentum is back, reversing the trend of the past two years, which had seen reverse migration, uncertainty about revival, and shutdowns. The Indian market seems to have come back stronger, with most sectors indicating an increase in hiring trends. There is an expectation of at least 5 lakh additional jobs to be created owing to the festive season, which is 20-25% higher than the demand in 2021.

Mobility of the workforce has been a challenge, but the post-pandemic workforce has been particular about their hygiene and is looking for better pay opportunities. The average pay scale for seasonal employees is projected to be 8-10% higher in 2022 than last year. Pent up salary hike pending now paves the way for to a 25% hike in order to retain B2C salespeople.

There has been a rise in demand in metro cities where Bengaluru, Delhi, and Chennai have showcased higher growth due to massive internet adoption, infrastructure development, and higher digital adoption by small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Talent Demand Soars High in FMCG & Consumer Durables Sector

The Indian Consumer Durables/Electronics industry is shaping up to hire temp staff on a short-term basis for the festive season, predominantly in the role of in-store promoters. The hiring is going to be to the tune of adding 20% more workforce to their existing base for a period of 45-60 days on average. The demand for Feet-on-Street salespeople (FOS) has been back with a bang ever since the summer. Hiring by consumer-facing sectors across functions like deliveries and logistics is expected to increase by 25-30%.

In order to maintain this momentum, every business is prioritising growth and needs to increase its operational efficiency. Achieving that is only possible when the people, processes, and tools are in sync.