Covid-proof FMCG companies are recruiting even more students than last year

Mumbai: The pandemic-led disruption hasn’t affected the campus hiring plans of top companies in FMCG, a sector that is the least affected by the crisis and is making a faster recovery than the rest of the economy. Consumer goods majors are recruiting as many students as last year or more from top colleges, and are adding new campuses to their hiring list, as they seek to get on board youngsters who bring with them fresh ideas and a grasp of new age technology.Procter & Gamble, Dabur India, ITC, Marico and Godrej are among companies that are strengthening their teams with recruits from leading B-schools (like IIMs, ISB and SPJIMR), engineering institutes (IITs, NITs, etc), as well as undergraduate colleges such as St Stephen’s, Lady Shri Ram and Shri Ram College of Commerce. Hiring is done virtually, which is helping the companies connect with a wider population of students.Dabur India will hire 10-20% more from top B-schools and engineering colleges this season compared with last. A few new campuses are also being added to the list. The company will visit some of the top graduate colleges as well — the likes of St Stephen’s and Lady Shri Ram College — over the next couple of months. “We plan to hire more fresh graduates from campuses this year,” Dabur India executive director-HR Biplab Baksi said. “It would be 10-20% higher than the previous year and in line with the business growth,” he added.79218330P&G is adding new campuses to its hiring list. “Campus hiring continues to be a core part of P&G India’s recruitment strategy,” said PM Srinivas, the head of HR for P&G Indian sub-continent. Hiring for Roles Across Functions“Our hiring plans remain consistent with last year…we are reaching out to more campuses this year,” he said.Hindustan Unilever is looking for top talent from campuses and like every year, will roll out a large number of offers, said a company spokesperson.Companies will hire for roles across functions including supply chain, marketing, sales, finance, HR, technology and manufacturing, people in the know said. Some like Dabur are increasing their hires in specialised digital roles like ecommerce, digital marketing and sales IT.“The focus in these areas is directly emanating from the enhanced business need around further building our digital competencies that we observe now in the post-Covid scenario,” said Baksi.Marico, ITC and Godrej said there would be no cut down on campus hiring this season.“A significant portion of our requirement will be met through this internship route, with those excelling in their projects being offered full-time opportunities,” said Amitav Mukherji, ITC’s head of corporate human resources. “Covid has had a differential impact across industries...However, for top talent, one would still witness a competitive market and we don't see that changing.”The campus hiring plans for Marico are similar to last year. “We also plan to recruit talent from top undergraduate institutes for our Graduate Leadership Program which was introduced last year,” said Amit Prakash, its chief human resources officer.Sumit Mitra, the head of group HR at Godrej Industries and Associate Companies, said: “We will continue to engage with the same broad set of business schools that we have built relationships with over the last few years. We hire for a mix of roles across our FMCG, real estate and agri businesses.”Nestle India has recently launched a programme to hire 1,000 interns, a significant chunk of which will come from undergraduate colleges, including from non-tier-1 cities. “Instead of doing the 10-15 odd internships that we do every year, we have increased it to 1,000 ‘nesternships’,” chairman Suresh Narayanan said.Companies said compensation was unlikely to be impacted as businesses would keep focussing on building their talent pipeline through campus recruits.“Our compensation and benefits policy and principles offered to new hires also remain unchanged, and are in line with competitive standards,” said Srinivas of P&G.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3prKCxc