
E-commerce on a blue-collar hiring boom as festivals draw near

Summary
Companies that have benefited from the pandemic-era consumer habits are recruiting heavilyCompanies such as Amazon India, Flipkart and Zomato are busy recruiting blue-collar workers ahead of the festive season, luring them with joining and performance-linked bonuses, as pandemic-era curbs have fuelled strong growth in online ordering.
E-commerce companies and logistics operators are expecting a bumper season, with sales estimated to rise as much as 15% more than the pre-pandemic festive season in 2019, said Nilabh Kapoor, business head, OLX People, a recruitment service provider.
“With businesses recovering in most parts, hiring of temporary workers has seen 3-4X growth in the recent past and is expected to double during the festive season to keep up with rising demand across platforms," Kapoor said.
Although shoppers are slowly returning to malls after the lockdown restrictions were eased following the second wave, e-commerce companies are betting that consumers will keep adding products and services to their digital carts. Overall consumption demand has trailed behind the uptick in e-commerce sales, and that trend is unlikely to change this year.
Companies that have benefited from the pandemic-era consumer habits are recruiting heavily. According to industry estimates, 300,000 to 500,000 blue-collar workers will be hired in 2021. As many as 40 million new customers are expected to shop on e-commerce platforms this year, taking the overall user base to 190 million users, according to staffing firm TeamLease Services. The growth in users will continue to boost hiring in the remaining half of the year, especially the coming festive season, industry executives said.
Unlike in the first wave of the pandemic, companies and workers were better prepared during the second wave, with lower labour migration and timely lifting of lockdowns.
“The second covid wave has not impacted the availability of migrant workers as much as last year. Many migrant workers returned once the lockdowns were lifted in their native districts, helping companies scale up faster this time around," said Ajoy Thomas, business head (retail, e-commerce, logistics and transportation) at TeamLease Services.
Suchita Dutta, executive director of the Indian Staffing Federation, said there is a shortage of manpower as migrant workers are still hesitant to return because of the fear of a potential third wave.
“However, the return is not the only reason for the demand-supply gap. The lack of skilled resources to meet the demands also contributes to the shortage," Dutta said. With business expansion plans taking shape and government projects on the upswing, the labour market is witnessing very high demand.
Salaries of workers have, however, not increased in line with the demand surge. In some cases, salaries have been restructured to offer a higher performance-based payout as compared to pre-covid times, reducing the take-home pay, said Kapoor of OLX People.
Some companies are, however, offering benefits such as joining bonuses, retention bonuses and attendance bonuses to recruit workers. Companies in the e-commerce and logistics industry are reducing their fixed costs by offering bigger performance-linked incentives to attract workers, said Thomas of TeamLease Services.
“Companies have also started investing in people capital by upskilling their employees and enabling them with new skill sets. Rise in demand, expansion across businesses and other variables such as engine fuel price hike, etc., is expected to increase blue-collar workers’ salaries. With digitization, it has also become important to help this segment with more and more learning opportunities so that this new normal doesn’t turn out to be a bane for them," Kapoor said.