NEW DELHI: At a time when its peers are going slow in hiring – some are even handing out pink slips to employees – e-commerce major Flipkart is reportedly looking to recruit 20-30 per cent more people in 2017 compared to last year.
The Bengaluru-based firm, which is locked in an intense battle with the US-based Amazon for leadership in the Indian market, said it would hire most laterals this year, according to a PTI report.
“Our 2017 hiring plans are calibrated to the growth momentum we are seeing and we expect it to be 20-30 per cent higher than last year, spread out as per the requirements across verticals,” the news agency quoted Flipkart COO Nitin Seth as saying.
Seth was quoted as saying that a majority of this would likely come in through the lateral route. “We believe this offers us the right mix of talent needed to power the next phase of growth at Flipkart.”
Seth, however, did not divulge more details as to how many people the company would hire this year, nor did he reveal how many people were recruited by the company last year.
According to some estimates, Flipkart hired about 1,500 people last year. This is apart from the 10,000-odd temporary staffers the company hired, mostly in logistics, ahead of festive sales to ensure that it could meet the huge jump in demand.
If Flipkart indeed increases hiring, it would be against industry trends as many of the technology-led businesses have been paring down their workforce or even shut down operations due to difficulty in raising fresh funds.
Last month, SoftBank-backed Snapdeal reportedly laid off around 600 people as part of the company’s efforts to become profitable in two years. Similarly, Chennai-based online hotel room aggregator Stayzilla decided to wrap up operations because of intense competition in the market.