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30% more demand for flexi-staff [India Business] [Times of India](Times of India Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) CHENNAI: After a lull over the last few years, flexi-staff (on contract) hiring in the retail sector ahead of the festive season is seeing a rise again this year, with offline retailers going all out to compete with ecommerce companies. Staffing companies say they see a 30% jump in requests for placing flexi/contract staff at retail outlets for the festive season spanning 6 months from September to February. Over the last few years, the trend of hiring people only for a few months during the festival season was on a decline since many companies were looking to cut costs. Now, with the growth in online retailing, hiring by ecommerce companies for logistics is seeing a sharp rise since demand is high during festival season. Offline retailers too are working on things like in-store promotions to compete with ecommerce players, and are hiring more people to man these promotional activities. "The demand from our customers for placing staff at their outlets is up almost 30% this year. The spending capacity of people is high and we are seeing it live this year. While ecommerce companies need a lot of people for the logistics and delivery side, offline retailers need a lot of store staff at counters since they are also throwing offers to compete with online retailers, and need people at the counters" Francis Padamadan, Director - Operations, Kelly Services India said. Take Chennai-based multi-brand retailer Viveks. "Though we see maximum customer footfalls during the new year when we offer discounts, we are hiring people now to manage marketing and branding at a time when a lot of consumer durable sales happen," B A Srinivasa, director of the company said. Garments, consumer durables and electronics are products that fly off shelves the fastest during the festival season in India, and consumer durables retailers are the ones hiring maximum temp staff this year due to their focus on small towns, staffing companies say. "Consumer durables is growing rapidly. With the advent of the festive season, TeamLease alone can hire about 5,000 people over the next three months. Foray into the small cities is a focus for all consumer durables and dealerships with store space even as small as 10X10 is encouraged, and they take in temp staff to man the stores" Rituparna Chakraborty, co founder and senior vice president of TeamLease Services said. (c) 2014 Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited |