With retail fervour on the rise, a new trend seems to have emerged in the country - that of "temping" or hiring temporary staff to tide over weekend or festive rush when footfalls rise by 30-40% across stores.
Firms hire to tide over weekend or festive season rush
KOLKATA: With retail fervour on the rise, a new trend seems to have emerged in the country - that of "temping" or hiring temporary staff to tide over weekend or festive rush when footfalls rise by 30-40% across stores.
The typical profile of a temp is that of a college undergrad or even housewife. Temping gives retailers greater flexibility - hiring at short notice and not having to carry a headcount on their payrolls.
Temps get all the social security benefits, but these are managed by the HR company. "Retailers may be enjoying a marginal difference in salary benefits to temps, but they gain a lot more by not devoting managerial time to non-core activities and deploying the same towards higher productivity," said E Balaji, chief operating officer, Ma Foi.
Temps, said Balaji, comprise three categories - frontline (counter jobs) employees, those on merchandising rolls (these need some previous retail experience) and those hired by speciality retailers.
At Ma Foi, 30,000 staff are on temporary rolls, 15% of them devoted to the retail sector alone with a good geographical distribution.
At Team Lease, said to be the country's largest temporary staffing company with 70,000 people on the rolls, there is demand for temps across retail segments.
"So far, in retail, the focus had been on back-end activities - laying out stores, inventory etc. Now, the thrust has shifted to manpower - especially frontline jobs, where temps fit in well," said Deep Mukherjee, vice-president, Team Lease. "Even older people are being hired, especially for high-cost lifestyle products, which need mature hands for demos," added Mukherjee.
Achal Khanna, country head, Kelly Services, which has been approached by Subiskha and Vishal Retail, among others, agreed: "Temping trend is picking up in India. Companies have contacted us for weekend staffers."
Among retailers, Vishal Retail is working on its temping plans, which may take another two-three months to implement. The Future Group, however, prefers not to use temps but stagger its existing work force according to its needs, said Sanjay Jog, head of HR at the Future Group.
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