HR News: 15 Mar, 2021

1.

“HR will help business leverage market opportunities” – Saba Adil

Saba Adil, chief people officer, Raheja QBE, is confident that people and culture were, are and will be the strategic differentiators for organisations always, and HR will need to continue to build this social capital. What turned out to be a boon was the amazing speed and adaptability demonstrated in embracing change, and accomplishing what had looked almost impossible at the beginning. In a short period, organisations came out with their business continuity plans (BCP) and tried their best to run businesses even working from home, which actually came to be the accepted norm. This has given businesses more confidence that innovations can happen in a short period of time, and even amidst adverse conditions. They will now be willing to take more calculated risks in seeking market opportunities or challenging themselves to create a more superior customer experience. They will make new workforce models, apart from the physical and virtual workforce! Hence, they will be more amenable to adopt these over the long term. One thing to erase will be the health risk and nervousness that the pandemic brought about.

 

 

2.

By 2030, Indian retail will add 25 mn jobs

A survey by NASSCOM in collaboration with Technopak analysed India’s retail sector and found that the sector has grown in the last ten years and will further grow by $700 bn in market size in the next decade. The Indian retail sector has grown phenomenally in the last ten years, in terms of market size, employment and stock keeping units (SKU). A detailed study by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) in partnership with Technopak has revealed that the retail sector has been extraordinarily resilient through the pandemic. The sector willingly and openly adopted technology as part of its response strategies to the pandemic. It is all set to grow by $700 bn in the next decade, to become a $1.5 trillion sector in terms of market size, and will create 25 million jobs. Retail 4.0 is in sight, and will be led by a blend of virtual / online and physical retail formats, with technology playing a significant role. The survey reveals that the retail market has grown three times in size in the last 30 years and has contributed $800 bn to the country’s GDP in the financial year 2019-20. It accounts for eight per cent of the total workforce, employing over 35 million.

 

 

3.

Wooden Street to hire 250-300 people

The online furniture platform will invest at least four million dollars to expand warehousing capacity. Wooden Street, the online custom furniture platform, is gearing to expand its warehousing capacity across India. It is set to invest about four to five million dollars in the expansion by 2023, and will also hire about 250 to 300 people in its logistics and supply chain departments. The Jaipur-based company presently has 20 warehouses and distribution centres (covering a total of 10-lakh sq ft) in India. Quite recently, it launched its largest national warehouse in Jodhpur (which covers over 2.5 lakh sqft). Now, with its new expansion plans, it expects to increase its warehousing capacity by five times, covering an area of about 50 lakh square feet in total. Founded five years ago, Wooden Street offers furniture, decor and furnishings. Its warehouses are equipped with the latest stacking technology and use its inhouse warehouse management system, that helps keep track of huge volumes of logistics information and data.