Hiring and Firing @ Indian E-Commerce
Indian e-commerce has boomed in
last three years. The growth story of the e-commerce companies have been largely
a fairy tale. However, behind the glamor, lies some horror stories which are
often pushed under the carpet. Yet, these stories often find their way out-
thanks to active media and social media. And one big story every company try to
hide is their lay-offs.
Hiring for young e-commerce
company is a task much more than it meets the eye. Often, it is mistaken as a
job of quick ramp up of numbers and getting the resource in but it leads to
bigger problem later on. We have seen lot of examples in last half a decade
where the individual companies, who have hired the cream of the talent from
premier schools and otherwise, had to ‘right size’ their organization as per
business growth, forecast and cost optimization measures- often given a name of
strategic initiative. The reasons for this accelerated hiring and firing can be
many. I am just trying to highlight a few as per my understanding
Reason 1: Not knowing what they
want
The young start-ups are largely
started by young people who have enthusiasm and vision but somewhere lack
experience. Hence, sometimes they do not know what kind of person will suit
them best. They often land up a specialist as they see the person bringing in a
deeper knowledge even at a place where they need a generalist. Hence, either
one more position needs to be created or the right person needs to replace the
old one. Lack of quality interviewers
also contribute to the problem.
Reason 2: Five blind men and
elephant
Some profiles are much talked
about in an e-commerce parlance. Online-marketing, visualizer, content writer
and product management are just name a few. However, if you ask 3-4 people to
define their understanding of product management or online marketing, the
answers may be very different. Each company views these profiles from their
perspective. A person in online marketing of travel portal has different
mindset compared to online marketing person working in a premium jewellery
segment.
Reason 3: Metamorphosis of
environment/organization
Some organizations could not grow
as per their anticipation as their funding dried up, their penetration into new
market or geography did not yield expected results or some other aggressive
player has dented their market share. Some organizations have gone through
complete re-vamping of their business model. In such situations, the hiring of
past must be undone to cut the flab, excess cost and to get new thought process
as per the changed requirements.
Reason 4: Lack of vision
Sometimes hiring is done only to
create a big bang on some premier school campuses or to hit the headline-
trying to show off their muscles (funding). This kind of hiring often misfire
as then the utilization or output is not upto the cost involved which leads to
rethinking of decision.
Reason 5: Lack of HR involvement
in the beginning.
Sometimes lot of duplicating of
profile happens in the organization as different business units hire of similar
profiles. In absence of central HR function which talks about internal
availability of talent, the duplication of profiles happen. Later, such
profiles often form a central team shared across divisions and hence some resources
are asked to leave. Training, analytics and marketing are typical examples of
such functions.
References
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