FMCG firms go on a talent hunt at top business and technology campuses – Economic Times

KOLKATA: Declining rural and urban consumption may have taken a toll on the countrys fast-moving consumer goods makers, but it has not stopped FMCG majors from aggressively scouting for future leaders at top business and technology campuses.

In a testimony to how important campus hiring is as a pipeline of future leadership talent, biggies such as Hindustan Unilever (HUL), ITC, Marico, Godrej and Dabur are expanding their reach across B-schools and top engineering and general colleges, and rolling out new roles for the Class of 2020.

Market leader HUL, for example, has increased its summer internship hiring to top 21 B-schools from top 14 earlier. Marico, which earlier hired only from Tier-1 B schools, has started hiring from IITs and top graduate colleges this year, while Dabur intends to up its intake by 25%. These companies pay between Rs 22-30 lakh to campus recruits.

Many young leaders at Godrej first worked here as summer interns or management trainees before taking on larger roles, said Sumit Mitra, head group HR and corporate services at Godrej Industries and Associated Companies. This is a longer-term talent building investment for us, guided by business priorities and projections. So, it continues to be robust even in a tough year.

This is reassuring news for campuses, where FMCG firms are among the most popular recruiters.

The FMCG sector is going through a rough patch with slowdown in both rural and urban demand. The FMCG market grew only 7.3% by value year on year in the quarter ended September, down from 16.2% growth a year earlier, according to a recent report by market tracker Nielsen. Rural growth dropped below urban levels for the first time in seven years during the September quarter, growing at only 5%, one-fourth of the 20% clocked in the corresponding period in 2018.

Also, several consumer goods and automobiles companies have stayed away from National Institutes of Technology (NITs) this placement season, as ET reported on Monday.

Yet, top FMCG players are apparently going strong on campus placement. No one has told us that theyll go conservative, said Sapna Agarwal, head of career development services at IIM Bangalore. Dabur India is hiring for functions like sales and marketing, supply chain, packaging development, manufacturing, operations and finance, and has even started a new programme of hiring fresh graduates in emerging areas like ecommerce and analytics. We would be nearly 25% higher than the previous year, said V Krishnan, executive director at Dabur India.

A Marico spokesperson said hiring from 2020 batch is higher than from the 2019 batch as the organisations focus on innovation and new categories has opened up newer opportunities. Campus hiring will continue to remain a focus area, the person said. Campus hires are potential business leaders for the organisation in the future.

HUL has stepped up hiring for its Unilever Leadership Internship Programme by increasing the number of campuses by 50%. The company offers early big jobs wherein students just out of campus are entrusted with responsibilities of managing a region with a turnover of more than Rs 100 crore and leading teams of 20-plus people.

Kanwal Kapil, dean of placements at MDI Gurgaon, said despite the downturn in the FMCG sector, the likes of HUL and Reckitt Benckiser were among the new recruiters in the campus during summer placements.

Campus hiring is a critical pillar of ITCs talent acquisition strategy, said Amitav Mukherji, head of corporate HR at ITC that plans to recruit 80-100 students from leading management and technology campuses through summer internship programme and final placements.

At Godrej, salaries have gone up compared to last year and the company will be hiring similar numbers as the last two years, said Mitra. Godrej group hires from MBA programmes centrally for group businesses, while the groups individual businesses also hire separately from general colleges and engineering schools based on their requirements.