Tata Consumer Products to start on a hiring spree!

A good 50 per cent of Tata Consumer Products' hiring over the next few months will be for brand and category marketing as well as digital roles as the tea and coffee maker ramps up its e-commerce, direct-to-consumer (D2C) and alternate sales channels after the pandemic, according to its global CHRO Amit Chincholikar.

"Almost 50 per cent of our new hiring will be in areas such as marketing and brand, various sales channels, including D2C and e-commerce as well as digital. Except for category marketing roles, all other new hires are in the digital space," Chincholikar told Business Today.

He said the hiring for digital roles will span across functions and seniority levels, adding that the firm is investing significantly towards it.

"We have significantly augmented our capability in the digital space starting from the global chief digital officer, who was hired in April. He is spearheading the digital transformation agenda with talent we have hired in the areas of digital, analytics and agile ways of working," he said.

A bulk of the F&B company's hiring has always been in sales. But even within sales functions, the firm is focused on category marketing, brand marketing and newer and critical areas like shopper marketing and channel development which are different from general trade roles, the CHRO pointed out.

The company, which makes tea, coffee, salt and packaged water, among other things, has a 2,900-strong workforce globally, with around 2,000 people in India.

Tata Consumer Products' current hiring mix is 20 per cent freshers, 30-40 per cent internal talent and 40-50 per cent lateral hires, he said.

The external hiring also includes young talent in a variety of areas, including hiring from MBA campuses, CA talent and tea buying and blending talent.

"We focus on giving career opportunities to people within the company. What we don't have within, we will go out [to get]. Even there, our preference is always to hire young talent because they can see a career path in the company as they move forward and they also represent a strong consumer mindset," he said. The Tata group firm is also investing in artificial intelligence for predictive analysis to keep a tab on engagement levels and attrition risk.