The consumer durables and appliances industry hires staff on a temporary basis to meet the surge in consumer demand every festive season, which begins around Raksha Bandhan and extends till Diwali. During the season, consumer durable companies usually ramp up the workforce by around 25%. However, after the season is over, the hiring contracts expire and are seldom renewed. This year, the trend has been different.
TeamLease Services VP & business head Balasubramanian A said contracts of nearly 40% of temps (an estimated 20,000 of a total of around 50,000) deployed for this task are getting extended as the industry expects consumer demand to pick up towards the end of this year. “Commodity costs have eased, and the industry expects demand for durables, appliances and mobile phones to sustain well into January. That’s the key reason they have extended these contracts as they would require the additional manpower for couple of months,” said Balasubramanian.
Randstad India MD & CEO Viswanath P S said, “With people’s purchasing power almost returning back to pre-pandemic levels, we anticipate growth in demand for consumer durables throughout the end-of-the-year festive season – the New Year week, till the end of January, if not beyond that.”
To meet this increased demand, Viswanath said companies are extending the employment contract of their temporary staff by at least a couple of months, particularly in roles related to logistics, sales, last-mile delivery, etc. “We also anticipate some of these companies to promote high-performing temporary workers to permanent employees, depending on how their businesses perform in Q1 of 2023,” added Viswanath.
Balasubramanian said offer letters are typically for a duration of 45-90 days, after which the temps return to their villages for cultivation of kharif crop.
Godrej Appliances business head & executive VP Kamal Nandi said, “As far as manufacturing is concerned, over and above the large permanent base, we do deploy temp professionals and have extended contracts – especially for cooling categories.”