<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/54699696.cms" /><keyword id="188" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Diwali">Diwali</keyword> is a time when <keyword id="436047" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ecommerce">ecommerce</keyword> companies struggle to make sense of the madness that comes with the festive sales. 
 It is the testing time for most corporates and hence, it is taxing on most employees whose targets and work is under a litmus test. From flipkart to amazon to <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">snapdeal</keyword>, everyone is struggling to come first in this marathon and this week is it. 
 Business Insider caught up with <keyword id="2850599" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Saurabh-Nigam">Saurabh Nigam</keyword>, Vice President - Human Resources at Snapdeal to figure out how Snapdeal is making sure that their employees are managing this pressure during sale season. 
 
‘We have lined up a slew of initiatives to ensure a fun and relaxing work environment for our employees. In the run-up to Diwali, we also hired 10,000 temporary staff; these temporary positions are mostly in logistics to ensure deliveries flow smoothly and in the time committed to users.’ 
<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/54699699.cms" /> 
To keep the employee morale high, the company is making some extra efforts to make sure their people feel motivated- 
 
1. Free snacks and drinks to people working through long hours or overnight shifts. 
2. Sleep Zones in office corners equipped with comfortable sleeping bags, if people require unwinding. 
3. They offer yoga classes throughout the year, their frequency would be increased during the festive season. 
4. Free drops will be provided to employees working late hours. 
5. The gym will remain open 24/7 and their in-house salon will operate extended hours, in case employees would like to avail any services. 
 
Nigam added, "Diwali business event for Snapdeal. For Ecommerce companies Diwali to diwali constitutes as a financial year. Months of planning goes into this to provide a great customer experience. To add to this initiative we have made October extra special with every Friday of the month being an ‘unwinding Friday’. From Special events like comedy acts, jamming sessions to engagement with underprivileged kids, we have got it all.’’ 
 
We are also managing a family day on the last Friday, 28th October to thank the families of our employees during this crunch time. 
 
This B2C company is a great example of a great workplace where employees are treated as people before workers.

Ecommerce companies employees are stressed out during the
festive sales. This is how Snapdeal is dealing with it

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48348723.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /> 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Dear-Snapdeal-Get-Your-House-In-Order-Before-Its-Too-Late/articleshow/45822319.cms">Snapdeal</a> plans to have an extensive engagement programme with campuses before they go for final placements as they plan to hire more candidates next year, but is looking beyond B-school products. <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> hired about 250 MBA graduates across business schools this year. 
 
"We identify the needs of all our business units through an extensive workforce planning exercise and come up with a percentage that needs to be <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Snapdeal-to-foster-employment-in-rural-India/articleshow/46504328.cms">hired</a> through campus to decide our overall campus hiring number. However, the focus in not on adding more colleges but hiring the right candidates and we will ensure a large campus pool to get the best talent and right candidates for the roles," said <keyword id="2850599" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Saurabh-Nigam">Saurabh Nigam</keyword>, VP at Snapdeal, told ET. 
 
Nigam said that while the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Snapdeal-launches-special-zone-atDharamshala/articleshow/47771763.cms">company</a> looks at MBA-qualified talent to fill non-technical positions in the fields of sales and marketing, business strategy, category management, supply chain and product management to make strategic business decisions, the roles offered will not necessarily depend on the pedigree of the institutes as the company is looking at a talent pool with dynamic skill sets, people who are self-driven and have risk-taking abilities. 
 
"Besides, there is a sea of talent in our country and we are not restricted to just premier MBA institutes to fuel our growth as an organisation," he added. 
 
Snapdeal, which has over 5000 employees and hired a total of 250 MBA graduates this year, had a structured hiring plan for business schools for the first time this year. Nigam stated the company is now four times the size it was a year ago. 
 
"This year we recruited interns to review the candidate pool at campuses. We were amongst the first few to visit in the laterals hiring (rolling) process across all IIMs and other premier campuses like MDI, FMS and SP Jain. Furthermore, we were able to get very competitive slots across all top-tier campuses like ISB," said Nigam. 
 
This year, the company plans to have an extensive engagement plan to engage with campuses before they go in for final placements to ensure that they have clearly identified the campuses to visit during the placement season. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Yes-you-heard-that-right-Snapdeals-selling-Yachts-now/articleshow/46631171.cms" target="_blank">Snapdeal</a> recruited from campuses like <keyword id="19478" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="IIM">IIM</keyword> Bangalore, IIM Kozhikode, and MDI Gurgaon this year. 
 
 
(Image credits: Indiatimes)

Snapdeal would engage extensively with campuses prior placement season next year

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48072711.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" /> From 300 staff in 2013 <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> has expanded its workforce by more than fourfold in one year, crossing the 5,000 mark in April this year. 

	The New Delhi-based company hired extensively in technology, operations and supply chain segments. About 20 per cent of its current employees are in technology operations, where it plans to add another 1,000 in about six months to work on big data, mobile services, analytics, cloud infrastructure and web technology. 
 According to HR head <keyword id="2850599" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Saurabh-Nigam">Saurabh Nigam</keyword>, the main reason for Snapdeal's success is its people. And, talent acquisition is one of the areas where competition is very intense. 

	"These days, the competition is so fierce that positions have to be closed in three weeks as compared to a turnaround time of three months in other industries. The major challenge that the company faces is map onto diversity of profiles, right talent, handle sheer volume and pace when hiring," he said.
 

	The next major focus of hiring is expected in logistics - fulfillment parks under 'Snapdeal Plus'. It has around 50 fulfillment centres in 20 cities and has plans to expand the number to 75 across 30 cities this year. Snapdeal is looking to get more sellers on its platform to stock products at its fulfillment centres so that deliveries can be processed quickly. 
 It made several senior-level hirings in the past year. As much as 60-70 per cent of these were done via social media and personal referrals, said Nigam. Snapdeal has a leadership hiring team which works directly under cofounders <keyword id="219793" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Kunal-Bahl">Kunal Bahl</keyword> and <keyword id="396598" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rohit-Bansal">Rohit Bansal</keyword>, as the company looks to strengthen the management with executives who can prepare it for an initial public offerings in the next two years or so informs Nigam. 

	Snapdeal is considering setting up a base in the US, in its efforts to strengthen its technology arm, hire more specialists and become the first Indian consumer Internet company to establish a presence in the world's biggest startup hub. 
 

	Internally, the company is working towards developing staff policies such as Advitya, an initiative to get mothers on break to join the workforce, hire boomerangs (people who have once worked at the company) and create a strong alumni network that is informed of Snapdeal opportunities. 
 

	As the company has expanded quickly, it is relocating to a new office in Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon, in July-August. It is spread across 4.5 lakh sq ft and can house more than 4,000 employees. 
 

	The platform, started in February 2010 by Bahl and Bansal as a daily deals platform named MoneySaver, currently has more than 1.5 lakh sellers, offering around 12 million products in more than 500 categories. The company is looking to add another 1 lakh sellers to the list this year. Snapdeal has eight offices in Delhi, one in Bengaluru and regional offices in Chennai, Surat, Kolkata and other smaller cities.

	 
	 
	(Image credits: Twitter)

Snapdeal had a fourfold workforce expansion in one year

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/47280419.cms" /> 
The ecommerce market in India growing up vigorously, care for the employees is also on the rise. Online retail companies in India, mostly startups are very much keen on retaining their employees to get a better benefit in the long run. 
 After Pepperfry, UrbanLadder and Carat-Lane reported to be wooing people with equity options, its time for <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> to prove they aren’t far behind. As per a news report in The Economic Times, Snapdeal is seeking to ensure employee loyalty by rewarding about a third of its staff with stock options. In order to achieve this, it expanded the proportion of equity that can be distributed as options " to 10% from 6%. 
 
The ET report reads, these have been given to 1,200 workers adjudged as the top performers among a total 4,000. The numbers are much larger this time. Last year, the company gave these to 300 employees out of a total 1,200. "Only the top performers at Snapdeal have got stock options over and above the salary increments," Saurabh Nigam, vice-president (HR), of Snapdeal said the financial daily. 
 Also, Snapdeal is also in lookout for top techies of <keyword id="6357722" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword> just like Flipkart has been doing. 
 (Image: <keyword id="-101" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="India-Times">India Times</keyword>)

If you’re working for Snapdeal,
you are a special employee indeed

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/49672658.cms" style="width: 800px; height: 600px;" />Amid layoffs by several new-generation tech startups, <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> is looking to hire 500 people at mid-and senior-levels to bolster various functions of the company such as supply chain, technology, design among others. 
 
“These positions will be based across our Gurgaon and Bangalore campuses. We are looking at people with experience in FMCG, technology and telecom sectors," said Saurabh Nigam, VP, human resources, at Snapdeal. 
 The <keyword id="6357342" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Hiring">hiring</keyword> announcement comes even as the Gurgaon-based online marketplace has hired around 2,000 people over the last seven months, taking the total headcount to 7,000. 
 
"We have put strong science behind our manpower planning. We are conscious about growth in our teams. What's happening in the startup space is unfortunate. You end up with over-hiring without putting any logic in place due to the exuberance of initial investments. Then all of a sudden, you see your fixed costs going up and things go out of control," said Nigam. 
 In September this year, Snapdeal said it would spend around Rs 660 crore to enhance its supply chain. "These are all part of targeted hiring. People from the <keyword id="34529" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="fmcg-sector">FMCG sector</keyword> has expertise in handling large and complex supply chains. We have usually seen that they perform extremely well in tech companies such as ours," said Nigam. 
 
 
Nigam said in the near future e-commerce companies will witness demand for people from sectors such as category management and marketing and brand building. "To expand, we would need marketing executives who can build our brand with sellers," said Nigam. 
 Notably, several startups including <keyword id="3601251" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="TinyOwl">TinyOwl</keyword>, <keyword id="6388367" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jabong">Jabong</keyword>, Housing and Zomato, have started handing over pink slips to their employees. After restaurant discovery startup Zomato laid off 300 people, Mumbai-based food start-up TinyOwl has fired around 300 employees in less than two months.

Snapdeal to hire 500 more as other tech startups hand over pink slips to employees

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/54601084.cms" /> 
 
A 40-member team in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Flipkart&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Flipkart</a>, which is the first line of the battle to win the consumers, is not ready to go back to their homes due to the upcoming mega online festival sale that is about to begin. 
 Deepti Agarwal, <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>’s senior engineering manager, says that these 40 members of the team won’t go back to their homes even after Flipkart asking them to go home. These employees would just work and sleep in the office. "They just sleep in the office,” says Agarwal. 
 
To wake them up, loud music is played every morning at the suburban office in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Bengaluru&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Bengaluru</a>. The meeting rooms have been turned to bedrooms and are stacked with pillows and mattresses. There are yoga sessions to perk up those who haven't slept a wink, gaming rooms to de-stress and food at midnight. 
 “It feels like an Indian wedding,” <keyword id="1892574" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nitin-Seth">Nitin Seth</keyword>, the chief people officer of Flipkart tolf ET. 
 Though, it seems like fun but isn’t even close to that. Flipkart, <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> and <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> will unveil a bevy of offers to lure customers as they prepare for the biggest face-off of the year, looking to garner a significant portion of their total annual sales during this burst of festive spending that will last for most of October. This is serious in an ugly way. 
 “Big Billion Day means three things -the scale, the detailing in terms of planning and the thrill of it all coming together. Everybody is stretching beyond their work profiles and nobody is looking at the watch,” <keyword id="3703289" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Panchali-Upadhaya">Panchali Upadhaya</keyword>, a senior director at Flipkart told ET. 
 
Their main goal is to rack up sales and keep the lead on <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Amazon+India&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Amazon India</a>, as the rival has invested Rs 130 crore in this festive season. 
 "The atmosphere dovetails well into our motto of work hard, have fun, make history,” said a representative for Amazon. The company's sale strategy is being directed from its office in west <keyword id="6354321" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bengaluru">Bengaluru</keyword>. 
 
Certain special arrangements are made for the employees to stay close to the office at both Flipkart and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Snapdeal&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Snapdeal</a>. Saurabh Nigam, vice-president for HR at Snapdeal, wants employees to bring families to work on designated days. 
 “There will be monetary and non-monetary awards for top performers, all through the festive month of October. We also plan to have <keyword id="188" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Diwali">Diwali</keyword> melas,” said Nigam. 
 
It has been estimated by RedSeer that the amount of overall value of goods sold across all online marketplaces may not exceed Rs 10,000 crore in October this year as compared with goods worth Rs 9,000 crore sold last year. 
 “The message is simple -we put our best foot forward and really make it big for our customers. The fact of a worthy competition makes the game a lot more exciting,” said Flipkart's Seth, referring to <keyword id="6354743" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon-India">Amazon India</keyword>. 
(image :Indiatimes)

Meeting rooms at Flipkart’s office have turned into bedrooms, gaming rooms. Here’s why

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/46592921.cms" />eCommerce in India has certainly helped the local merchants in tier 2 and tier 3 cities to reach out to more customers. To boost the initiative further, <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> is looking for 1,000 employees on board in the regional centres to help the company stay closer to <keyword id="2768722" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="local-sellers">local sellers</keyword>. The employees need to have a fair idea of particular geographies. 
 As reported by The Economic Times, <keyword id="6357342" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Hiring">hiring</keyword> will be centre-specific, so Chennai and Hyderabad in the South; Jaipur, Jalandar in the North; Surat, Ahmedabad and Pune in the West and Kolkata in the East are some of the regions identified for hiring. Snapdeal has created recruitment teams for each centre and even roped in hiring agencies for the local hiring. 
"We will follow the hub-and spoke model and these employees will go and get the merchants from local markets," Saurabh Nigam, VP – HR told ET. 
 
Each centre comprising of an M&amp;A and an accounting team will have around 500 employees. The report by the financial daily informs, those with experience in sales will be on the company radar in these regions. The company has a workforce of around 5,000 employees and is one of the largest recruiters in engineering and management campuses from the e-commerce industry. 
 
(Image: India Times)

If you’re looking for a job and have Snapdeal on your list of probable employers, read this

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48279805.cms" /> 
 
Fast growth path with quickly changing priorities and challenges are making it a year too long to evaluate an employee. Ecommerce major Snapdeal will start annual employee appraisals with trimester reviews instead of annual evaluation, says a news report by The Economic Times. 
 
This would require 5,000-odd employees at the Delhi-based ecommerce company to go through performance appraisals and goal-setting every four months, in line with Snapdeal's own way of fixing its business targets. 
 
"We follow a trimester-based approach to business planning and it is almost imperative for us to align our people to that," Saurabh Nigam, vice president, human resources told the ET. 
The performance assessment for the first trimester, that is April-July, will be carried out by mid-August. The new system is based also on employee feedback. It is aimed at frequent engagement with staff and retention of high-potential employees in a markwhere managing expectation of a young staff is key to keep attrition under check, says the news report. 
 
At Snapdeal, the average age of employees is 26. "The pace at which the ecommerce industry is growing, a year is too long a time-frame to review performance and set goals,"D Rajiv Krishnan, partner, advisory services and leader, people and organisation, at consultancy firm EY told the financial daily. They have to do it rapidly, accurately and frequently." 
 
At the end of every trimester, there will be monetary and non-monetary rewards for employees based on the assessment, while the main salary hikes will continue to be at the end of the fiscal year. Snapdeal follows an April-March financial year. Global major Amazon follows an annual appraisal system, while local rivals Flipkart and Jabong have a bi-annual format. 
 
Under the new system, Snapdeal will set organisational goals at the beginning of the trimester. Every functional head will have to determine his or her targets and link them to the organisational goals.

Move over annual appraisals! Snapdeal to evaluate employees every 4 months

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48510149.cms" />Time is money and this theory is being used by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=HR+managers">HR managers</a> who are hiring potential candidates for e-Commerce industry in flat 12 minutes! 
 
The new concept of ‘<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=speed+hiring">speed hiring</a>’ is catching up as recruiters want that e-Commerce giants like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=snapdeal">Snapdeal</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=foodpanda">Foodpanda</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ola">Ola cabs</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=quickr">Quickr</a> and other startups should spend less time in hiring professionals. 
 Under '<keyword id="3003193" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Speed-hiring">speed hiring</keyword>', candidates are tested on their cognitive abilities in just about 12 minutes and those selected are offered joining letters. 
 
"In start-ups and new age businesses, life moves very fast and scenario changes every fortnight and therefore it is important to show the result to the investors. So, it may not be viable to invest half of the time in recruiting," executive search firm GlobalHunt MD Sunil Goel told news agency PTI. 
 
CoCubes Technologies has undertaken hiring in the fast lane. It has developed a Cognitive Ability Speed Test (CAST), which carries 50 objective type questions on English grammar, ratios, percentage and inductive reasoning to assess the cognitive abilities of the candidates. 
 
"While CAST is definitely more popular among start-ups with large-scale hiring, larger established companies like WNS and Allianz Cornhill are also using it,” CoCubes' co-founder and CEO Harpreet Singh Grover told PTI. 
 
Meanwhile, experts say the result from this new-age <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=hiring">hiring</a> is quite impressive. 
 Saurabh Nigam, Vice President (HR) at e-commerce major <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>, which used the CoCubes' platform told the news agency, "In the last six months of implementation, with over 22,000 assessments, CAST has shown correlation of 81 per cent with offer ratio and has helped to provide a seamless experience for the candidates.” 
 
IT outsourcing firm GlobalLogic' associate vice president (HR and L&amp;D) Rajiv Naithani told PTI speed hiring at fresher level helps organisation in big way when companies are looking for immediate absorption of talent pool at junior level. 
 
However, chemical and textile company GHCL Limited's vice president Rajesh Tripathi also informed one may tend to miss out on the cultural fitment of the candidate in the organization during the speed hiring process. 
 
"It may also happen that the recruiter may initially feel less ownership of the entire process," Tripathi told PTI. 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

Now get hired in 12 minutes flat!

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48434341.cms" />E-commerce firms like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=amazon">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=flipkart">Flipkart</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=snapdeal">Snapdeal</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=paytm">Paytm</a>, etc are in the process of almost doubling their headcount and are on a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=hiring">hiring spree</a>. 
 
As more and more people are looking at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=etailers">e-tailers</a> to shop furniture, groceries, medicine, clothing, etc, these firms are expanding for which they need more manpower.As per a recent Morgan Stanley Research report titled, 'The Next India: Internet – Opening Up New Opportunities', the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=india+internet+market">Indian internet market</a> was valued at only $11 billion in 2013 and is expected to rise to $137 billion by 2020. 
 Meanwhile, <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> is looking to double its present <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=headcount">headcount</a> of 5,000 by fiscal 2016. 
 
"We are hiring from the top engineering colleges, including the IITs and NITs, and MBA graduates are hired from the IIMs and other business schools. Apart from these, we also look at NIFT and NID for recruits for our fashion category," Saurabh Nigam, vice-president of human resources at the Delhi-based firm, told Economic Times. 
 <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> India is also not behind and is aggressively looking to scale up operations in India. 
 
The online marketplace is hiring across its software development, product and marketing, machine learning, quality assurance, web development, etc. 
 
Raj Raghavan, director-HR, told ET talent should meet the hiring bar irrespective of where they graduate from, as Amazon hires people from IITs, IIMs, ISB and other engineering colleges. 
 
"The roles offered are aimed to provide enough exposure for students to build long-term careers at Amazon. Our employee base in India - which has grown by 48% in 2014 as compared to the previous year - serves both our Indian and global operations,” he told the financial daily. 
 
At Paytm, they are looking for someone with 'fire in their belly'. 
 
"We want to hire candidates who can do things differently, who can grow within the organisation, meet constant challenges and prove that they are performance-driven," Amit Sinha - vice president of business and people told ET. 
 <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> is looking for technology and leadership roles. 
 
"An increase in employee base by itself isn't necessarily a large indicator of success. We're more concerned about hiring people who have the ability to innovate, who have the humility to accept that their knowledge isn't absolute and there's so much more to do," chief people officer at the Bengaluru-headquartered firm, Mekin Maheshwari, told ET.

Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm are looking for people with fire in their belly

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/47468180.cms" />Companies like SAP, General Mills, Snapdeal and Marico are scouting for best talent to strengthen their respective technology competencies, especially in mobility, big data and analytics. 
 
They are aggressively hiring techies from India and abroad. SAP plans to add 1,000 engineers in next one year to its lab in India, its second-largest globally. For this, it will increase the intake of graduates from the country's premier engineering colleges. 
 
Due to shortage of niche talent, the company will look for techies overseas, including Silicon Valley and Europe. 
 
Economic Times reported that about 70% of the German software company's 6,500 employees in India are part of its R&amp;D and product engineering, while 20% are in consulting and implementation and the rest in sales and marketing. 
 
"Hires will be largely in R&amp;D and product engineering. In the past 75% of professionals with experience in SAP technology were hired and only 25% hiring was niche skills. This year the ratio will change to 50:50, between conventional SAP hiring and high-end technology-data scientists, research analysts and architects," Anil Warrier, director and India head of talent acquisition at SAP, told ET. 
 
SAP is looking to both groom talent from within and new hires. Apart from offering stocks to attract talent, the company is banking on other benefits. "SAP offers its employees work across the globe. Here, you can easily work in four or five locations. High percentage of our leadership team is people who have joined us as college graduates," Warrier told the financial daily. 
 
India’s online marketplace Snapdeal wants to double the number of people in its technology team by appointing 1,000 people by the end of this year, including talent from Silicon Valley to build a product and engineering leadership team. 
 
"We will bring in the best of talent in the space of technology as technology is the backbone for runining a big enterprise like ours," Saurabh Nigam, Vice President of HR at Snapdeal, told ET. 
 
Meanwhile, Managing Director at General Mills Mainak Dhar said the company intends to up the manufacturing at its Indian plant for which it was required to have more talent around technology. 
 
Marico is looking for experts in cutting edge technologies to further build its consumer product offerings. “We are looking at talent beyond India especially to build our strength around innovation and R&amp;D," Ashutosh Telang, Marico's chief human resources officer, told financial daily. 
 
(Image: Reuters)

SAP, Snapdeal aggressively scouting for techies to hire best talent

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/47094959.cms" /> 
The BPO and Aviation sector had ushered in a new kind of recruitment. It used to hire people in large numbers and the recruitment process used to be quick, thanks to the cut-throat competition and mushrooming of companies all across the country. Following the same suit, the new entrant is eCommerce startup. 
 
As per a news report by The Economic Times, the recruitment teams of startups and ecommerce firms consist of information technology specialists, analysts, marketing professionals and staffing heads who previously hired in large numbers for the BPO and aviation sectors. 
"Competition is so fierce that positions have to be closed in 3 weeks as compared to a turnaround time of three months in other industries. Diversity of profiles, sheer volume and pace is the challenge," Saurabh Nigam, VP (HR) of Snapdeal told the ET. 
 
Snapdeal, now four times the size it was a year ago in terms of staff strength, has a recruitment team which is divided according to profiles like technology, supply chain, and customer support. 
 
The tech recruitment team at Snapdeal has 35 employees who are former employees of companies like Microsoft and Adobe. 
Those from DHL and shipping companies look at supply chain openings and recruiters with BPO and KPO experience have been hired to take care of customer support posts. 
 
To ensure they remain motivated and hire the best candidate, some firms have even created special incentives for their recruitment teams. To encourage aggressive strategies, companies such as TinyOwl Technology and Knowlarity have decided to incentivise their recruitment team. 
 
Last quarter, TinyOwl announced that for every candidate placed exclusively by the team of 10, there will be monetary rewards over and above salary and variable pay. "In one quarter the turnaround time dropped by 25-30%. This will keep the firm motivated to work within the budget and get 300 more on board," Tanuj Khandelwal, co-founder told the financial daily. 
Online restaurant locator, Zomato for example, will hire 10 more recruiters to their team of 25, while ShopClues is looking forward to another six to seven appointments to add to their team of 10 and is exploring role enlargement and expansion for key performers, Sanjay Sethi, co-founder and CEO, said to the ET. 
 
"Our HR team is incentivised with quarterly incentive programmes based on hiring targets," he adds. The company is planning to double its staff strength from the current 700 to around 1,500 by March next year. 
 
Then there are others like Jombay who prefer their business leader to do the hiring and not depend on recruitment teams. "The business heads speak the language, they are the face of the teams and hire with support from staff," Mohit Gundecha, CEO and founder told the financial daily. 
 
In some cases, the bosses decide to get into the game. A third of Snapdeal's hiring is through social media with founder Kunal Bahl posting key openings through platforms like Twitter. 
 
(Image: Reuters)

​Ecommerce is competitive. Even when it comes to recruitment

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/48250377.cms" /> 
US tech company <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Cognizant+" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Cognizant</a> has retained its first place for the third time in the list of top recruiters in India, making as many as 192 offers at various MBA institutes in the country. 
 
Moreover, three other companies — <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Wipro" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Wipro</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Deloitte+" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Deloitte</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=HCL" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">HCL</a> — made more than 100 offers in these institutes. Last year, only two companies had made offers in excess of 100, an exclusive ET survey has revealed. 
 
In a testimony to the growing demand for topnotch MBA talent, India Inc's top recruiters have stepped up campus hiring by 33.5%. 
Ten of India's biggest recruiters hired a total of 1,033 MBAs from 22 top business schools ET surveyed for this study. Around 774 graduates were picked by the top ten recruiters across 21 B-schools the previous year. 
 
These numbers, in absolute terms, reflect what is easily the most aggressive MBA talent drive in the five years that the ET India's Top Recruiters study is being conducted. 
 
The ET top 10 recruiters survey results are based on data from <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=IIM+Ahmedabad+" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">IIM Ahmedabad</a>; IIM Bangalore; IIM Calcutta; IIM Kozhikode; IIM Indore; IIM Shillong; IIM Ranchi; IIM Raipur; IIM Udaipur; Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies; Indian Institute of Foreign Trade; International Management Institute, New Delhi; Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi; Faculty of Management Studies, BHU; Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi; XLRI Jamshedpur; XIM Bhubaneswar; SP Jain Institute of Management &amp; Research; IIM Rohtak; MDI Gurgaon; IIM Kashipur and IIM Trichy. 
 Meanwhile, IIT Delhi's Department of Management Studies and IIM Rohtak replaced <keyword id="3761718" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Jamnalal-Bajaj-Institute-of-Management-Studies">Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies</keyword> this year. There were 21 institutes last year. 
 With one in every 20-25 technology professionals holding a master's in business administration, Sriram Rajagopal, vice president — HR at <keyword id="28721" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cognizant">Cognizant</keyword> Technology Solutions, says his company is probably one of the most aggressive MBA recruiters in India. 
Besides the 192 hired across the 22 business schools, the company offered jobs to more than 500 MBAs from the 2015 graduating batch. 
 
"We are in the midst of once-in-a-decade shift in the technology landscape. This trend is creating significant opportunities for B-school graduates. We believe our industry leading growth is, in part, a function of our ability to proactively provide solutions to business problems and not just technological capability and this attribute is strengthened by our MBA talent," said Rajagopal. 
 Following on the heels of Cognizant are Wipro, <keyword id="6358918" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Deloitte">Deloitte</keyword>, <keyword id="30331" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="HCL-Technologies">HCL Technologies</keyword>, ICICI Bank and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=KPMG" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">KPMG</a>. The first five companies have been regulars on the top 10 list for the past five years. 
 Moreover, the fifth position this year is shared by two. <keyword id="50041" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="KPMG">KPMG</keyword> has made a big entry into the list for the first time to be alongside ICICI Bank. The consultancy firm hired 90 students from the surveyed schools, and reported a more than 20% overall jump in its MBA intake over the past two years. 
"Our MBA intake over the past few years has increased substantially," said Shalini Pillay, head of people, performance and culture at KPMG in India. "This is commensurate with our growth across various services in the advisory space.” 
 
Rival Deloitte reported a 30% increase in overall MBA hiring over the previous year, taking in 108 graduates at the surveyed schools alone. Wipro said it strengthened its focus on hiring from select B-schools and recruited 127. HCL and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=ICICI+Bank+" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">ICICI Bank</a> hired 101 and 90, respectively, from the surveyed business schools. 
 
"Hiring talent from top-tier business schools through campus recruitment, thereby building a talent pipeline to create leaders for tomorrow, has been integral to ICICI Bank's recruitment strategy. This year, we have recruited 180 students from business schools across the country," said TK Srirang, the bank's senior general manager and HR head. 
 <keyword id="6370971" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Accenture">Accenture</keyword> and <keyword id="15492" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Vodafone">Vodafone</keyword> enhanced B-school hiring and reported a significant uptick in this year's numbers. Accenture was the top recruiter at the top three IIMs, with 49 offers, of them 21 at IIM Ahmedabad alone. 
 
"Yes, we are hiring more MBAs now. We believe that MBA talent is extremely important and a key component of our hiring and growth strategy," said Sukhpreet Kalra, associate director, recruitment, for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Accenture+" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Accenture</a> in India. 
 
Vodafone recruited 82 graduates from the surveyed schools to debut on the list at the eighth position. While Amazon led the ecommerce companies vying for fresh MBA talent, hiring 84 across the schools surveyed and moving to the seventh position from joint ninth last year. With <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> snapping up the ninth slot and making its debut on the list with 81 hires, India's largest online retailer, <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>, missed out on the top 10 rankings by a whisker. 
 
Raj Raghavan, HR director at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Amazon" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Amazon</a> India, said the company has seen a 140% increase in its MBA intake over the past two years. "B-school graduates are a key part of our growth story in India and we are building a leadership pipeline for the future," he said. The company offered roles across operations, consumer business, HR and finance, and around 25% of its MBA hires came through pre-placement offers. 
 
Snapdeal, for the first time, had a large structured B-school hiring plan. It hired for roles in sales and marketing, business strategy, category management, supply chain and product management. 
 
"MBA graduates have proven to be better equipped to analyse, interpret and find actionable trends from complex data. Thus, it is crucial for us to get on board MBA talent for the company's overall business and growth strategy. We have hired around 250 MBA graduates across Indian B-schools this year," said Vice President Saurabh Nigam. 
 
Companies like Deloitte and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Vodafone+" target="_BLANK￿￿￿￿">Vodafone</a> hired a big chunk of B-school graduates through pre-placement offers (PPOs). 
 
"In the last fiscal (year), we had about 288 interns... A majority of them went on to secure PPOs," said SV Nathan, senior director and chief talent officer at Deloitte in India. Out of the 100 B-school candidates Vodafone hired this year, 57% had been through PPOs. The focus on B-school talent is only going to sharpen for recruiters, the study shows. 
 
Amazon's Raghavan said with India becoming a major growth story for the US-headquartered company, it was looking for top talent from business schools to build a career in Amazon. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

You Searched For "Saurabh Nigam" and got 13 results

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You Searched For "Saurabh Nigam" and got 13 results

Ecommerce companies employees are stressed out during the festive sales. This is how Snapdeal is dealing with it

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Snapdeal would engage extensively with campuses prior placement season next year

BI India Bureau

Snapdeal had a fourfold workforce expansion in one year

BI India Bureau

If you’re working for Snapdeal, you are a special employee indeed

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Snapdeal to hire 500 more as other tech startups hand over pink slips to employees

BI India Bureau

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If you’re looking for a job and have Snapdeal on your list of probable employers, read this

BI India Bureau

Move over annual appraisals! Snapdeal to evaluate employees every 4 months

BI India Bureau

Now get hired in 12 minutes flat!

BI India Bureau

Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm are looking for people with fire in their belly

BI India Bureau

SAP, Snapdeal aggressively scouting for techies to hire best talent

BI India Bureau

​Ecommerce is competitive. Even when it comes to recruitment

BI India Bureau

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BI India Bureau

Ecommerce is competitive. Even when it comes to recruitment