B2B hiring grows while B2C faces restructuring woes

Experts attribute this rise to the rapid pace with which companies are embracing newer technologies. But, hiring in the business-to-consumer (B2C) space, including e-commerce has fallen. The last six months has seen hiring going up in the B2B segment as they are now more open to matching expectations of candidates in tune with the market reality, notes Vijay Sharma, CEO and Co-founder, Belong, a talent solutions company. There has been 32 per cent increase in hiring in B2B companies in six months (November 2015 to April 2016), compared to May-October 2015.

“Moreover, many B2B firms have a niche or specialised offering like analytics or product development that are seeing greater adoption from their customers,” he added. But, the B2C category hiring has slumped due to internal restructuring and consolidation the companies are going through. “There has been a 61 per cent drop in hiring (November 2015 and April 2016) compared to May-Oct 2015 in the B2C segment as most companies are going through internal restructuring process. After last year’s aggressive hiring, they are now re-assessing their company structures to plan for future growth,” he added. 

There is also consolidation happening in the B2C segment. Even as there has been a visible decline in hiring at junior levels in the B2C space, companies prefer “strategic hiring” for leadership positions. 

GlobalHunt India MD Sunil Goel hopes hiring for B2C segment will see a marginal dip as the market is growing. But, segments such e-commerce and retail will see hiring come down by 50-60 per cent compared to last year. Firms were over-hiring of resources to be in race to increase valuation and cushioning of PE firms, which will now align towards right-sizing, he observed. Mohit Bharti, Associate Director, Michael Page India, predicted hiring is likely to decline in the e-commerce and start-up sector and not in other B2C verticals. Hiring in the sector would go down by around 10-15 per cent.