Article: Agility & employee experience will drive the Retail & FMCG sector in 2020

Employee Engagement

Agility & employee experience will drive the Retail & FMCG sector in 2020

The FMCG market in India is estimated to reach US$ 1.1 trillion by 2020, and the Retail market in India is projected to reach US$ 1,200 Bn in 2021.
Agility & employee experience will drive the Retail & FMCG sector in 2020

Amazon, Flipkart, Walmart, Future Group, Reliance Industries are some of the significant corporate names across the globe. And the one thread binding all these companies together, which is their area of interest. All these companies deal in one of the most promising sectors, which is retail and FMCG. 

Undoubtedly this sector provides millions of direct and indirect jobs across the country. Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector is the 4th largest sector in the Indian economy with Household and Personal Care accounting for 50 percent of FMCG sales in India while retail industry accounts for over 10 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and around 8 percent of the total employment.

The FMCG market in India is estimated to reach US$ 1.1 trillion by 2020, and the Retail market in India is projected to reach US$ 1,200 Bn in 2021. 

The number shows a very colorful picture of this sector in the year 2020, and if corporates keep pumping money, it’ll automatically create more jobs. 

Industry experts feel that employee experience, skill set requirements, agility, and technology are some of the major trends that will drive this sector in the area of people and work.

Sharing his forecast, Adhir Mane, CHRO, Raymond Lifestyle Business, said, “Agility in mindset and action would be a key for business success now and beyond 2020. This will help in overcoming the challenges presented by the VUCA world.”

A joint report by FICCI-NASSCOM and EY on the nature of jobs pointed out that 95 percent of industry experts believed that the creation of highly optimized supply chains would drive growth in retail in the coming years.

Almost 20%-25% of the workforce in the retail sector would be deployed in jobs that have radically changed skill set requirements in the coming five years, said the report.

Key growth drivers

Employee experience 

Employee experience has always been the key to talent management practices in all the organizations and plays a crucial role in the company’s success. Every single output is related to employee experience. If employees have a soothing experience, there are high chances of getting a positive production and management will not face any employee related issues such as less productivity, retention, re-skilling, etc. With engagement levels across the globe already being low and significant portions of the working population today being restless and disengaged, employee experience has a vital role to play moving ahead. 

Talking to People Matters, BVM Rao, Head HR, Shoppers Stop, said, “Creating employee experience and well being of people both physical and emotional are the key focus areas apart from HR data analytics.”

Job creation

Hiring will shoot up in this sector as more and more single and multi-brand retailers are queuing up ahead for the government to invest in the sector. 

According to an Employment Trend Survey published by MyHiringClub & Sarkari-Naukri, the private sector firms in India are likely to create 700,000 jobs in 2020 amid bullish hiring sentiment and optimistic hiring plans. 

The report says, in 2020, the retail and ecommerce sector will lead in hiring and is expected to generate 112,000 jobs, while the FMCG sector is likely to create 87,500 jobs. 

The Road Ahead

It is estimated that India will gain US$ 15 billion a year by implementing the Goods and Services Tax. GST and Demonetization are expected to drive demand, both in the rural and urban areas, and economic growth in a structured manner in the long term and improve the performance of companies within the sector. 

Online portals are expected to play a key role for companies trying to enter the hinterlands. The Internet has contributed in a big way, facilitating cheaper and more convenient means to increase a company’s reach. It is estimated that 40 per cent of all FMCG consumption in India will be online by 2020. 

The road ahead looks quite smooth for the Indian FMCG and Retail industry with players like Amazon planning to invest $1 billion and create 1 million jobs in India, Future Group raising $500 million, and ITC  betting big on their FMCG segments. This will definitely give a much-needed boost to the economy and further boost this sector in the year 2020.

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Topics: Employee Engagement, #Outlook2020

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