Record surge in C-suite hiring as India Inc recovers from Covid-19 pandemic impact

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C-suite hiring is on a sharp surge across India Inc as the ravaging impact of Covid-19 second wave subsides and companies are now stepping up to carry out business as usual. The top executive level hiring has gained steam despite the apprehensions of a third wave of the pandemic.

The top executive level managers of a company like CEO, CFO and COO among others are collectively referred to as the C-suite.

Growth driven by multiple factors

Executive Search firms expect close to 50-100% growth in hiring over last year and would overtake pre-Covid levels of 2019 by 20-40% this year. According to these firms the senior level hiring can be attributed to multiple factors. The key reasons at play here are pent-up demand, an enhanced investment environment, expansion and capacity augmentation plans of companies along with a pick-up in domestic demand and rapid digitalisation.

While technology and e-commerce companies lead the pack, the demand is also back in sectors like pharmaceuticals, life sciences, financial services, industrial products and manufacturing. Search firms including Insist Consulting, Page Executive, Korn Ferry, EMA and Transearch say almost everyone ranging from conglomerates and IT firms to unicorns and smaller startups are hiring for their C-suite.

While referring to the rush of CXO hiring mandates, K Sudarshan, MD of EMA Partners India jokingly says that as of now they wished each of their consultants had four hands and 10 heads just to cope with the demand from clients.

Korn Ferry’s Chairman and country head Navnit Singh opines that the marketing is on steroids and things will continue this way for a while. CXO stands for Chief Experience Officer, a C-suite executive looking after a company’s interactions with customers and the overall experience.

R Suresh, founder of boutique executive search firm Insist said that hiring mandates are twice as big when compared to last year and have exceeded the pre-Covid levels by almost 50%. He also added that remunerations are going up substantially and due to high competition, it has become more challenging to get final closure.