Electric vehicle (EV) and associated companies in India are facing an alarmingly high attrition rate, as a major talent war has erupted between companies who are going all out to poach talent from one another.
The median tenure of middle- to senior-level talent in the EV industry stands at 1.8 years, compared with 4.1 years in the FMCG industry, 3.6 years in MSME manufacturing, five years in EPC and 1.9 years in startups, according to data put together for ET by staffing company Ciel HR Services, based on LinkedIn data from 271,778 employees across 268 companies in these sectors.
Demand for talent is not only on in the local manufacturing companies who want to tap the potential market but also global businesses that are investing heavily in India for long-term returns. Some of the top talent seekers include Hero Electric, Mahindra Electric, Maruti Suzuki, ChargePoint, Log9 Materials, Fisker, AMP EV and ZF, according to the data from Ciel based on an analysis of EV jobs posted on LinkedIn.
This comes at a time when companies in the EV industry are on a major talent acquisition spree with hiring seen growing by 50% in the next one year, as firms across the green vehicle ecosystem of EV, component and battery manufacturers, and charging, swapping infrastructure and vehicle maintenance providers are looking to ramp up manpower to expand capacity and launch new products.
“Companies in the sector are on a hiring spree with multiple players across the ecosystem jostling for talent,” said Aditya Narayan Mishra, chief executive at Ciel HR Services. There is a lot of action happening in the sector due to a combination of factors such as government’s policy intervention to strengthen the ecosystem, general push towards environmental sustainability and rising fuel prices, and all this is leading to high demand for talent with relevant expertise and skills. “This is not a sector where freshers can cater to the manpower needs. As a result, companies are poaching from one another leading to the talent war,” he added.
“Particularly specialist roles like R&D, head of departments, after-sales service and electric and electronic engineers are the vulnerable positions,” said Sohinder Gill, director general of the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles.
Gill, who is also the chief executive at Hero Electric, said his company is one of the favourite poaching grounds for talent. “However, we have been able to retain our talent, not by matching rupee by rupee, but by helping employees through thick and thin. We strive to make our workspace exciting and informal with the least amount of rigid structures and try to create enough learning opportunities for the right talent,” he added.
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