Demand for CXOs doubles as companies race to hire top executives: Report

While a recent report said that hiring top executives has become difficult for firms, Indian Inc has seen 100 per cent growth in recruitment of senior leaders since last year, especially in the last two months, said executive search firms. 

The surge in hiring for top executives has driven some firms to expand their operations to meet the demand, a The Times of India report said. The recent demand is not just for replacement hiring, but also for growth hiring, as companies are creating new posts through expansions.

“What used to be 90 per cent replacement hiring and 10 per cent growth hiring is now 70 per cent replacement hiring versus 30 per cent growth hiring. A significant uptake in growth hiring is a positive sign,” MD of headhunting firm Executive Access India, Ronesh Puri told TOI.

The hiring spree is driven by the growth that came with liquidity and post-Covid rebound effect, said Pankaj Arora, MD of management consulting firm Russell Reynolds Associates, TOI quoted. He added, “In the last one year or so, we saw a lot of focus around what we call technology/digital-led business roles and sustainability roles for which there’s good demand."

Jyoti Bowen Nath, managing partner at Claricent Partners, told TOI that there is a lot of demand for leaders in startups that operate around virtual reality, the metaverse, education and health. 

Nath told TOI, “Since talent pool is limited for such functional roles, we are looking to fill them from consultancies. In crypto blockchain roles in logistics companies, there’s almost a war for senior talent.”

The firms are also hiring more leaders at top roles as companies are also reportedly weeding out CXOs who did not meet their performance targets. 

“Out of 10 mandates that we receive for executive hiring, 3-4 are where people have been asked to go for performance reasons. This is also happening for multiple reasons. Productivity has become very important — companies have to protect their bottom lines and there’s pressure on costs due to inflation,” Puri told TOI. 

Sonal Agrawal, managing partner at CXO search firm Accord India & global chair at AltoPartners told TOI, "CXO compensation rose sharply in the last year or so, and so did expectations from them."