HUL, ITC and United Spirits together add over 400 employees to the crorepati club

New Delhi: While the last year saw many companies reducing their workforce so as to save costs, among other reasons, the number of employees earning an eight-figure salary increased significantly in Hindustan Unilever (HUL), ITC and United Spirits (USL). As companies battle the Great Resignation and high attrition rate, HUL, ITC and USL together added over 130 executives to the club of those earning more than Rs 1 crore a year last fiscal.

All three companies - the biggest companies in their segments – increased the number of crorepati employees in FY22. HUL is the country’s biggest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company whereas ITC is the market leader in cigarettes, agriculture as well as paper business. USL is india’s largest spirits company.

According to their latest annual reports, HUL and ITC witnessed 33 per cent and 44 per cent jump in the number of eight-figure salary earners, respectively, while United Spirits reported a massive 113 per cent rise.

In numbers, 220 employees at ITC raked in over a crore last year. For HUL, the number of employees was 163 while it was 49 for USL. "Due to the Great Resignation, market leaders are compensating existing employees much more post Covid-19 than they would otherwise," Shiv Agrawal, managing director of human resources firm ABC Consultants, told Economic Times.

The compensation offered is higher in case of senior level where there is shortage of talent and the cost of hiring new employees has gone up significantly, he added.

What companies attributed this jump to

United Spirits, which makes McDowell's whisky and Johnnie Walker Scotch, in its annual report stated that the steep jump in its crorepati employees was performance-based pay as there was no such payout in the previous year.

ITC, on the other hand, said remuneration of senior employees increased by 8 per cent, higher than average remuneration of all employees (7 per cent), due to an increase in the number of such senior executives last fiscal.

FMCG major HUL’s rationale behind the rise in crorepati employees was that in a post-pandemic world, work force dynamics and employee preferences are changing rapidly with companies facing a highly competitive talent market.

"There is heightened competition from startups as well as direct-to-consumer firms to hire talent, especially from HUL. The company has to pay better to avoid attrition of top talent," said Abneesh Roy, executive director at wealth management and advisory firm Edelweiss Securities.

It would be worth mentioning here that managers in HUL - often referred to as 'CEO factory' - are sought-after in the FMCG space. For instance, Sudhir Sitapati, earlier executive director of foods and refreshments at HUL, joined Godrej Consumer Products as its managing director last year. Colgate Palmolive made Prabha Narasimhan, who was an executive director at HUL, its India managing director.