Delivery business may see doubling of women workforce to 15 pc: Report

With rising online shopping in 2022 due to the spread of coronavirus and attractive discounts offered by e-commerce players the marked increase in the focus of delivery organisations to achieve gender parity at the workplace is set to continue in 2022.

New Delhi: Hiring of blue-collar workers in various categories of delivery business is expected to see strong growth aided by rising online shopping in 2022 due to the spread of coronavirus and attractive discounts offered by e-commerce players, according to a report.

The last year 2021 was marked by an increase in the focus of organisations on the delivery space to achieve gender parity at the workplace and this indicated a change in perception regarding the women workforce, according to a report by Vahan, an HR consultancy start-up for blue-collar workers.

"This trend is likely to take root in 2022 onwards and open space for the women to enhance their contribution to the delivery segment to 15 per cent in 2022. It is an increase from around 7-10 per cent of the overall hiring requirement per month of delivery staff across industries from food delivery to e-commerce in 2021," the report said.

According to the report, the emerging situation will lend support to a massive surge in demand for delivery workers where metros will contribute over 60 per cent of the overall demand in 2022, followed by tier-II and tier-III cities.

Vahan witnessed rapid demand for delivery workers in the August-November first week period last year, fuelled by contests, discounts and incentives, running across the board around the IPL season and T20 World Cup, it said.

"A rapidly growing cohort of consumers identifies speed, convenience, and quality as the most important elements of a positive customer experience.

"This trend is likely to hold true in the near future where grocery delivery service providers will extend quick commerce service to attract and retain customers," it said.

The blue-collar job market in India is set to repeat its astounding growth performance in 2022 as online shopping behaviour and preference for speedy delivery takes root in the country, Vahan CEO Madhav Krishna said.

"At Vahan, given that our product leverages existing blue-collar worker behaviour of finding jobs via their network, we are placing more than 10,000 people every month growing at 25-30 per cent per month.

"Our product is emerging as an employment exchange for over 300 million blue-collar workers in India," he said.

PTI