Ford to hire 700 people in India this year

NEW DELHI: The company plans to recruit 700 people for its two units: Ford India and Ford Global Business Services, this year.

Having recruited around 90 business school graduates and 45 engineering graduate trainees so far, Ford plans to increase its headcount by 700 people at the end of this year.

The company plans to recruit people for its two units: Ford India and Ford Global Business Services. Despite a slowing passenger car market, recent employee agitation at its Chennai plant and intense competition, Ford India seems to be unperturbed by attrition

“Retaining the workforce is not an issue. Our attrition rate at 6% is less than 50% of the market rate,” says Dhananjay Nair, General Manager, Human Resources at Ford India.

Ford India has invested close to Rs 4,000 crore for its vehicle and operations plant in Sanand, Gujarat and has plans of hiring 5000 direct employees for the project over time, which would increase its existing workforce of 10,000 by 50%. The plant is expected to be operational by the first quarter of 2014.

Of the 45 engineering graduate trainees hired this year, a substantial proportion has been recruited for the manufacturing operations at Sanand. “While the bulk of hiring will be for manufacturing, we are also hiring for other functions like HR, finance, purchasing and IT.”

Nair said the existing plant in Chennai would become a pool of talent for Sanand. “The Ford employer brand is very strong in Chennai. We have to test it out in Sanand.” The company is also leveraging the existing global opportunities to train and place employees for the project.

“Ford launched a plant in Thailand this month and a lot of managers from India were there to support this launch. We are making sure that our employees and managers get experience from other plants that have been launched globally.”