Six months after layoffs, US retailer Target to hire 500 engineers

Six months after major US retailer Target sacked 180 employees in India, it now plans to hire 500 software engineers over the next 12 months in its operations in Bengaluru.

The layoffs were a part of the US retailer’s global restructuring to bring down costs and create a leaner, agile organisation.

Navneet Kapoor, President and Managing Director, Target India, told BusinessLine that the company is investing heavily in digital, mobile, personalisation, localisation, marketing, creative design and in-store experiences. “In order to build a stronger in-house capability in the areas of digital, mobile, data science and analytics and to reduce the work we are outsourcing to third parties, we are adding 500 software engineers in calendar year 2016.”

In an answer to why Target is hiring more than double the number sacked earlier this year, Sam Jackson, Director HR, Target India, said: “As an organisation, we continually evaluate our operating model, including roles and processes, to ensure we are well-positioned for how our business needs to evolve. We announced changes in a few areas to grow our business profitably while we meet the needs of today’s consumers. We are committed to advancing our technology capabilities and transforming Target to be competitive well into the future.”

Eighteen months after launching the Accelerator Program from which 15 start-ups have graduated, Target India is evaluating various options of continued engagement with start-ups.

The company is exploring three options of outright acquisition, acqui-hire or retainership, and is expected to make some announcements over the next 12 months.

Start-up programme “As a part of our Target Accelerator Program (TAP), we have a 16-week formal engagement with start-ups, after which, we continue to work with them in multiple ways. If the start-up has a truly differentiating idea which we want to keep within Target, we will look at an outright acquisition. In case the technology isn’t great but the talent is great, we would look at an aqui-hire and are also considering engaging with some on a retainer basis,” said Kapoor, adding that, “We are evaluating these start-ups and in the next 12 months, I won’t be surprised if one these options play out.”

The latest batch of five start-ups which graduated from TAP last week include, Find Me A Shoe, TimeFlex, BugClipper, Discover Dollar and House of Blue Beans.

While seed funding in the range of $30,000-50,000 to start-ups is also provided, Kapoor said, not all start-ups are looking for seed funding as access to funding is not really a problem these days. Target has not taken an equity stake in any of the start-ups it has incubated so far.

“A huge problem for most start-ups is getting their first big customer. What we as a $73-billion, Fortune 30 retailer can give them, which is very hard for them to get elsewhere, is the chance to work at a large scale – We have 100 million guests in our system and these start-ups get a chance to test their ideas at our stores and dotcom site. Most of them have never worked with a customer of our scale. This is our biggest differentiator,” pointed out Kapoor.

Headquartered in Minneapolis, Target Corporation is the second largest discount retailer in the US and serves guests at 1,804 stores. India is the second headquarters for Target. With 2,600 employees in Bengaluru, Target India is engaged in an entire gamut of functions including technology, marketing, human resources, merchandising, core marketing, finance, creative design, store design, supply chain, property development, analytics and reporting.

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