How Channelplay Runs Monthly Bulk Hiring for Nykaa's Field Sales Team

Hiring for Nykaa's field sales team never finishes. In India's metro cities, people in these sales roles often switch employers for a small pay rise. So we run the same hiring funnel for Nykaa every month. A candidate reaches Nykaa's own interview only after an AI screen, a call from our recruiters and an HR call. Once hired, they join our payroll, and every payroll cycle on this account has been paid on time.

Bulk hiring for field sales roles that turn over every month

Nykaa, the beauty and fashion retailer, came to us for hiring and payroll, and we've worked together for several years. We deploy its field sales staff, and we've now started placing staff in Nykaa's own stores too.

Candidates come from several places at once:

• Channelplay Jobs, our own recruitment platform for field and retail roles, where we post the openings.
• WorkIndia and Naukri, two paid job portals.
• Our retail hiring team, organised by zone, and a separate recruitment team that handles hiring in volume.

Applications are kept in our in-house applicant database.

Five steps from screening to hire, and where Nykaa comes in

1. AI screening. An AI screen filters each resume or profile first.
2. Recruitment call. Our recruitment team calls the candidate, and Nykaa's territory manager for that region confirms the candidate.
3. HR call. The candidate then has an HR call.
4. Nykaa's interview. Nykaa's team interviews the candidate and makes the selection.
5. Finalisation. The hire is finalised and joins our payroll.

We handle the applicant volume. Nykaa decides who joins.

Who runs recruitment and payroll for this outsourced sales team

On this account, the split between us and Nykaa is simple:

• Channelplay: sourcing, screening and recruitment, then salary and attendance once people join.
• Nykaa: who gets hired, and how they perform. Nykaa tracks performance through its own MIS staff in each region and its own field app.

There are no Channelplay team leaders and no Channelplay app on this account. We think that's right for a brand with its own reporting: the field team answers to one set of numbers, kept by the people who set the targets.

Other accounts draw the line elsewhere. On our managed sales teams, we also train and manage the team and track its performance. At Airtel Payments Bank, we recruit for both head-office and field roles but pay only the field team.

Our proposal: a career step so staying pays more than switching

In our view, more sourcing can refill roles, but it can't make people stay. So we've proposed two changes to Nykaa:

• A rewards and recognition policy, with incentives.
• A defined career step. New hires join as business development executives (BDEs), the entry-level role. After a set period of continued service, a BDE moves up to Senior BDE with a salary raise.

Hiring field staff in volume yourself? Here's how our recruitment and payroll outsourcing works, and what a full recruitment process looks like.