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Companies across the mining, consulting, paper pulp, electric vehicles, cement, FMCG and financial sectors, among others, want leaders to manage their ESG initiatives through cleaner and greener processes and improved transparency in reporting, and to develop a long-term sustainability roadmap, said executive search firms Korn Ferry, Transearch, and Claricent Partners, which are seeing a two to three times increase in mandates.
Compensation for CXO-level executives for ESG roles varies from Rs 2 crore to Rs 4 crore and more, depending on the size of the organisation. Expat talent commands a higher premium.
HCL Infosystems, & SEZ, KPMG, and are among companies that have recently made senior ESG hires. Companies looking to bring ESG leaders on board include Group, Bank of America, PwC and .
Rise in mandates
Executive search firm Korn Ferry is seeing a two-fold increase in mandates for ESG roles.
“With company boards stressing on the ESG agenda and making it a part of the balance sheet, we’re seeing a trend of people in consulting firms joining enterprises embarking on ESG goals,” said senior client partner Ashwin
.
Claricent Partners’ searches for this function include one for a cement major and another for an FMCG firm.
“Large conglomerates that can afford to shell out a premium are even looking for expat talent from Europe,” said Jyoti Bowen Nath, managing partner at Claricent Partners.
Transearch India has closed some senior-level ESG hirings who work closely with the CEO of the business or even the chairman of the group. It is working on more mandates, where compensation packages are upwards of Rs 3 crore, and is also looking at overseas talent, said Atul Vohra, managing partner.
Hiring leaders
The Vedanta Group is hiring senior talent from outside the organisation for leadership roles, either as full-time employees or as advisers.
“We have taken up nine quantifiable targets to integrate ESG in day-to-day business, commitments such as achieving net-zero carbon by 2050 or sooner, becoming water positive by 2030, etc. To achieve these goals, we need to have the appropriate talent — at the senior executive level as well as mid- and junior-management level,” said chief HR officer Madhu Shrivastava.
Sustainable finance is a big theme within the ESG framework for Bank of America, said Shankar Subramaniam, head of India corporate banking.
“This is an extremely important theme in our hiring decisions across product lines — loans, credit, trade finance or capital markets. Globally, we have made a $1 trillion sustainable finance deployment commitment across products and for this to happen, we need to have bankers who understand sustainability and ESG concepts,” said Subramaniam.
Recruitment heads say there is a severe dearth of talent in this function, as it is a new and evolving function.
“The capabilities required in the ESG function span the ambit of climate, governance, inclusion, etc. There are hardly any people who are masters of all of this, but what matters is understanding of the industry, the business and multiple stakeholder views,” said Chaitali Mukherjee, partner and leader, people and organisation, at PwC India.
The consulting firm is looking for business leaders who have done multifunctional roles, and has significant hiring plans across all its lines of business.
Jyoti Kumar Bansal, chief of CSR and sustainability at Tata Power Co said increasingly, finances were being linked to corporates being responsible for their ESG commitments — this further adds to the high importance of this role.
“We have always had senior professionals in this space who work very closely with businesses to further the ESG agenda of the organisation. As needs grow and evolve, we continue to invest in the talent pool which will support our ambition and aspirations,” added Bansal.
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