Ola Electric Mobility Goes On A Hiring Spree

Although the ridesharing service Ola has furloughed 1,400 employees in India, one of its businesses seems to be bucking the trend.

Ola Electric Mobility (OEM) recently appointed Vithal Acharya as its new human resources head. The company plans to hire at least half a dozen more senior executives in the coming months.

“In the current challenging times, the company has not gone in for layoffs or resizing and, in fact, is looking to hire more people across various roles,” said an executive, who did not wish to be identified.

OEM is putting high stakes on the electro-mobility segment as it has announced its “Mission: Electric” and also deployed multiple battery swapping pilots across the country.

Commenting on the initiative, an OEM spokesperson said, “We continue to hire for roles across the board at Ola Electric. We are also onboarding over 75 campus hires in the next couple of months from leading business schools and premier technical institutions across India.”

In the past six months, OEM has hired Sanjay Bhan (chief business officer), who joined from Hero MotoCorp, and Roger Looney (vice-president vehicle engineering) from a China automaker. Acharya joined from Sterlite Power where he was chief people officer.

OEM is looking at hiring people across levels ranging from junior to mid-level as well as senior positions in different spheres which include battery technology, EV Powertrain, vehicle engineering, business development and cutting-edge software or app development.

In an early report of a media house, it was reported that restructuring by Ola was a one-time exercise for India mobility business, Ola Foods and Ola Financial Services.