Zoho Corporation, one of the biggest CRM and project management providers on the market, has announced a 38% rate year-on-year growth, surpassing 80 million users, in what has been one of the most challenging years in the tech industry to date — and it has no plans of slowing down.
After reporting a 300% growth in headcount outside of India since the start of 2020, the company revealed its new plans to hire at least 2,000 new employees within the next year.
At a time when tech is struggling to retain top talent across the board and companies like Microsoft, Twitter and Shopify are reporting mass layoffs, Zoho must be doing something right.
Why is Zoho Thriving?
The announcement, made by Sridhar Vembu — Zoho CEO, at Zoho’s annual analyst summit this week, put the company’s success down to strategic investments, innovation and global expansion — opening offices in small cities and rural areas all over the word, creating more localised jobs with more opportunities for local communities.
“We’ve long felt that we have a responsibility to the communities and world around us, whether that be through providing job opportunities to those with less access or by delivering products that help businesses grow to their potential,” said Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho Corporation.
Why Businesses Are Struggling to Grow
During the pandemic there was huge demand for talent in tech, as businesses pivoted from a physical world to a digital one, but some companies, like Shopify, reportedly expanded too quickly.
A decrease in consumer demand, stock value, and the rising cost of inflation meant businesses such as Microsoft, had to change its approach and implement hiring freezes to adapt to the new climate, with Twitter, Intel and Snap all following suit — but employee demands are also changing.
Return to work policies saw big tech giants like Apple battling unionization, and even Microsoft was forced to increase its pay in order to compete with inflation and employee demands.
Are Localised Job Opportunities The Key to Sustainable Growth?
Zoho claims its growth is due to its “Transnational Localism” effort — “ a means to create self-reliant local communities and economies” by partnering with local governments and communities to lower the technology adoption barrier for businesses, upskilling communities and opening hub-and-spoke model office — larger offices to serve several smaller offices in smaller cities and rural areas, which allows employees to stay in their hometowns.
With a 300% growth in headcount and 59 new offices opened since 2020, Zoho could be on to something.
PwC reported 60% of employees prefer to work mostly or completely from home, with 20% of employees likely to find a new job in the next year if a job doesn’t meet their post-pandemic requirements. While pay is definitely a massive driver (for 71% of people), maybe there is something in meeting employees where they are. If workers aren’t willing to travel for tech jobs, maybe businesses can do more, like Zoho, to bring tech jobs to them?
