Seeking breathing room, CXOs say no to jobs in toxic NCR

Increasingly toxic air quality in and around Delhi is forcing some senior corporate executives to decline job offers in the national capital region, according to executive search companies. Korn Ferry, EMA Partners, Hunt Partners, Transearch and Global Hunt say that while pollution had become an active point of discussion in CXO job searches last year itself, every third CXO they’ve been approaching lately is reluctant to accept a job offer in Delhi-NCR.
Instead, top-level executives are seeking opportunities in cities such as Mumbai, Pune and Bengaluru. “Delhi has five seasons now, the fifth being the ‘pollution season’, and search firms including ours see a drop in interest around this time for positions in Delhi,” said Uday Chawla, managing partner at Transearch.

Search experts warned that this issue is going to get worse over the coming years if measures aren’t taken to combat worsening air quality in the national capital. Some search firms estimated that as many as 40% of CXOs are declining job offers, especially expats and returning Indians, citing pollution.

Transearch is still looking for a chief information/digital officer at a Delhi-based petrochemical firm.

“Tech talent is mostly outside India and we saw that many candidates were not comfortable with the idea of settling down in Delhi,” Chawla said. To be sure, there are other reasons why Delhi-NCR scores low, such as safety of women.

An analytics head at a Bengalurubased tech firm refused a job offer in Delhi despite an 80% jump in salary. Those who have recently turned down lucrative offers for NCR-based positions over air quality concerns include the group finance head of a Mumbai-based consumer company, the head of operations at a Chennaibased engineering firm and the quality head of a Bengaluru-based auto company, search firm executives said.

“More than the CEOs, it is the families who are baulking at moving to NCR region,” said Navnit Singh, chairman at Korn Ferry India.

Experts expect the trend to continue, especially for offers made closer to the winter season when air pollution spikes.

“Compared to other locations in India like Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru and Chennai, it becomes a challenge to attract talent to Delhi and NCR around this time,” said A Ramachandran, senior partner at EMA Partners.

Currently, about 50% of returning Indians/expats are turning down job offers in Delhi-NCR due to reasons such as air pollution, according to EMA Partners.

BTI Consultants India said at least five CXOs (mostly from the US) are turning down offers to relocate to Delhi.

“They are opting for cities like Pune, Mumbai and Bengaluru to Delhi,” said James Agrawal, managing director at the firm.

Many senior executives are also looking to move out of the area.

“The resolve to leave or relocate to Mumbai or Bengaluru of the ones who have recently moved to NCR (especially with young children) in the last few years becomes stronger every winter,” said Suresh Raina, partner at Hunt Partners (India). “Air pollution in Delhi/NCR has now almost assumed a permanent home in the mind space of professionals.”

However, Agrawal of BTI Consultants said, “Air pollution is one of the reasons cited by them, but not the only reason.”

Singh of Korn Ferry said, “Besides pollution, candidates and their families, for multiple reasons, also feel that NCR is unsafe and unfriendly towards females.”