The Aditya Birla Management Corporation is looking at raising total employee strength to 55,000 in its retail business alone, from 8,000 employees right now.

Speaking at the seminar organized by the National HRD Network in Kolkata, Santrupt B Misra, director-HR and IT of the company, said, "We have 300 stores right now and are constantly looking at expansion. We are therefore looking at employee strength of 55,000, from close to 8,000 right now."

The group has an attrition rate of close to 9 per cent, he admitted, adding, "We are looking at outsourcing some of our HR practices in order to grow our company and combat attrition rate."

Practices such as employee grievance handling, payroll structure, etc, is likely to be outsourced. The company would also outsource basic training of its employees, said Misra.

The company is also looking at recruiting employees from outside India, especially for services and expertise that people in India lack.

"For instance, in India there are very few people trained on merchandise and large store management. People also do not know what to do with agri-products, their purchases, etc. We would therefore look at hiring people from outside India for these kind of expertise," Misra said.

The company provided ESOP to 400 of its employees, in order to combat attrition.