'It's never easy': Clorox's Jackson Jeyanayagam on hiring DTC talent in a post-pandemic world

As the pandemic's third wave mounts, Clorox wipes are still a hot commodity -- the product's shortage is expected to last into the new year. That outsized demand has led to a bump in sales for the company overall, and a stock that's risen by a third this year. Clorox's general manager of DTC Jackson Jeyanayagam, who oversees new digital business ventures and brands for the CPG giant, said that the edge extended to hiring power. "Here I come at Clorox trying to sell someone to come from a Netflix, an Airbnb or Warby Parker or Peloton and come work for me at Clorox, which no one ever thinks of as DTC," Jeyanayagam said on the Modern Retail Podcast. "It's never easy to hire great talent. But it's not nearly the same as it was exactly 12 months ago." On this week's episode, he spoke about how he approaches hiring, what new ways Clorox is trying to build out its DTC channel as well as how the company is looking into new areas and product lines. Burt's Bees, a subsidiary owned by Clorox, recently launched a CBD line, for example, and it brought about a few unique challenges. Some marketing channels are unavailable to a hemp-based products, Jeyanayagam said, and the product line can only sell in 25 states. "It's very saturated despite that. There's a lot of noise, and there's a lot of bad players."