Luxury cars to flexi hours, tech companies go all out to retain talent

Chennai: On a hot Chennai afternoon in March, Suresh Sambandam, founder of Saas startup Kissflow, strode down to the parking lot of his plush office at the city’s World Trade Centre towers, surrounded by five of his most trusted lieutenants. Their advent set off a swell of murmurs as the group headed towards a sparkly line of brand-new BMW Series 5 cars, rising to a crescendo as the 48-year-old entrepreneur handed the keys to each of his colleagues as a gift for their “ unwavering loyalty”.

A generation ago, companies would bid farewell to retiring employees with a modest gift and fulsome praise. Now in 2022, as a fierce war for talent rages across the post-pandemic world of hybrid workplaces, technology ventures are wooing their best and brightest with gifts ranging from luxury cars to flexi hours and bonuses for good health.

“At a time when people are quitting in 18 months, we wanted to do this [giving away BMW cars] to recognise the value of being loyal to a company. We want to change the narrative, to make people believe that there is benefit in being loyal,” Sambandam told ET.

He is not alone. Across India’s burgeoning technology sector — the $225-billion software services industry as well as the 70+ unicorn laden startup sector — employers are outdoing each other to woo colleagues with gifts ranging from the personalised to the exorbitant. These efforts come in the wake of a surge in attrition across the industry. Bellwether corporations like TCS and Infosys have recently said the metric in their firms stood at 17.4% and 27.7%, respectively, in the last quarter of fiscal 2022.

Great tech talent crunch


Shortly after KissFlow’s largesse to the select few, custom software development company Ideas2IT gave away 100 Maruti Suzuki cars in what top executives termed “wealth sharing” with employees.

Elsewhere in Bengaluru, online stock trading company Zerodha has told its employees better performance on lowering Body Mass Index (BMI) will lead to additional bonuses. CEO Nithin Kamath clarified on Twitter that it was an effort from the company to encourage employees to redouble focus on their health. An e-mail sent to Zerodha about the BMI challenge remained unanswered till press time Thursday.

Regardless of individual context, it is clear that technology workers are a pampered lot. Amid a rapidly changing workplace milieu where remote work has opened doors for a wider set of job opportunities, employers are allowing flexibility at work and letting employees feel appreciated in ever more unique ways, according to talent sourcing professionals and HR practitioners.

There is good reason for employers displaying such alacrity to please.

In a recent survey by Talent500, which helps businesses build remote teams, 87% of the 4,800 professionals across key Indian metros who were surveyed, said they will seek out or consider new opportunities this year. Over 88% preferred hybrid work or work-from-anywhere, and nearly 63% said they are willing to consider independent consultant roles with global companies.

Global opportunities

A host of US-based technology companies such as the totally remote GitLab Inc are hiring professionals in India for remote-only positions, tearing down geographic walls around access to talent.

“Hybrid and flexible work models will continue post-pandemic, and people will show a strong preference for flexibility and choice,” said Vikram Ahuja, CEO & Founder at Talent500.

Employers are also reimagining work practices to address some of the long-held grievances aggravated through the pandemic.

SaaS platform Chargebee has grown its global workforce multiple times through the pandemic, meaning its employees work across a clutch of time zones. The company now encourages its employees to vigorously document their work to reduce video calls between teams cutting across time zones, according to R U Srinivas, SVP-People Success at Chargebee.

Nasdaq-listed Freshworks, which runs its largest Indian workplace in Chennai, terms itself “truly hybrid”, with teams choosing when they want to come into office — one day or five in a week. “We have hired a lot of new team members during the last two years who are entirely remote. While they continue to be remote, they are also using the opportunity to come in and experience Freshworks and get to meet their colleagues in person for the first time,” said CHRO Suman Gopalan.

IT firms with larger workplaces are trying to strike a balance, too. Mid-sized IT firm Mindtree has asked employees in cities where the company has offices to come to work twice or thrice a week, starting April. For the rest, the company will go hybrid over the quarter, said Chief People Officer Suresh Bethavandu.

Software Services Association NASSCOM says the pivot towards hybrid work is also physically rearranging the workplace. According to a recent survey, 73% of organisations would look to redesign their offices to accommodate hybrid work models, while over 93% are looking at hybrid models beyond the pandemic.