Startups to reward and retain top performers despite crunch

Top talent will be rewarded with ESOPs, special bonuses, larger roles, trips and faster career progression tracks, founders at these startups told ET. Overall increments will happen based on organisational growth, achievement of business targets and industry trends. But the appraisals will largely be in line with last year’s at most startup units.

These startups had paid out increments in the range of 10-30% last year, going up to even 100% in exceptional cases.

Edtech company upGrad will grant ESOPs worth Rs 100 crore to select employees across levels in the upcoming appraisal cycle. “We will continue to go out of our way to reward and retain overachievers and top performers who have pivoted our growth trajectory while also accelerating our bottomline,” said Mayank Kumar, co-founder, upGrad.

For Cashkaro, both fiscal prudence in the interest of the overall business, and keeping up the overall morale of employees are important. “Good appraisals are a key part of driving employee motivation. Hence, cutting down on salary increments or employee rewards has never been on our list, and will not be in 2023 as well,” said cofounder Swati Bhargava.

Bhargava said that being well capitalised, the company expects to maintain the increments it gave last year. Increments will range from 10% to as high as over 100% depending on team, revenue contribution and future potential. These will also include ESOPs.

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Hemant Vishnoi, co-founder at spend management platform EnKash, said that even during Covid, team members saw an average 25-30% growth in annual compensation. “This year seems no different to us, despite being a tough year for everyone,” said Vishnoi.EnKash has an ‘Attitude Bonus’ programme to reward employee initiatives beyond the call of duty. “As part of this, employees can take home higher packages for demonstrating ownership and driving larger impact, wherein they can earn up to 2X of bonus amount over and above their annual pay,” said Vishnoi.

Proptech company NoBroker plans to recognise top performers through a mix of public-recognition-awards and award of additional ESOPs. “Last year, the increments were in the range of 10% to 20%. This year’s increments will be in a similar range with a cautious bias,” said Amit Agarwal, co-founder, NoBroker.

“While the Indian economy is doing very well, the mood in the startup community is muted due to the impending US recession, inflation concerns and geopolitical issues. Hence, we would like to keep a judicious mix between motivating our team and conserving cash,” added Agarwal.

At home interiors solutions platform HomeLane, the average hike was around 13% last year and it’s going to be in the similar range this year as well. Top performers will be given stock options as well.

“Appraisals are a reflection of the company and an employee’s year-round performance and a way of motivating and rewarding good performers. With that in mind, we will be cognisant of the macro-economic situation and take the appraisal discussion forward accordingly,” said Srikanth Iyer, co-founder, HomeLane

Roma Bindroo, CHRO of quick commerce firm Zepto, said it is committed to doing what is right by its talent, which has been its bloodline. “For us, it is critical to balance how we recognise our employees who have been an integral part of this growth journey as well as the macroeconomic situations impacting the industry,” said Bindroo.