Persuasion games

Software engineer Sulekha Rastogi has got an offer from an e-commerce start-up with an exciting pay package. But she has a few apprehensions whether or not to accept the same. Rastogi is well aware of the ups and downs concerning the start-up jobs and her brother is one of the many who lost his job last year owing to a start-up's closure. What’s more, he is yet to even get his severance package, despite multiple reminders.

The dejection and doubts that the Rastogi siblings have over working with start-ups somewhat resonate in the minds of several job-seekers.

A start-up environment promises great learning, a sound understanding of business metrics, opportunities to analyse and innovate solutions; all of which tremendously benefit a professional. However, the perceived negatives often equal the positives. The sector is fraught with shutdowns. The year 2017 witnessed over 270 start-ups in India closing down (as per data from research firm Tracxn), with names like Stayzilla, Yumist, Eatonomist in the list. Even the fashion start-up Kaaryah, which had the backing of Ratan Tata and Mohandas Pai, shut shop over lack of consistent access to funds. And for start-ups like Craftsvilla, Snapdeal and YepMe that remained in the game, layoffs became a recurring theme. 2017 has mirrored itself out this year, with the likes of at-home service provider Housejoy, which is backed by Amazon and Qualcomm, laying off employees across back-end, technical and the marketing divisions.

According to Zishaan Hayath, CEO and co-founder, Toppr, people have been talking in hushed tones about start-up shutdowns. “This has led to rising concerns amongst job seekers on job security, employee benefits, and pay hikes. We have had to deal with these insecurities too.”

To counter insecurities, the new age firms have started implementing certain measures. Toppr, says Hayath, holds regular town halls where employees are acquainted with the sales cycles, the cash flow situation, etc. “We also hold offsite events to give employees an opportunity to interact with the management. This instils confidence in employees about the company.”

Ventures like ixigo conduct all-hands-meet every quarter to highlight the progress made and provide a platform to employees to ask questions to the co-founders. “The idea is to renew the team’s energy, align it with the company objectives and keep employees updated on the company performance,” says Kanchi Chawla, vice president – human resources, ixigo. Start-ups have also instituted flat hierarchies and open door policies that allow employees to walk up to the founders and talk upfront.

To quell insecurity fears, ixigo hires only permanent employees and no temps or contract staff. “This gives employees a sense of belonging towards the organisation,”” says Chawla.

Furthermore, to show their concerns, startups have started assessing employee performance, providing skills assistance and mentorship.

Anindya Dutta, co-founder, Stanza Living, says they emphasise on continued skills enhancement by regularly organising training sessions. “We have installed a structured mentorship programme under which each employee is assigned a mentor from the senior leadership team to help plan their career path within the organisation.”

At Fynd, a performance improvement plan is implemented to provide supervisors and employees with the opportunity to discuss job tasks, identify and correct weaknesses, exploit strengths and discuss positive approaches for meeting goals, says the co-founder Harsh Shah.

Mentorship and performance enhancement programmes say, entrepreneurs, allow employees to up their game and improve their deliverables.

And aside from mediclaim, employee stock ownership plan (Esops), gratuity and provident fund (PF), start-ups have started stressing on annual appraisals. “We are fairly competitive in terms of compensation. This year, our average increment was 18%,” says Chawla.

But despite all this, start-ups largely remain places where work hours are erratic and employees are often overworked, more than in larger corporates or multi-national companies (MNCs). Are start-ups doing much to streamline the working hours? "In the last three years of our existence, we have never worked evenings or weekends. Our office is empty by 5.30 PM,’’ says Neha Bagaria, founder and CEO, JobsForHer.

Hayath, on the other hand, admits honestly that Toppr employees do work beyond 10 hours at times. “But we measure productivity in terms of tasks completed and not a number of hours clocked. Employees take ownership of their work and decide when to leave or to stay back.” Entrepreneurs feel their ‘’employee friendly’’ policies will work towards arresting the negative perceptions that exist about startup work cultures and help in attracting new talent going ahead. Toppr, which is 1000 employees strong, is looking to add 170 product developers and engineers, and also add to their headcount in sales, marketing and analytics. Ixigo meanwhile is hiring professionals for roles in technology, product and marketing.

“We will hire 125-150 people over the next few months,” says Stanza Living’s Dutta.

PLAYING THE DEVILS ADVOCATE

• Start-ups have started assessing employee performance, providing skills assistance and mentorship
   
• Entrepreneurs feel their employee-friendly policies will work towards arresting the negative perceptions