Companies dangle carrots to retain staff

As retaining talent is increasingly becoming a challenge, companies are offering incentives to reward employees who have completed a certain number of years of service.

Termed as long service award policies, these perks encourage employees to stick to their employers for a longer term, according to HR experts.

“Such awards are granted to employees in recognition of their long period of service with the company and their loyalty towards the employer. They encourage employees to serve the organisation for sometime more,” said an HR official with a foreign investment bank which has a captive unit in the city. When an employee completes five years of service with this bank, he/she is given half a month’s salary as a one-time incentive; when an employee completes 10 years, he/she is given a month’s salary.

Automobile major Toyota Kirloskar Motor has a policy of rewarding employees with 10 grams of gold (worth around Rs30,000) upon completion of 10 years.

Similarly, Aricent Group, a technology services company, gives a certificate in addition to Rs35,000 in cash to employees who have completed 10 years.

“We value the contribution of our employees to the company’s growth and the reward is just a token of appreciation. In fact, we start recognising employees’ contribution from the first year itself. We give a wrist watch to each employee when he/she completes a year with us. After five years, the employee gets Rs15,000 in cash and a certificate and after 10 years, he/she is given Rs35,000 along with a certificate. We are planning to make this policy more innovative and by next year we will come up with something new,” said Amitabh Hajela, global HR head, Aricent Group.

STMicroelectronics, which manufactures semiconductors, gives cash and certificates to employees who have completed five years. “A plaque is provided to the employee who has completed 20 years of service,” said Ashish Chawla, country HR director, STMicroelectronics India.

Employees of computer software firm Adobe can avail an additional leave of 30 days when they complete five years with the company. The policy has been a huge hit among Adobe’s  employees.

“For me, an additional leave of 30 days is much better than a cash reward. Everyone gets pay hikes, but a 30-day extra leave makes the long tenure in the company really meaningful,” said an Adobe employee on the condition of anonymity.

According to HR experts, companies also offer restricted stock units (RSU) to those employees who have completed longer tenures. RSUs are stocks that are not fully transferable until certain conditions have been met.

Those employees who have completed 10 years with Synopsys, an electronic design automation firm, get an opportunity to choose a gift of their choice from a basket of gifts.

“These awards acknowledge the contributions made by the employee to the organisation,” said Anjali Mandanna, an HR executive with Synopsys.