These Firms Are Raising Salaries Of Employees To Boost Morale: Flipkart, Asian Paints, CSS & More

During the times of job losses, pay cuts, deferred increments and deferred joining dates, some companies are still having a stronghold.

As per the reports, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Johnson & Johnson, HCCB, Flipkart, Myntra, CSS Corp, BharatPe, BSH Home Appliances and Inflexion Point Ventures are one of those companies, who have chosen to hike salaries, make variable payouts and promote employees even in these tough times.

What Do Experts Say?

According to the compensation experts, while companies across the board are making decisions based on business realities, the concern they display during the Covid-19 crisis will have a lasting impact on employee goodwill.

The CEO, CSS Corp, Manish Tandon said, “In these unprecedented times, it is a great opportunity for organizations to lead with empathy and take care of their employees’ interest. We believe that giving pay hikes will help add certainty in these uncertain times,”.

Further, the IT services company has paid out increments and variable pay to its 7,000-strong workforce. 

While, at the lower bands, which constitute 70% of the workforce, the variable payout was 100%.

The MD and CEO, BSH Home Appliances, Neeraj Bahl said, “It’s our job to keep the morale of employees high in these uncertain times and give them a sense of security,”. 

So when the firm cut marketing and travel costs and initiated a hiring freeze, staff were given increments and promotions went ahead.

Why Would This Happen?

In the current situation, ‘paying scheduled salary increments and variable payouts is especially significant, given the sheer number of companies that have gone in for salary cuts and layoffs in the past month or two. 

As many are struggling to retain jobs and current levels of remuneration.

The Inflection Point Ventures CEO, Vinay Bansal said, “We took the decision of not cutting salaries or laying off people because, while the macro trends were looking weak starting March, we are a people-first organization and believe that when we put people first, our people make things happen for the organization,”.

On the other hand, some companies, like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro, PwC India and Infosys have deferred hikes. 

While companies like Reliance Industries, Oyo Rooms and TVS Motors have cut salaries while Ola, Uber, Zomato and IBM are among those that have fired employees.

What Do Companies Say?

The partner, Deloitte India, Anandorup Ghose said, “We are seeing the response to be more company-specific than industry. Naturally, certain industries such as consumer goods, food processing, etc are not as significantly impacted by the crisis as others and have the cash-flow buffer to be able to give salary increases or bonuses. However, we are finding companies in industries that are under significant pressure gave pay increases and bonuses,”.

According to the HUL spokesperson, “HUL follows an April-March cycle. Variable pay for the previous year and increments for the current year have already been paid out.”

While BharatPe said that annual appraisals were completed on time and it plans to move into a bigger office.

Further, they say that High performers have been given increments of 20% and more.

Apart from these, Myntra also completed its performance evaluation process, which had started when the lockdown was announced, said Sneha Arora, vice president, human capital. 

Also, they have honored all job offers and the company has recruited more than 280 people during this period.

In the case of Coca-Cola’s bottling partner HCCB, they have announced 7-8% increments and said there would be no layoffs and salary reductions on account of Covid-19.

On the other hand, Asian Paints said it would give salary hikes to employees despite the coronavirus outbreak impacting business.