Mumbai : Amid stiff competition from Indian heritage firms and startups and a limited talent pool, MNCs are wooing potential employees for everything from electric car lease programs and spot awards to nannies’ salaries.
Multinationals are drawing lessons from global success stories on hiring and piloting benefit programs in India to strengthen their hiring policies, noting that salary increases alone are no longer the cut.
For example, HSBC, which has 40,000 Indian employees, has a separate component 10,000-15,000 single parents and mothers with children under the age of six to help pay for nanny. The program, launched in India during the pandemic, is being offered to employees in other markets.
The lender is also looking at EV car policies to attract the youth. “Requests to consider EVs came up in our engagement forums with employees. In response, we are exploring ways to offer EVs as part of our car lease benefits,” said Archana Chadha, Head Human Resources, HSBC India.
HSBC UK recently offered EV leasing to its approximately 35,000 employees. The bank said the EVs, including Tesla’s, were offered on lease for four years, with the option of owning the car after the lease period expires. Electric vehicles are less taxed and have done well in attracting talent.
MNCs said young workers are looking at compensation structures beyond the cash component, including reducing carbon emissions or helping parents care for their children, especially as hybrid work culture has become the norm.
“Cash is the initial enthusiasm and eventually settles, while profit and HR policies bring the stickiness. MNCs have the advantage of bringing in globally successful profit programs and tailoring them to the Indian population,” said Rupank Choudhary, Partner, Human Capital Solutions, Aon India said.
In comparison, Indian firms do not have the same advantages as such rapid launches. “For Indian organizations, given the sheer size of their employee base, it is difficult and the economics of new age benefit programs will have to be tailored on an end-use basis,” Chowdhary said.
Initiatives by multinationals come even as India Inc is tightening purse strings and dialing up discretionary spending such as offsite meets, travel and large marketing initiatives to preserve cash to meet rising challenges.
CRISIL President and Chief Human Resource Officer Anupam Kaur said, “We started spot awards (cash payments) in the second half of 2021 to tackle the war for talent from April 2021 onwards.”
“Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures that do not create a long-term or permanent stretch based on expense, or reduce the wage mix,” Koura said.
Crisil said the deferred cash payment option was offered to employees who felt that stock compensation was an expensive proposition. “It brings with it profit from accounting, charging in the books relative to stock-based profits.”
Online retail giants like Amazon launched programs after the “creche system crashed” to woo working women and prevent drop outs. “We supported cash-out so they can choose to have a nanny at home or extra help or whatever they need. This while working from home,” said Swati Rustagi, director, diversity, equity and inclusion, Amazon .