Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: In a strange era when millions of employees lost jobs worldwide in the wake of the pandemic or resigned in several countries in what is now known as “The Great Resignations”, homegrown IndiaMART, a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce country, has announced to pay weekly salary to its employees.
The move, perhaps the first by an Indian company, announced last weekend, is being seen as part of the company’s attempts to keep its employees, media reports suggested on Monday.
Fortnightly or weekly payment of salaries is commonplace in countries like the US and New Zealand, and also in Hong Kong. But IndiaMART’s radical move is likely to ruffle feathers of those employees, especially senior ones, who plan their expenses ahead with expected monthly salaries, from which they also pay their EMIs, house rent, and other bills.
According to recruiters, IT and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) companies are struggling to keep talent as uncertainties and opportunities unveiled by the global pandemic have prompted the millennial generation to look for greener pastures on a weekly, fortnightly, or monthly basis.
Earlier, they usually changed jobs every two or three years. Now they do so in a matter of weeks as fresh opportunities unfold in the wake of others quitting their jobs likewise. Prolonged work-for-home regimes have also forced them to adopt alternative lifestyles of a work-life balance.
In particular, start-ups are facing this employee-retention crisis. Among them, those with deep pockets can also follow the IndiaMART example of offering weekly salaries.
According to a media report, IndiaMART’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Dinesh Gulati explained the rationale behind this transition thus: many employees now expect ‘instant gratification.’ “Paying employees on a weekly basis makes it easier for them to meet their real-time fiscal obligations. This is especially relevant considering the current pandemic where millennial workers, who most times, live on their own, away from home, struggle financially with their once-a-month pay-checks,” he added.
Sources said the transition to weekly payouts could help companies deliver completed projects as scheduled. Besides, this transition could become an incentive and continuously attract young talents as they get multiple options. In fact, they could quickly rise up the professional and financial ladders.
They will, however, have to do more paperwork to pay taxes: instead of a monthly statement, they will have to collect weekly statements for submission of annual taxes.