Working-class people have experienced the biggest hit due to the Pandemic. People are getting fired from their jobs, getting under-payed, and overworked. But there are also cases of hikes in salaries and hiring of employees across the globe.
With the unprecedented situation that the world is facing, arising out of COVID-19 Pandemic, companies across the world have re-evaluated their HR practices, and while 50% organizations across industries are keeping the salary hike budgets unchanged, 36% have opted for a decline, according to a survey.
In India’s COVID-19, HR Survey Report, KPMG said around 70% of the organizations across levels have reported absolute no change in the planned impact on fixed pay at the non-management and junior management levels.
According to a survey that polled 315 organizations across 20 key industry sectors noted that 90% of the organizations have at least one initiative around the well-being of employees whereas 21% are quite proactive and have 5 or more initiatives to support employees well-being.
While 50% organizations across industries are keeping their salary increment budgets unchanged, around 36% organizations have opted for decreasing the salary increment budgets. On the contrary, most organizations and profiles in IT/ITES, life sciences/pharma and retail sector have refrained from any downwards trend in the overall promotion cycle, the survey noted.
To sustain this worldwide economic imbalance, a few organizations are implementing hiring freezes and wage freezes, while others are introducing remote working alternatives, enhancing employee engagement initiatives, and additional financial assistance. For those who were already in Medical services have their merits of service, lucrative ways delivery during this pandemic.
Companies that are offering hikes in salaries
Even as numerous start-ups or huge organizations continue to cut off employees’ salaries, others in segments like education, real estate, and logistics have seen business growing, fuelled by a surge in demand for their products during the pandemic and are hiring across roles. For some, even salary hikes and promotions are on the cards. There have been many IT firms, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), to one of the biggest multinationals present in India, Coca Cola, who have gone against the situation.
Lakshya Singh
Asian Paints
Asian Paints decided to give its employees a price hike in the face of an ongoing economic crisis amid lockdown. Asian Paints raised the hope and boosting staffs’ morale amid the pandemic gloom.
Apart from going ahead with its annual salary increments, the company also transferred Rs 40 crore into the accounts of its contractors. Expanding its product range into sanitizers in lieu of the basic hygiene being encouraged as a part of the precautionary measures taken to combating COVID-19, the paintmaker now has a greater share of the customer wallet.
ICICI Bank
The private sector bank has decided to reward over 80% of its frontline employees with a salary hike of up to 8%. This hike has been given to the employees in appreciation of the services rendered by them during the pandemic.
These increments bring good news to the Bank’s staff at a time when most other organizations are being either forced to hold back salary hikes, impose salary cuts and even resort to layoffs as part of a cost-cutting measure.
The Board of Directors of ICICI Bank is reportedly thinking of raising funds through equity shares or equity-linked securities. The Bank has asked its employees to join back at their base locations and resume work as soon as possible.
Coca Cola
Coca Cola, that favourite punching-bag for everyone targeting the evils of capitalism, showed a humane face when it announced a salary hike.
Coke’s Indian wing, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, with 15 bottling plants across the country, gave all its 7,000 employees a 7 to 8 % salary hike. The company also made it clear that there would be no lay-off or pay cuts because of sales disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown.
Ashwini
Brillio
Brillio, a tech firm, is also optimistic in planning to add 240 new jobs to its Indian center, in addition to the 1,800 staff it already has. The reason is they have seen a 10% increase in productivity and 20% in people’s engagement since the lockdown. Hence they are moving at a faster pace to ramp up their teams.
NoBroker
NoBroker has been growing during the last one and half months despite the challenging market situations and even managed to raise $30 million in April. The number of inquiries has been increasing. A lot of people are looking to upgrade themselves to a bigger house. A majority of the fresh hiring will be for those from a technology background to support the growth as they shift to online tech.
The organizations are offering salaries at par to the employees. Nobroker.com is known as to be one of the best paymasters and the salary at entry level starts from ₹6 LPA and depending on experience can go up to ₹40-50 lakh, especially for tech skillsets.
Capgemini
Capgemini French IT firm Capgemini has announced a salary hike for 70% of its employees in India in April. It will continue to hire as per the strategy and client/Job requirements. Employees who have joined the company during the lockdown are even completing their onboarding formalities online.
BharatPe
BharatPe Digital fintech startup has also decided to give its employees a hike in their pay. BharatPe has made its annual hikes as per the original schedule. The top performers scoring 3.8/5 or higher have all been given 20% plus increment in the appraisals. Commenting about this time, CEO and Co-founder Ashneer Grover was quoted,
“We have used this unprecedented time to boost the technology and product and will be aggressively acquiring merchants. We tend to lend $100 million to small businesses from here till the end of the year.”
Hike
Hike shared its plans to continue hiring remotely as the ecosystem continues to navigate through a lockdown period. The company plans to hire for over 20 open positions across roles in product, design, marketing, AI & ML, engineering, partner functions and user research.
Hike will be taking up more people onboard as a part of its ZeroTo2 program, which is focused on onboarding young candidates from colleges.
Conclusion
There are a number of factors why an Organization tries to cut the company’s cost. COVID-19 has shown the exact picture of which businesses are in profit and making better even in this difficult time. Hikes in salaries have a direct impact on the employee’s confidence and productivity.
