udaan, India’s largest b2b eCommerce platform, today announced an ESOP policy covering all employees with significant changes based on what it defines as its philosophy of ‘deep employee trust’ and ‘shared entrepreneurship’.
udaan has decided to remove the ‘cliff’ vesting for all ESOPs. All future ESOP allocations at udaan will vest every quarter. The one-year ‘cliff’ period is a widely prevalent industry practice that requires employees to wait for one year for their ESOPs to start vesting.
Meenakshi Priyam, Group CHRO, udaan, asserted that people trust companies with their careers. The company felt that the practice of granting ESOPs with a one-year cliff doesn’t reciprocate this trust.
Also read: To ESOP or Not to ESOP Myths, Fallacies, and Green Signals for Startups (allthingstalent.org)
“As a progressive employer, we have decided to take the lead in balancing the scales in employer-employee relationships in the industry and revamped our ESOP policy. We want to treat all our employees as responsible adults and as equal partners.”
Meenakshi Priyam, Group CHRO, udaan
As a part of the revamp, every employee at udaan, regardless of their tenure or job profile, will be allotted ESOPs under their Annual Performance cycle. Further, these ESOPs will vest at a quarterly frequency and be completely vested within a two-year period – twice as fast as the industry norm of four years.
Following these changes, the overall number of ESOP holders in the company has jumped 400 percent and now covers 100% of its employees.
Earlier this year, udaan raised a total of $250 million through convertible notes and debt funding to further grow and capitalize on the enormous growth opportunity that the Indian eCommerce market offers. The company has invested more than Rs 4000 crores in the past 12-18 months across different pillars of business – people, technology, supply chain, category, credit, compliance – to accelerate and strengthen capabilities to serve its customers better. The company has also undertaken various initiatives to enhance the overall customer experience.
