From December 2021, Cocoguru pays for employees’ canteen meals outside their salary package. Here is how our employee policies went from strict to generous.
Our in-house canteen serves fresh, hygienically cooked food three times a day during working hours. Until now, its cost was budgeted into each employee’s cost to company (CTC), and what they actually ate was deducted from their monthly pay. This mattered most to our sales team, who work in the field.
From December 2021, the company will pay for food itself, outside the CTC, and permanent sales staff will get a daily allowance instead. It is good news: their take-home pay goes up.
Why food was in the CTC
In our early years, many employees compared only their take-home pay with what other local firms paid. Benefits that cost us money but did not show in the pay packet — ESI, PF, free canteen food, paid leave — went unnoticed, however much we explained them.
At first, canteen food was free and outside the CTC. Over time, there were complaints about the food, and a good deal of it was wasted.
We ran satisfaction surveys, genuinely wanting to do better, but they brought out mostly complaints. Some employees also asked for salary advances, at a time when the company itself was stretched by large loans for building the factory and for working capital.
Keeping everyone happy while running the business smoothly became very hard. So we decided: “Let us do our best, whether or not it pleases everyone,” and changed our policies:
- every benefit was given a value and included in the CTC;
- no salary advances;
- no more satisfaction surveys;
- pay revised only at the yearly appraisal; and
- no salary negotiation — employees could stay on these terms, or leave.
From strict to generous
A few employees accepted these terms and encouraged others to join on them. As they stayed and did well, our policies grew steadily more generous:
- the day now starts at 9 am instead of 8.30, half an hour less work;
- ten festival holidays a year for everyone, outside the CTC;
- an hour off in the afternoon, now and then, for social functions;
- when the ESI contribution fell from 6.5% to 4% in 2019, we kept the CTC the same, so take-home pay rose;
- salaries above the local market;
- a food budget unchanged for seven or eight years, though the CTC rose every year; and
- a profit-based bonus every six months.
Today we are proud that many of our people have been with us for many years. They do well and take ownership. In recognition, we are making our employee policies more generous still — starting with free canteen food.