Start ups, rather than giants like Facebook or Google, provide tougher challenge in retaining and hiring talent, says Yahoo’s new HR head.
Aniruddha Banerjee, who heads human resources of Yahoo! India, which is at present in the throes of a turbulent transition, told Business Line that with top talent turning entrepreneurs, it is increasingly becoming a challenge to retain them or hire new ones.
“Therefore, we provide them opportunities similar to start ups in our organisation,” according to Banerjee, who graduated from Queen’s University in Canada, after having had HR stints in AOL and Dell.
He said even though the work-from-home policy has been withdrawn, employees can in fact take advantage of flexi hours provided by the company to suit their needs.
“Our policy on work-from-home does not reflect the industry view, but something that works best for Yahoo and flexi work options still exist,” insists Banerjee.
The India centre, which has around 2,000 employees, is the second largest development centre for Yahoo worldwide and works on almost all projects — whether on new devices such as smartphones or tablets to online advertising-related services.
Yahoo has also rolled out initiatives like free smartphones, free food, medical insurance for India employees, sabbaticals, maternity leave and more ESOPs for top performers.
These are some of the incentives doled out after Merissa Mayer took over as the CEO of the company last July, in addition to other perks such as childcare facility, fully equipped health club and free snacks.
This, while reducing attrition, would keep its employees from joining startups, the company hopes.
“We are not losing talent to Google or Facebook, but startups,” said Banerjee. In the first quarter results, Mayer said attrition rate for top talent is half of what it was just a year ago, and 14 per cent of employees have rejoined. The company, which is facing pressure from analysts to get their innovation mojo back, is trying to recapture some of its past glory through these recent initiatives.
“When we polled employees globally, 95 per cent of them feel confident about the company’s future,” said Banerjee. Also, the company has bundled in variable performance on top of basic salary to a large section of its employees. So, the company performance goes up, you get an additional bonus, said Banerjee.
Yahoo’s stock over the past 6 months has gone up by 47 per cent from $17 in November to $25 this month.