For Paytm, The Road Ahead Is ‘Flexible’

The jury is still out on hybrid workplaces, but Paytm parent One97 Communications believes it can help attract diverse talent across gender and socio-economic backgrounds. “We think this is the new normal,” says Vineet Arora, MD and CEO, Paytm General Insurance. Unlike companies that have mandated the number of times a week employees need to come to office, Paytm allows managers to take those decisions along with their teams, depending on the nature of work.

“We have decided to make it a little more empowering for people. It will be more fluid, where managers and team leads can create their own list of people who want to come to office on a particular day, inform the admin teams and make sure the space is available,” says Arora. It would mean employees coming to office for seven to eight days a month.

While some teams are following the hybrid model already, others continue to work from home. The company, which has a 10,266-strong workforce and aims to increase it by 15% in FY23, says people in certain roles, who don’t need to come to the office at all and would like to work from home, can do so.

Paytm also encourages employees to upskill constantly, especially when it comes to new technologies, and supports them through e-learning programmes or virtual interactive sessions as well as offline opportunities, says Arora. Equipping employees with management skills is also another area the company has been focussing on. The stress is on “how to manage things better, understand what other people are able to do, and create a more collaborative environment, which is open to learning fresh ideas from other teams, perspective sharing etc,” says Arora.

Women account for 15% of the workforce now and plans are on to increase it to 24% by 2025. The company intends to hire more people from small towns and diverse socio-economic backgrounds to boost representation. It currently has an overall retention rate of 85%, and 93% among top talent.