The years 2020 and 2021 have been nothing short of a rollercoaster ride. Both people and organizations have adapted in different ways to a new environment, while ensuring safety and productivity. At Swiggy, we learnt valuable lessons and have not only successfully coped with the novel ways of working, but also pushed our boundaries to keep our customers delighted during the most uncertain and difficult of times.
While our business continues to efficiently operate and grow amid these changes, we asked ourselves ‘What would the future of work look like for our employees?’. Two things stood clear, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work for everyone and in-office attendance is not a necessity nor a guarantee of increased productivity.
For instance, some of our best work got done during the pandemic including the birth of Swiggy Instamart, our quick commerce grocery delivery service and Swiggy Genie, our pick up and drop service. We’ve been able to achieve this with Swiggsters working out of 487 cities in 27 States and 4 UTs across the country.
Learnings from an employee-centric process
As we spoke to our employees across different roles and levels, about 1,600 of them, spread across 20 locations, we began to understand their preferences and perceptions. Our intent was to truly empower them in this decision making process. Findings of our study made a lot of things clear-
- The concept of “office” itself had evolved dramatically both for employees and the organization.
- Flexibility can bring the teams closer and make employees more fulfilled. In the two years that employees have been working from anywhere (WFA) we have introduced paid time off, no meeting hours, four-day work weeks (implemented during May 2021 as a pilot), and many such need-based initiatives, which have brought about a sense of belonging at Swiggy.
- Mental health must be given more importance. Most employees greatly value the flexibility that the pandemic has brought with it. Whether it was the JOMO (Joy of Missing Out) on traffic or being by the side of a parent or family member, time with loved ones is deeply cherished. Families made them feel more fulfilled and do better at work.
Swiggy’s WorkNext Policy – Flexibility makes us fitter
Swiggy has a diverse workforce from engineers who build products and solve complex customer challenges to our sales and support teams that keep Swiggy going. Guided by our commitment to ensure the holistic well-being of our employees, we rolled out a hybrid work policy in November 2021. Since then, we are excited to see how Swiggsters are leveraging this flexibility to build fulfilling careers while balancing their personal life with great ease.
At the core of our Future of Work is Flexibility. Our focus was to enable employees with as much flexibility in their work life within the contours of their job and business unit they are a part of. We observed global and local talent trends while also having our ears to the ground listening to the pulse from employees, managers and leaders. We realized that flexibility was a spectrum based on the job nature and the business needs and the key challenge was balancing this with employee needs. We wanted to enable employees while empowering businesses. We also had to unlearn a lot and adopt new mental models while stepping into the future. Our Value of ‘Always be curious and always be learning’ helped us in this journey.
Swiggy’s Future of Work policy is structured taking into account the different roles and business needs across the organisation and empowers managers and leaders to work along with their teams and choose what works best for them.
- Mandate 1 – Employees will come to the office twice or thrice a week at their base location and work remotely for the remaining days. Eg: Partner facing roles
- Mandate 2 – Employees will have the freedom to work remotely all through the year. These employees, who form a large majority, will come together in their base location for a week, once every quarter. Eg: All Corporate, Central Business Functions and Technology teams
- Mandate 3 – Employees will work fulltime from their base location. Eg- Fleet managers
In the last two years, several employees have decided to completely relocate, some of them choosing to remain 100% remote permanently. We will continue to consider such requests if team dynamics and business goals are unaffected. This also means that global talent can now explore Swiggy as their potential employer.
With this future of work promise, we will continue to actively invest in reimagining employee experience, innovations in work and workplace experience to build a truly remote first organization. Our focus is on purpose, passion & play – building a culture with a strong purpose to make a difference, passion to master the craft while nurturing a strong innovation mindset.
To keep track of the latest roles that Swiggy has to offer, visit this link – https://careers.swiggy.com/
Swiggster Stories – What work looks for me now!
Sharmishtha works in the Product team at Swiggy and the new policy has allowed her to truly work from anywhere. She’s currently on a ‘workation’ in Europe.
Sandeep Singh leads Procurement as part of the Supply Chain team at Swiggy and oversees a complex system with a team of reportees. Due to the nature of his role, he comes to the office twice a week and works from home for the remaining days.
Abhinav Litkar is a Senior Manager in the Data Sciences team at Swiggy. Saving valuable time on his daily commute to office, Abhinav is meaningfully spending his spare time pursuing his hobbies. He is eagerly looking forward to meeting his colleagues during the in-person regrouping scheduled once every quarter.
Living with the Pandemic
Health experts have cautioned against dropping our guard too fast. We are acutely aware that each of us is responsible to demonstrate Covid-appropriate behavior. Swiggy follows strict Covid protocols including scheduled office sanitization, temperature checks, masking and more. We conduct regular audits on these safety protocols and constantly remind our employees about the little things they should not forget.
