Online grocery retailer Grofers has said that its entire tech team is to get a “no-ifs-and-buts” 33% increase in salary starting July, as well as “hefty ESOP allocations”, as the platform looks to assert itself a true tech company, and not just an e-commerce brand.
“We, at Grofers, have done a lot of things right over the years, while also making our fair share of mistakes. Not putting enough focus on technology was one of them. Given we already have some of the best technologists in the country, we realise we have the opportunity to do so much more,” the company said in a blog statement.
CEO Albinder Dhindsa indicated that the push towards enhancing — and remunerating — the platform’s tech and engineering teams was linked to the next growth chapter for the company after new funding. “After coming out of the second wave, and at a point where our next funding round is secure, I think it is time to kickstart a lot of initiatives that I have been waiting for the right time to begin,” he wrote in a blog post.
“We have done well so far, but we need to do better. And in hindsight, one of the most important things we could have done in the past in order to do way better is focus and invest more in tech than we have so far. Tech = engineering + product + design + data.”
“Our DNA needs to evolve to one of a tech company, and not an e-commerce company that utilises technology. Everything from productivity to personalisation to marketing is now a tech problem,” Dhindsa added.
“I also realise that we are sub-par in terms of compensating our tech team compared to other technology companies in the country. That has two repercussions – we are not able to attract the best of talent, and we fail to motivate our existing tech team.”
Grofers is going to correct this, so that the company can take its first step towards being a true tech company, Dhindsa wrote. “The entire tech team is to get a ‘no-ifs-and-buts’ 33% increase in salary starting July. Depending on how much impact each of you have created over the last year, there will also be a hefty ESOP allocation coming your way which will be communicated to you in the next few weeks,” he added.
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