Here’s how Urban Ladder is empowering its employees and letting them take charge

Online furniture seller Urban Ladder is growing its workforce and also empowering them. Rather than just hiring and giving a set of roles and responsibilities, Urban Ladder is harnessing its in-house talent and grooming potential future leaders.

"With over 60% of our workforce (650 employees) coming in over the last one year, we realised there is need to put in place a learning and development programme that is able to uniformly address all developmental needs of teams," Urban Ladder co-founder Rajiv Srivatsa told ET.

Under its ‘EnabUL programme’, Urban Ladder is helping first-time managers with people management, goal setting and time management skills, etc.

"We ensure we spend time coaching and mentoring, and work towards keeping our one-on-one connect intact with the team. We make ourselves available as sounding boards, problem solvers, coaches and mentors whenever someone needs us," he told ET.

Many employees who exhibit exceptional skills and demonstrate drive to handle critical problems within months of joining Urban Ladder, they get rewarded.

Urban Ladder is also letting its women workforce grow, particularly at the mid-level, mentoring them and helping them deal with work-life challenges. Women comprise 38% of the company's workforce.

Leadership expert Nina Chatrath, founder of Enhance Consulting, told ET that companies need managers who can provide both quantitative and qualitative feedback to employees under their charge.

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