Will Flipkart become India’s next best company to work for?

After changing its maternal leave policy, Flipkart has now announced another major change that would encourage many to work with the firm.

As reported by Economic Times, Flipkart aims to make the employees more productive throughout and during crucial life-events. For this, the Bengaluru-based firm, which is also a part of Unicorn club, has made changes to its leave policy.

As per the new leave policy, the employees will now be able to take one to six months’ leave, which could be a career break and would give them time for other commitments and interests. The leave, however, would be unpaid.

Mekin Maheshwari, chief people officer at Flipkart has said that any employee who has spent a minimum of two years with the firm would be eligible to apply for the same.

The mourning leaves too have been granted for an unlimited time period to let the employee grieve, recover and get back on their work after a personal loss.

Not just this, but now all Flipkart employees will also get a chance to enjoy their birthday or wedding anniversary availing the leave annually. These new additions to the leave policy are over and above the regular number of days allowed for casual/sick leave (12 days), annual leave (18 days), and declared holidays.

"All our policies are aimed at creating a workplace that's inspiring, we want to enable our employees to be able to show maximum productivity at work," said Maheshwari.

Besides leaves, Flipkart employees will even get free guidance from professional experts if they want to. Under the new employee assistance program, emergency support would be available for employees looking for some aid in his personal life, career development, work-life stress as well as legal and financial issues.

Flipkart has also rolled out a new travel policy under which all employees will be eligible for business class travel during official work if the flight duration is of more than six hours. This is applicable not just to vice-presidents but for staff across all levels, even people who are travelling for a Flipkart interview.

Umesh Belludi, CEO at Brain-Tree HR Consulting, welcomed Flipkart's move, defining it as a "progressive step towards building employees' loyalty to the company". "Such innovative HR policies — inspired in a large part by global best practices — ensure that employees feel a closer affinity to the workplace, and that senior management can in turn think of them as family."

Giving employees the option to take time away from work allows a "better psychological fitment". "Employees need flexibility, which is the major trend of the future," he said. "Such policies go a long way in giving employees precisely that," he further added.

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