With The Great Resignation in full bloom, companies are trying to do everything they can in order to retain their employees. While some are offering better work-life balance, some are going a step ahead to set their employees up with a life partner.
No, we are not making this up. A Madurai based startup, Sri Mookambika Infosolutions (SMI), has started matchmaking services in order to retain its employees.
Marriage increment was there since Day One, but the matchmaking came later on. “They treat me like a brother and several of them are from villages, with either aged parents or lacking a proper outlook of the world and unable to find the right match. We help such employees through a network of alliance makers,” Selvaganesh told TOI.
From the time of its inception, the startup has been known to provide increments when an employee gets married. Not just that, it also provides a 6-8% increment every six months to its employees.
The result? The attrition rate, or the rate at which employees leave a company, has remained below 10% for SMI. Today, SMI and its associates employ a total of 750 people, nearly 40 per cent of whom have been successfully retained for more than five years.
While most companies prefer to relocate to a Tier-1 city, SMI decided to move its headquarters to Madurai in 2010. It’s intent was to build a community rather than a corporate.
Our strength was in our giving back and belief in hard work. We knew one cannot build such a community in a Tier 1 city, where everything is commercially oriented. We chose Madurai since it matched our DNA.
– MP Selvaganesh, the founder and CEO of SMI
When most of the IT companies were facing high attrition rate, SMI also offered an increment every quarter, with special coverage for top 40 or top 80 employees.
“Employees reach out to me directly when they face any challenges,” Selvaganesh added. “We need to invest time and money to create such bonds and be honest in our approach. Not see everything from the business perspective alone.”
There are several long-term employees. We cannot take them for granted thinking they will not go anywhere. We give them their due even before any such thought comes to them. Employees reach out to me directly when they face any challenges. We need to invest time and money to create such bonds and be honest in our approach. Not see everything from the business perspective alone,” Selvaganesh added.
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