Swiggy announces moonlighting policy that allows employees side gigs

Projects should be outside office hours and must not clash with the food delivery company's business

Swiggy employees will be allowed to work on external projects for money or pro-bono, said the food delivery firm on Wednesday about a moonlighting policy that it claimed is the industry’s first.

Moonlighting should be outside office hours or on weekends, must not affect productivity or clash with Swiggy’s business. The Bengaluru-based company has around 5,000 employee and it works with more than 200,000 restaurant partners and stores in India.

“Our goal is to encourage employees to pursue their passion without any constraints due to their full-time employment with us,” said Girish Menon, head of human resources at Swiggy.

During nationwide lockdowns to contain the spread of the coronavirus, many people started new hobbies or activities for an additional source of income. Swiggy said it believes that such projects help in professional and personal development.

The policy is available to all full-time employees of Bundl Technologies (Swiggy’s parent company), subsidiaries, affiliates, associates, and group companies. Projects that risk conflict of interest or interference with employees' duties to Swiggy are subject to an approval process.

Swiggy last week announced a permanent work-from-anywhere policy for the majority of roles after taking feedback from several managers and employees.

Swiggy’s employees policies come at a time when falling valuations, slowing funding and investor sentiment have prompted many Indian start-ups to lay off employees and conserve cash. The founders of edtech unicorn Unacademy took a salary cut; the firm’s offices discontinued complimentary meals and snacks; and “certain businesses” will be shut. Earlier this year, the edtech firm laid off more than 1,000 employees.

Asked if such policies would help productivity and growth, Menon said that Swiggy is careful about spending and it invests in employees.

“We trust our employees. For example, we don’t have ‘swipe in’ and ‘swipe out’ (for recording login hours). Even now we don’t track productivity or use those online tools,” said Menon, in an interview. “Some of our best work in terms of the Instamart launch and expansion has happened almost remotely in the last two years.”

“As long as we are able to understand and empathize with the (employees), we are able to create relevant policies,” said Menon. "And these policies are not detrimental to the business, but actually beneficial to the organisation.”

Swiggy recently said it has reached its first milestone in implementing a two-year ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) liquidity programme. This year eligible Swiggy employees had the option to receive liquidity of up to $23 million against their ESOPs.