Flipkart Makes It Easier For Employees To Monetize ESOPs

Flipkart is continuing to innovate in the area of HR practices. After announcing generous maternity and paternity leaves, and offering unprecedented leaves flexibility at work, the company has made it easier for its employees to monetize their stock options, which are often a large part of their salaries.

(Source - www.profit.ndtv.com)
(Source – www.profit.ndtv.com)

Flipkart is not yet a publicly traded company, so its stock options can’t be traded in a stock exchange. In order to make employee’s stock options more liquid, Flipkart sold a marginal stake worth Rs 180-240 crore in its employee trust fund to high net worth individuals in the past few weeks. This is the first such move by an Indian ecommerce company.

The move will help employee retention, believe experts. The Indian startup hiring environment is hyper-competitive, and it’s getting harder for companies to retain top talent. “At Flipkart, we believe the reason for our remarkable growth has been our people who have demonstrated immense ownership and have consistently gone way beyond the call of duty,” a Flipkart spokesperson said. “The employee trust is a structure to facilitate employee liquidity across all levels depending on the amount of vested options. This is a repeatable structure and we do intend to use it as we go along at least on an annual basis.”