Notice periods and probation periods are thought to be a necessity in India’s corporate space, but a prominent company has done away with both — and appears to be none the worse for it.
Zomato doesn’t force employees to serve a probation period or a notice period. “Employment at Zomato is at will,” says Niharika Mohanty, VP – HR at Zomato. “If you want to be here, be here. If you don’t want to be here, don’t,” she added.
Most companies usually put employees through a probation period when they first join. This period can range between one and as long as six months, and during this period employees don’t have full rights as other employees — they can be asked to leave without notice, and can often have fewer leaves and other benefits.
Zomato, however, doesn’t have this probation period at all. “Zomato doesn’t have a probation period because it doesn’t believe in giving a different treatment for the first six months to a new joiner, or any privilege to any band or level of employee after six months as well,” its HR VP said. “From day one, a new joiner becomes a Zomato employee,” they added.
Zomato, similarly, doesn’t force employees to serve a notice period. Most companies force employees to remain with them for a period of 1-2 months even after putting in their papers. During this period, employees typically hand over their roles and responsibilities, and ensure that business continuity goals will be met in their absence. But Zomato doesn’t have any notice periods either. “The day a person decides that they no longer want to be associated with their employer, they have already switched off and detached,” Zomato’s HR representative says. “By keeping them for another month for their notice period, you are only upsetting more employees who are engaged,” she added.
This is a pretty progressive approach, and one that most Indian companies likely haven’t even seriously contemplated, let alone implemented at scale — Zomato now has over 8,700 full-time employees across Zomato, Hyperpure, and Blinkit, but having no probation periods and notice periods seems to be serving the company well. And with Zomato now among the top 50 most valuable companies in India, it’s possible that its lead in doing away with notice and probation periods could soon be followed by both startups and established companies across the country.