Close to 80% of startup employees felt adequately compensated for their efforts and contribution, while approximately 70% lauded the people-friendly benefits at the workplace, reveals a survey.

Startups with outdated hike policies, poor ESOPs planning and communication around rewards, and a lack of hygiene benefits like reimbursements and insurance were among the low performers in the survey. Currently, India has 75,000 recognised startups and 49% of them are from Tier II & Tier III cities, as per the Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

Over 50,000 employees across 150+ startups participated in the survey, conducted by scaling platform xto10x. 

The report also showed that the majority of startups surveyed had an eNPS score averaging 50-60 which indicates that they are headed in the right direction, but there is scope for improvement. Only 15% of those surveyed scored over 70 on eNPS. Higher the eNPS scores better the employee satisfaction.

Issues like not valuing opinions, unfair treatment, lack of technical competency and empathy led to a low Managers Recommendation Index (MRX) score, a metric that checks how likely an employee is to recommend their manager to their friends. Around 20% of managers had a negative MRX score.

A sense of pride amongst employees

As many as 97% of employees surveyed were proud to be associated with their organisations because they resonated with the problems they were solving. Furthermore, 95% of employees trust their teams - showing a culture of support and growth.

On the flip side, a decline in the "sense of pride" was observed as startups scaled due to the inability to help employees visualise the impact of their roles, a lack of unique organisational identity, a lack of inclusivity, and stagnant career development paths.

High work volumes, inefficient working methods, and unsatisfactory implementation of leave policies are common reasons that negatively impacted work-life balance at startups. The survey found that 20% of employees faced a lack of work-life balance.

Interestingly, the survey added that companies that have more than 40% women in their leadership teams had a better eNPS on average while eNPS among women employees was a stark 18 points lower than men.

Nearly 85% of employees surveyed feel their organisations have employee-friendly policies that motivate them, but about 11% of employees in the ecosystem do not.

Over 15% of employees feel their organisations have ineffective decision-making systems, and 14% feel that they do not have the autonomy to make decisions

Issues like slow decision-making processes, opaque decisions, prioritising short-term outcomes, and lack of empowerment caused the low score for startups.