There was a time, not so long ago, when global multinationals doled out hardship bonuses for their nationals to relocate to India to work. Manu Kumar Jain, Managing Director of Mi India, is giving out one-time hardship bonus to 1,200 of its corporate employees for roughing out a very tough, pandemic-struck year, 2020.

Mi India started operations in India with one person — Manu Kumar Jain — in a small room that could accommodate just 6 team members in 2014. In a short span of time, it has become the number one smartphone brand in India, holding that position for the last 14 consecutive quarters from Q3 of CY 2017 to Q4 of CY 2020. It is also the number one brand across multiple product categories – smart TVs, fitness wearables and power banks in India.

“I believe that one of the biggest factors that has helped us scale up is our incredible people. During the pandemic, we did not ask a single person to leave the organisation neither did we effect pay cuts. Like many other companies, we are also making vaccinations available for our employees and their spouses, children and parents, but over and above that since 2020 was a very tough year where offices entered the homes of our employees as they worked from home, as a special gesture to acknowledge what they went through, we have decided to give our Xiaomi India employees a one-time hardship bonus” Jain told BusinessLine .

“This hardship bonus is over and above our year end business bonus for employees. We will give extra half month of salary as hardship bonus for everyone in the company. Say, if your salary is ₹100 a month, your annual salary is ₹1200, your year end bonus is ₹200; we will give out ₹100 + ₹200 + ₹50 (half month’s salary),” said Jain.

The company started the year 2020 with a Xiaomi India family of 50,000 people and ended the year with 60,000 people in December. This includes people working in its offices, warehouses, factories, service centres , call centres and retail stores, all of who work exclusively for Xiaomi, excluding people who work in multi-brand stores. Jain says, 99 per cent of its smartphones and smart TVs are Made in India.

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