In late March/beginning April, when the pandemic was tightening its grip on India, the operating environment was highly uncertain. The number of things we did not know about the future far outnumbered the number of things we knew. It’s a space and context no one has probably operated in ever before. There were multiple aspects to be balanced — OYO’s long-term sustenance, our partners’ economic viability, serving our customers in a period of complete lockdown and the health and well-being of our OYOpreneurs. No easy choices, but some choice had to be made while keeping all things in balance. It was about picking the least worst option.

 

One of the toughest decisions we had to make was to discuss with some of our colleagues in OYO India to opt for Leave with Limited Benefits (LwLB) and request the rest to take salary cuts, which started with Ritesh himself foregoing his full compensation for the year and everyone else giving up some parts of their compensation.

 

The measures we took in April were based on the circumstances that followed India’s decision to enter a 21-day lockdown period. In a matter of a few hours, travel came to a standstill, people could not leave their homes and hotels were shut down. Occupancies and revenues for the entire hospitality industry, including OYO, were deeply impacted and we had to decide how to survive this crisis. On top of it, nobody had the idea that the lockdown will be extended four times until June 30 in varying degrees, leaving a long-lasting impact on the business and a severe dent on our revenues.

 

It wasn’t before June 8 when we could partially reopen our hotels in a phased manner after the government’s nod. Post-unlock, we started tracking to 30% of pre-COVID occupancy levels. A small but encouraging green shoot, it enabled us to prioritize our commitment of saving as many jobs as we could and call back some impacted colleagues in different teams and geographies, as limited opportunities opened up.

 

As per industry reports and discussions organised by STR (a global hospitality data research organisation), India is better positioned for faster revival compared to other markets considering the strong domestic market. There’s less dependence on inbound tourism in India and hence, we hope that the budget hospitality segment may recover soon, which makes us cautiously optimistic about the market.

 

While we are hopeful about recovering, there is sadly no clear visibility on the timelines at this moment. The situation remains uncertain, as the number of Covid-19 cases across India continues to surge and impact consumer behaviour. As a result, hotels are reopening in phases and the recovery is taking much longer than expected. Despite our best efforts, we don’t quite know when our occupancies and revenues will recover to pre-COVID levels. In such a situation, we do not foresee many more roles opening up anytime soon.

 

Which brings us to the way forward on LwLB. We know it is challenging to hold back our impacted colleagues due to a situation that neither they nor we can control or wish away. Given the context, we have created a set of options for OYOpreneurs on LwLB in India to make a decision that is best aligned with their long-term career goals and financial requirements. This will never measure up to what we would have ideally liked to do, or what they would have expected of us — we extend our sincere apologies for the same. We are living in a world where everything is far from ideal and the solution that we are offering may still be sub-optimal.

 

Impacted OYOpreneurs can either choose to opt for the Voluntary Separation Program (VSP) or continue the LwLB period by another 6 months until February 28, 2021. While the choice is theirs to make, we request them to attend to the several important elements to the proposal, which will help them make an informed decision.

 

OPTION 1: IF AN IMPACTED OYOPRENEUR DECIDES TO OPT FOR VSP, THEY WILL RECEIVE (INCLUDING SOME OF THE BENEFITS SHARED EARLIER AS LISTED BELOW)

 

1. Financial assistance:

• We are offering a cash benefit equivalent to their notice pay basis last-drawn compensation in March 2020. This is beyond the 30% ex-gratia pay that was enabled for the months of May and June, respectively, for some upfront liquidity
• We had granted RSUs (deeply discounted ESOPs granted as on June 1, 2020) to provide an opportunity for every employee to become a shareholder in the company. Although we would like everyone to hold onto these RSUs and create long-term financial gains, we also recognise that some of them may need additional liquidity. Therefore, employees who opt for VSP are being given a choice to cancel a small portion (to the tune of 25%) of their unvested RSUs and get additional cash benefit equal to 25% of their March 2020 drawn fixed salary.

 

2. Relaxation on ESOP vesting: For existing grant of stock options, we are waiving the requirement that one must be employed at the time of vesting for the upcoming vesting period. What this means is that if for example stock options were first granted seven months ago. In this case, we are waiving the requirement of being employed at the time of the one-year vesting cliff. If, in another hypothetical scenario, stock options were granted 13 months ago, and have already crossed the one-year vesting cliff, then OYO will waive its requirement of being employed for the next quarterly vesting period.

 

3. Health & wellness:

• Continued health coverage: As the Covid-19 situation across the country is still a matter of concern, we will continue to provide healthcare coverage of the current corporate health insurance policy up to January 25, 2021
• Parental Insurance: Similarly, the parental insurance will continue till May 10, 2021, for those who have opted in and paid for it for the current policy period
• Extension of OYO Exigency Fund: Our Core Committee, headed by the CHRO, will continue to review the support that existing insurance (self and parental) offers and extend all possible support through the OYO Exigency fund, if needed, until June 2021. While we sincerely hope that they are never in a situation to use it, if there are any unfortunate circumstances, they can depend on OYO to seek necessary support, as many impacted OYOpreneurs have done since May 2020.
• Employee well-being & assistance program (EWAP): Impacted employees can continue to avail services of OYO’s EWAP partner, Silver Oak, for confidential and free access to professional counsellors to address emotional challenges, such as stress or anxiety.

 

4. Career transition support: 

• We have partnered with ABC Consultants to offer career transition support.  ABC Consultants is a pioneer in the field of organized recruitment. The depth of their relationships, the last five decades of recruitment experience and a thorough understanding of the industry landscape will help impacted OYOpreneurs opting for VSP to find the right opportunity for themselves. Once an employee agrees to submit their details, the ABC team will go through the data and approach their clients, where suitable, for opportunities that fit the skill set. As and when a client shortlists their profile, an ABC representative will contact them to share details and schedule an interview depending on their and the client’s availability. In addition, we will also continue to leverage our internal OYO outreach program for the same. A large part of our HR team will continue to offer placement support, as they have been doing so far.
• Access to open jobs in OYO: As and when the situation returns to normal, we will publish a list of all open jobs till December 2021 and make it available to those who opt for VSP to apply. With all things equal, we would like to provide re-employment opportunities to our colleagues. As already shared, we have been able to call back some employees in the last month and we will continue to look for any opportunities that may come up.
• Recommendation letters will be provided to all to assist with external opportunities. OYO has issued more than 500 recommendations to support employees’ requests for other jobs, pursue higher education or start an entrepreneurial venture.

 

5. OYO Ambassador Program: OYO has some of the best talents in the industry and also some of the brightest minds. Entrepreneurship and resilience run deep in our DNA and OYOpreneurs understand our organization and market better than anyone else. So, in the coming months, and basis the situation, we will work towards creating micro-entrepreneurship opportunities in the OYO ecosystem for our colleagues who opt for VSP. This way, we will encourage them to continue their association with OYO while creating more value for each other. These could be in the form of affiliates, partners, vendors etc. We will share more detail by September 30, 2020. We have spoken to over a few dozens of impacted OYOpreneurs and have received overwhelming support for a program like this.

 

6. OYO Helpdesk: Impacted OYOpreneurs will continue to get support in withdrawing PF. They can write to hrhelpdeskindia@oyorooms.com to let us know how we can help them.

 

THESE BENEFITS ARE IN ADDITION TO THE FOLLOWING BENEFITS THAT WERE EXTENDED OVER THE LAST 4 MONTHS:

 

7. Financial assistance: 

• Ex-gratia of about 30% of the monthly salary each for the months of May and June respectively for some upfront liquidity was extended to reduce the economic impact. While a majority of organizations opted for leave without pay, we believed offering an ex-gratia amount in these tough times was the right thing to do and also the least that we could do.

• We also offered support for children education for 4 months to all parents who have school-going children. Further, during the process, we learnt from our conversations with some young parents that their children were not of the school-going age, but they needed vaccinations as part of their immunization program. So, we decided to provide a self-declaration-based child vaccination allowance to them, which did not involve any approval process.

 

8. Co-ownership in the company: Early July, we had offered deeply discounted ESOPs (comparable to RSU) of Oravel Stays Private Limited  (OYO Global), the parent company of OYO Group, which will have a strike price of INR 10.  These will vest in one year from June 1, 2020 as per terms of the grant letter and the ESOP Plan 2018. As a special term, even if they decide to resign from the company before the vesting date, the RSUs granted to them will get vested on the vesting date. The world told us it was a good gesture on the part of OYO, but we always knew that this is simply a token of gratitude for the tremendous hard work our colleagues had put in to build the company.

 

9. Health & wellness:

• We realize that in these tough times of a global pandemic, it is crucial for families to minimize their healthcare costs. We, therefore, provided healthcare / continued the medicare benefits, to all impacted OYOpreneurs. It covered Personal Accidental insurance, Group Medical insurance and Term Life insurance.

• Further, since parental insurance plans available in the market are often expensive, we extended the opportunity to all impacted OYOpreneurs in India to enroll for parental insurance at our negotiated rate. They could also access the COVID Fund to ensure that if anyone of their immediate family members had a specific medical issue that extended beyond insurance, they could get the optimal support. Thankfully, this Fund helped us support many colleagues since May 2020. Be it a former OYOpreneur, whom we could help get critical treatment for advanced-stage cancer, which exceeded the insurance amount. Or, ensuring quick liquidity to another colleague, who was tested Covid-19 positive and admitted to a hospital with no insurance support. In these times of uncertainty, we feel fortunate that our resilient teams could stand by all OYOpreneurs and fulfil our responsibilities toward them.

 

10. Support for better career opportunities: With the looming uncertainty around when the situation will recover, some colleagues on LwLB showed an interest in seeking external work opportunities or going for higher education or even starting their own ventures. We understood their concern and:

•  Set up an institutionalized placement support system

i. ‘OYO Outreach’ program to support OYOpreneurs to find suitable opportunities for themselves. A large part of our HR team has continued to offer placement support.

ii. Our leaders leveraged their personal networks to find good opportunities

iii. We also actively worked with our investors to identify opportunities in their portfolio companies

iv. One-stop Job repository: We created a job repository featuring more than 650 jobs available in India. It was made available to all and was updated regularly

• • So far, our efforts from the points mentioned above have helped multiple OYOpreneurs get placed in different organizations.

• OYO leaders offered references and recommendations to those who asked for them. We have shared about 500+ recommendation letters so far to support employees’ requests for other jobs, pursue higher education or start an entrepreneurial venture.
• We also organized an upskilling workshop and conducted 3 sessions on – ‘How to build a personal brand on Linkedin’, ‘Resume tips and acing video interviews’, and ‘Delivering an effective sales pitch’
• We also organized mentorship programs focused towards entrepreneurship. As part of this, 1:1 mentorship program was conducted by senior leaders for more than 20 impacted colleagues on the areas of entrepreneurship (how to think about new business, how to raise funds, how to operationalise etc.)

 

OPTION 2: IF AN IMPACTED OYOPRENEUR OPTS FOR CONTINUATION OF LwLB, IN ADDITION TO THE BENEFITS ALREADY RECEIVED OVER THE LAST 4 MONTHS, THEY WILL RECEIVE THE FOLLOWING:

 

1. Health & wellness

• Continued health coverage: As the Covid-19 situation across the country is still a matter of concern, we will continue to provide healthcare coverage of the current corporate health insurance policy up to January 25, 2021,
• Parental Insurance: Similarly, the parental insurance will continue till May 10, 2021, for those who have opted in and paid for it for the current policy period
• Extension of OYO Exigency Fund: Our Core Committee, headed by the CHRO, will continue to review the support that existing insurance (self and parental) offers and extend any possible additional support through the OYO Exigency fund, if needed, until June 2021. While we sincerely hope that they are never in a situation to use it, if there are any unfortunate circumstances, they can depend on OYO to seek necessary support, as many impacted OYOpreneurs have done since May 2020.
• Employee well-being & assistance program (EWAP): Impacted employees can continue to avail services of OYO’s EWAP partner, Silver Oak, for confidential and free access to professional counsellors to address emotional challenges, such as stress or anxiety

 

2. Financial assistance in the form of school education & vaccination allowance: If an impacted OYOpreneurs has school-going children, including those in pre-school, we will reimburse an amount of INR 3000 per month per family (irrespective of the number of children). Or, if they have an infant up to 1.5 years of age, they can avail monthly vaccination allowance. The impacted OYOpreneur can avail either of the two benefits for their children. This is beyond the 30% limited pay that was enabled for 30 days each of April and May for some upfront liquidity and to reduce the economic impact.

 

3. Support for better career opportunities:

• Project Outreach: We will continue to leverage our internal OYO Outreach program to support OYOpreneurs to find suitable opportunities for themselves. A large part of our HR team will continue to offer placement support, as they have been doing so far.

• Continue to issue Recommendation letters to assist with external opportunities As mentioned earlier, OYO has already issued more than 500 recommendations to support employees’ requests for other jobs, pursue higher education or start an entrepreneurial venture.
• Extend Mentorship support by senior leaders to employees who want to start their entrepreneur journey

 

4. OYO Helpdesk:  Impacted OYOpreneurs will continue to get support in withdrawing PF. They can write to hrhelpdeskindia@oyorooms.com to let us know how we can help them.

 

THESE BENEFITS ARE IN ADDITION TO THE FOLLOWING BENEFITS THAT WERE EXTENDED OVER THE LAST 4 MONTHS:

 

5. Financial assistance: 

• Ex-gratia of about 30% of the monthly salary each for the months of May and June respectively for some upfront liquidity was extended to reduce the economic impact. While a majority of organizations opted for leave without pay, we believed offering an ex-gratia amount in these tough times was the right thing to do and also the least that we could do.
• We also offered support for children education for 4 months to all parents who have school-going children. Further, during the process, we learnt from our conversations with some young parents that their children were not of the school-going age, but they needed vaccinations as part of their immunization program. So, we decided to provide a self-declaration-based child vaccination allowance to them, which did not involve any approval process.

 

6. Co-ownership in the company: Early July, we had offered deeply discounted ESOPs (comparable to RSU) of Oravel Stays Private Limited  (OYO Global), the parent company of OYO Group, which will have a strike price of INR 10.  These will vest in one year from June 1, 2020 as per terms of the grant letter and the ESOP Plan 2018. As a special term, even if they decide to resign from the company before the vesting date, the RSUs granted to them will get vested on the vesting date. The world told us it was a good gesture on the part of OYO, but we always knew that this is simply a token of gratitude for the tremendous hard work our colleagues had put in to build the company.

 

7. Health & wellness:

• We realize that in these tough times of a global pandemic, it is crucial for families to minimize their healthcare costs. We, therefore, provided healthcare / continued the medicare benefits, to all impacted OYOpreneurs. It covered Personal Accidental insurance, Group Medical insurance and Term Life insurance.
• Further, since parental insurance plans available in the market are often expensive, we extended the opportunity to all impacted OYOpreneurs in India to enroll for parental insurance at our negotiated rate. They could also access the COVID Fund to ensure that if anyone of their immediate family members had a specific medical issue that extended beyond insurance, they could get the optimal support. Thankfully, this Fund helped us support many colleagues since May 2020. Be it a former OYOpreneur, whom we could help get critical treatment for advanced stage cancer, which exceeded the insurance amount. Or, ensuring quick liquidity to another colleague, who was tested Covid-19 positive and admitted to a hospital with no insurance support. In these times of uncertainty, we feel fortunate that our resilient teams could stand by all OYOpreneurs and fulfil our responsibilities toward them.

 

8. Support for better career opportunities: With the looming uncertainty around when the situation will recover, some colleagues on LwLB showed an interest in seeking external work opportunities or going for higher education or even starting their own ventures. We understood their concern and:

• Set up an institutionalized placement support system

 i. ‘OYO Outreach’ program to support OYOpreneurs to find suitable opportunities for themselves. A large part of our HR team has continued to offer placement support.

ii. Our leaders leveraged their personal networks to find good opportunities

iii. We also actively worked with our investors to identify opportunities in their portfolio companies

iv. One-stop Job repository: We created a job repository featuring more than 650 jobs available in India. It was made available to all and was updated regularly

• 1. So far, our efforts from the points mentioned above have helped multiple OYOpreneurs get placed in different organizations.
• OYO leaders offered references and recommendations to those who asked for them. We have shared about 500+ recommendation letters so far to support employees’ requests for other jobs, pursue higher education or start an entrepreneurial venture.
• We organized an upskilling workshop and conducted 3 sessions on – ‘How to build personal brand on Linkedin’, ‘Resume tips and acing video interviews’, and ‘Delivering an effective sales pitch’
• We also organized mentorship programs focused towards entrepreneurship. As part of this, 1:1 mentorship program was conducted by senior leaders for more than 20 impacted colleagues on the areas of entrepreneurship (how to think about new business, how to raise funds, how to operationalise etc.)

NEXT STEPS

All impacted OYOpreneurs will get an email later today (September 4, 2020) with all the details and guidance on how they can exercise their choice. The last date to share their decision with us is September 11, 2020. During this period, if they have any questions, they can ask for a call with the concerned HR team members for clarification. Based on the choice they make, the corresponding benefits will be extended to them.

In case they don’t receive this communication by the end of today, they can write to us at hrhelpdeskindia@oyorooms.com or call their HRBP and we will ensure that they get the same.

 

BEFORE WE CONCLUDE…

We understand this may not be enough. We understand these are probably not to their expectation, but we want them to know we tried our best. Sometimes, you only have suboptimal choices, but you still have to make a choice. We want to acknowledge that this is not the situation we wanted to be in either. In fact, nothing we will do or say will compensate the impacted OYOpreneurs to their full satisfaction. But what we can tell them is that we have tried to do our best in the most feasible and respectable way possible. It is important to remember that this decision in no way undermines what they have done for the organization. We will always be indebted to their passion and love for OYO and hope that the last few months do not take away all of that from us.

 

To those who choose to part ways after this, we are extremely sorry. They were and will continue to be an OYOpreneur forever. What they have given to OYO can never be taken away and all of us are better because of their contributions and sacrifices. They will always be a part of OYO’s journey and have a special place in our hearts. Also, while we may not be able to create space for them to continue their journey with us, we know that each OYOpreneur has a really special talent and those who get to work with them in future will be fortunate to do so.

 

To those who will stay with us, please hang in there and help us build a stronger OYO. That alone will be the best way to honour our colleagues who decide to part ways with us.