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Oct 10, 2021 | 7 Minute Read

Axelerant Team Member Benefits: What & Why

Table of Contents

Introduction


As long as AI doesn’t take over the world, companies will continue to rely on people. How well these people—who make up the company—live, will directly affect the quality of work they produce. It always has. According to Metlife, 76% of employees and 81% of employers say that when work and life enrich each other, everybody wins.

Yet, very few companies make the effort to become people-centric. 

We have an “unfair” advantage over them. To us, people matter.

We take care of our people by assisting them to the best of our abilities (often going out of our way), which includes special benefits and allowances.

#1 Flexible Work Hours

#2 Childcare Allowance

#3 Health And Wellness Allowance

#4 BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Assistance

#5 Insurance For Family Members

#6 Annual Continuing Education Allowance

#7 Monthly Co-Working Stipend & Home Office Setup

#8 Life Event Gifts

#9 Team Meet-Ups Allowance

#10 Event Sponsorship

#11 Gratuity and Provident Fund
 

Before you proceed, take a look at the three big questions we get asked very often.

👉 Are these benefits coming out of the compensation package we promised you?

No, they aren’t. Axelerant bears the cost of these benefits.

👉 Why are employees mentioned as ‘team members?’

We avoid referring to people who work at Axelerant with terms such as ‘employees,’ ‘talent,’ ‘resources,’ etc. Addressing employees as ‘team members’ brings a sense of equality, where the CEO and intern team members are peers of the company.

👉  Are these benefits permanent?

No, they aren’t. We always strive to increase or tweak them to better suit team members. The process to bring these changes is not arbitrary. We listen to team members through regular feedback. Most of these benefits were suggested by the team. 

Basic Axelerant Benefits

Competitive Salaries: We’re paying competitively based on skills and experience. Industry salaries are monitored annually.

Consolidated (Regular) Leave: All team members are eligible for 35 days consolidated leave effective immediately from their start date. Additionally, there are special provisions such as ‘Force Majeure Leave,’ ‘Kindness Leave,’ etc., which can be applied in emergencies.

Maternity Leave: The paid period for which any woman shall be entitled to maternity benefit is for twenty-six weeks in India and sixteen weeks, elsewhere.

Referrals: Axelerant will pay 2% of the annual gross salary of a referred person permanently hired.

You aren’t interested in reading about these primary benefits, are you? Your current company probably provides all of these. But as mentioned earlier, these are just the basics, the most common, or the mandated benefits. Now, we move on to the most appreciated, team-wide surveyed benefits at Axelerant.

 

#1 Flexible Work Hours

Everyone at Axelerant can design their workday as per their own convenience, keeping a minimum of 2 hours of overlap with peers. Axelerant focuses more on results rather than how many hours one spends in front of the screen.

This allows team members to be the architect of their time. You can go hiking during breaks, pick your children up from school, or take a power nap after a long meeting without worrying about the 'ping' from your laptop. Communicate your work timings to your peers beforehand, and you're all set! 

Axelerant Work from home comment

 

#2 Childcare Allowance

Raising children is as rewarding as it is challenging. In fall 2021, Axelerant began assisting team members with childcare allowance to support parents and guardians with younger kids towards expenses incurred for a daycare center or a nanny. 

We will reimburse childcare expenses up to INR 5,000/ USD 100 per month per child up to and including 5-years-old.

#3 Health And Wellness Allowance

A remote work culture, when done wrong, may cause lethargy. Team members tend to eat, sleep, drink, and work from their bed, causing them to gain weight and eventually feel dull due to lack of physical activity. In many cases, this also hampers their productivity.

Health and Wellness Allowance

The monthly fitness allowance was introduced to push our team members to take good care of their health and not be lethargic. 

Axelerant will reimburse up to INR 12,000/$300 USD annually for you to pick your preferred way to stay fit physically and psychologically. 

It can be fitness gear, gym or studio membership, digital subscriptions, or any activity you do to relieve stress.

#4 BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Assistance

We’ll cover 75% of the purchase and repair costs for laptops, mobile devices, and accessories such as mouse, keyboard, headphones, etc. Nine out of 10 team members take advantage of this benefit.

When BYOD allowance was first introduced, costs up to only 20,000 INR were covered. 

With popular demand and positive outcomes, costs up to 2 lakh INR are now covered under this benefit.

This means, for example, that if you decide that a device worth 1,00,000 INR will help you excel, Axelerant will pay 75% of the costs i.e. 75,000 INR. If you don’t have the remaining 25,000 INR, Axelerant will also lend you a no-cost EMI loan. The loan will be for a 12-month period, with equal monthly payments. You can then be a proud owner of the best machines in the market without spending a single penny to start with.

Axelerant BYOD Benefit

Plus, every team member is eligible to change the device when relevant with peer/leadership vetting. And you’re also eligible for a secondary mobile device if your role requires regular call-based conversations with candidates or client stakeholders. 

When can you avail the BYOD benefit? 

The moment you sign our offer letter! Yes! We want our team members to be ready with their machines before their start date with Axelerant or at least within the first week of induction.
 

#5 Insurance For Family Members

We provide medical insurance cover for all team members and their immediate family, inclusive of parents.

Companies do provide a group or corporate insurance policy which covers mostly only the team members or in some cases, the team member and the spouse. Team members have to pay an additional amount to register their parents under the insurance cover. And paying this extra premium for parents is not easily possible for every team member because the higher the age, the greater the premium.

Initially, Axelerant’s insurance policy also covered just the person and the dependents, excluding the parents. But many team members made that request. It mattered to our people; we made it happen. 

Axelerant Health Insurance Benefit

Axelerant’s medical insurance benefit covers the team member, the spouse, up to two kids and parents. The insurance of 200,000 INR is allocated between the team member and their family for a year. Plus, a maternity benefit of up to 50,000 INR for the first two children is also covered. 

Claims are assisted over the phone, online chat, or WhatsApp for quick and timely communication and processing, giving our team members a seamless experience.

We have recently introduced additional benefits like annual health check-ups, telemedicine facilities, and wellness programs by tying up with our health partners.

#6 Annual Continuing Education Allowance

We’ll cover up to 3% of your annual salary annually for your taking classes, obtaining certifications beyond mandatory, or buying books to further your capabilities.

Additionally, Axelerant will reimburse up to 13,000 INR/$130 USD for a reading device like the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite under this category.

Every department at Axelerant has a set of mandatory certifications to be acquired by team members. For example, the mandatory certifications for Drupal developers include certifications from Acquia up to Advanced Level Test Manager. DevOps engineers are encouraged to be AWS certified, and Project Managers are supported to be Project Management Professional (PMI - PMP) certified. 

Using this benefit, you can opt for certifications to upskill yourself, try out and master new domains, or simply enjoy learning all the latest developments in your field.

Axelerant Certification Benefit

Plus, software subscription reimbursements are also covered under this benefit. If you need additional softwares that will help you work better, let us know. 

Like many, this benefit empowered Mridula Ujjwal, Director of Learning and Development, Axelerant, to get trained into different training modalities such as NLP Practitioner and Masters, As Advanced Life Coach and be Heal Your life Internationally licensed Teacher.

Team members also buy relevant books of their choice under this benefit. Mentors, managers, and performance coaches always push people to enhance their skills, and this benefit proves to be a perfect aid. Different departments have organically formed their book clubs. All the books you can read: we pay!
 

#7 Monthly Co-working Stipend & Home Office Setup

Axelerant will pay up to INR 8000/USD 200 monthly towards renting a co-working space.

AND

We will reimburse one-time purchases of INR 30000/USD 400 needed to create a comfortable work environment within your existing home structure.

With a distributed team relishing the remote work culture, the space our team members call their office matter to us. And so we contribute to helping our team members be comfortable in their offices. Some team members prefer to be at home with their family. Some prefer a cafe, or a co-working space for extra calmness when working. 

Whatever your choice, Axelerant supports you. 4 out of 5 new team members are availing the home office setup assistance benefit.

#8 Life Event Gifts

We don’t know about you, but at Axelerant, we like to celebrate things big and small. 

Every life event important to you, is equally important to us. 

From birthdays and service anniversaries to marriages and childbirth, you can expect rewards and gifts from us! Don’t worry, even if you forget, we won’t.

Life Event Gifts

#9 Team Meet-Ups Allowance

Working in a permanently remote company, there are chances that you will never meet with your colleagues in person. But that won’t work if you’re looking to build better teams and relationships — which we highly encourage.

Every team member is eligible for a meet-up allowance of INR 1000/25 USD, or INR 1500/50 USD when accompanied by a family member.

You can catch up with people living in your city or area over the weekends. Go trekking, try out a new restaurant, watch the latest movie — try anything that screams fun to you and your peers.

Axelerant Meet up Benefit

#10 Event Sponsorship

Team members submit their sessions to various Drupal Camps and other relevant events all across the globe. Upon acceptance of sessions, the event sponsorship committee reviews your request. If approved, Axelerant covers domestic and international conference attending costs. We have a very high approval record — 9/10 if your talk gets accepted — you get to go; all expenses paid.

Well, this benefit isn’t exactly unique to Axelerant but what’s exclusive to Axelerant is the way our mentors and managers push their team members to actively look for conferences and events to attend each year that will benefit their work.

Our Director of Marketing, Nathan Roach, finds this benefit to be the most beneficial because event sponsorship means that he gets to learn and engage with others in the broader community. He can share, spread awareness of our brand. And he firmly believes that there's nothing like on the ground evangelization. It's fun and rewarding.

#11 Gratuity and Provident Fund

We care about your financial stability. Axelerant contributes INR 1800 monthly towards your provident fund account for securing your future income after retirement.

We grant team members who have completed five years of uninterrupted continuous service gratuity as defined under the incumbent Payment Of Gratuity Act 1972. It is calculated monthly at 4.81% of your basic salary.

If your service gets interrupted on account of sickness, accident, leave, or any other reason that may not be your fault, you will still be eligible for gratuity.  

Why Isn’t Remote Work Mentioned in the List?

Well, because remote work isn’t a benefit, it’s our culture. That’s how every team member at Axelerant works. All you need is an Internet connection, and you can work from anywhere that suits you. Rather than wasting countless hours and valuable energy commuting to and from work, remote working enables our team members to stay productive in their comfort zones.

With technology blurring the lines between work and life, a chance for you to be a digital nomad should be the main reason to look for a job change!

A healthy work-life balance is a significant element that contributes to attaining job satisfaction. We know that to build a rewarding work experience, employers need to understand what matters to their people. The benefits mentioned above are just a few of the many efforts Axelerant takes towards their team members' well-being.

 

 

Which benefit at your current company do you most appreciate?

If you are planning to apply at Axelerant, or have already applied, which benefit are you excited to profit from?

Do let us know your views in the comments section below.

About the Author
Axelerant Editorial Team
About the Author

Axelerant Editorial Team

The Axelerant Editorial Team collaborates to uncover valuable insights from within (and outside) the organization and bring them to our readers.


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