We continue to maintain an open-door policy for partners: Urban Company

At a time, when a large group of beautician partners recently gathered at the Gurugram office of Urban Company to raise the issue related to the blocking of their company IDs, the home services marketplace said it asked a few partners to part ways as they were not meeting the standards of the platform.

“We had recently asked a few partners who were not meeting the marketplace standards despite multiple prior notices and re-trainings, to part ways with the marketplace,” said the company on Wednesday night. “We continue to maintain an open-door policy and encourage dialogue with our partners. We remain committed to building a safe, high-quality home services platform.”

The firm said it has a responsibility to ensure that both sides of the marketplace have a good experience.“Our investments in training (which is free of cost and not paid for by partners), technology, tooling, products, free life, accidental and health insurance etc., go a long way in having a controlled experience on the marketplace,” said the firm. “This is enabling service partners to deliver best-in-class quality and earn a decent, middle-class livelihood.”

As part of the company’s mission to foster upward social mobility for over 50,000 service partners, benefiting 1.25 crore households, the company recently released a report which provides a comprehensive overview of its initiatives across five key areas. For instance, the company said its commitment to training and upskilling partners is reflected in the Rs 72 crore investment in these efforts during 2022. The top 20 per cent of Urban Company service partners earned a net monthly earnings of Rs 38,000, which is 3.16x of the minimum wage in Delhi (highest in the country), while the monthly net earnings of partners with over 30 jobs was Rs 30,625. Under its Security and Well-being benefits program, the company disbursed close to Rs 39 crore worth of loans through tie-ups with non-banking financial institutions and Rs 2.3 crores as insurance claims.

The firm also disbursed stock options worth Rs 5.3 crore to about 500 partners as part of the Partner Stock Option Plan initiative towards wealth creation commitment.

The company report also said that in West and Central India, female service partners earn almost 15 per cent higher than men. With respect to training and skilling, 84 per cent of partners reported being satisfied with Urban Company’s training and another 83 per cent of partners mentioned they witnessed an increase in dignity in society.