“The have sacrificed their family lives for the progress of the firm and hence they deserve the reward”. RIGHT: This handout photograph received from Harikrishna Exports shows cars given as gifts, including a Lamborghini sports car, during a gift presentation to the company’s employees in Surat.
Agencies/Surat, Gujarat
A generous boss in Gujarat has given 1,200 of his workers new cars, deposits for flats and thousands of dollars worth of diamond jewellery as rewards for loyalty.
The Surat diamond merchant presented the lavish gifts to the employees in a ceremony on Sunday before the major Hindu festival of Diwali.
The presents, including those for worker’s wives, were part of Savjibhai Dholakia’s company loyalty programme worth a total of Rs50bn ($815mn).
“We have rewarded those employees who have contributed to the development of the company over the years,” Dholakia, chairman of Hari Krishna Exports, said yesterday.
“The have sacrificed their family lives for the progress of the firm and hence they deserve the reward,” Dholakia said from Surat, a diamond polishing and export hub.
Most employees receive presents of some kind from their bosses during Diwali, the festival of lights, but they are usually just boxes of sweets.
Dholakia’s complex loyalty programme, in which employees earn points in 25 criteria, has been in place for five years - but this year the rewards have reached new heights.
“We gave apartments to 207 employees, cars to 491 and jewellery to 500 employees,” Dholakia said.
“The (deposits on) apartments were given to those who did not own one,” he said, while cars were given to those workers who already have their own home.
Jewellery, worth a maximum $5,860 apiece, was given to some employees as presents for their wives because spouses “have also contributed indirectly to the progress of the firm,” he said.
“These incentives are part of our loyalty programme. Employees who have shown consistent and superior performance over the past five years have been rewarded,” Naresh Mayani, Dholakia’s secretary, said.
Mayani said there was a “wave of happiness” among company employees ever since the Diwali bonanza was announced.
“No one in my family has a car, so when I came to know that I’m getting a vehicle, my happiness knew no bounds. Everyone is excited and celebrating at home,” he said.
In an example of a rags-to-riches story, Dholakia borrowed money to start off his diamond business in the early 1990s.
Today his company reportedly an annual turnover of about Rs60bn with a workforce of 8,000 and offices in Belgium, Hong Kong and Britain.
Employee Gaurav Duggal said his two-odd years of working for the company had been “indescribable.”
“The jewellery which they have given me is not only priceless, it shows the sentiment that the company has towards me and other employees,” he told the NDTV network.
