BharatPe CEO: 90-Hr Week Difficult Number

New Delhi: Amid a raging debate in India Inc over 90-hour work week, BharatPe CEO Nalin Negi has said that quality matters more when it comes to measuring outcomes and productivity of employees at workplace, not long hours clocked in, as he emphasised that fintech firm does not have such extreme work hour expectations.

The comment assumes significance as it came at a time when there is a spotlight over gruelling work hour expectations in corporate India, after L&T Chairman SN Subrahmanyan expressed regret over not being able to make staff work on Sundays. Negi told media in an interview that quality of work is “paramount”, not the number of hours. “Ninety hours is quite a number of hours to put in, and becomes very difficult.

So I would say (it is about) quality... quality matters,” Negi said. The BharatPe top honcho said that the debate around work-life balance has always been around, and that as a young organisation, BharatPe aims to provide a comfortable and enabling setting where employees can put in their best. “Young organisations can foster career trajectory in a very, very different way, because you have different people.

Larger companies have built this over a period of time, they have people and attract talent of a similar nature, (in a) cookie-cutter approach,” he said. Six-year old BharatPe is looking to build a culture that is not rigid, he asserted. “We are six years old, and I would definitely like BharatPe to be known as an employee-friendly company, a company that offers careers to people, not jobs. So our focus is on that,” he said.