Operational development is slowing down? Many big sellers are spending heavily to retain employees

Since the beginning of this year, the industry has slowed down. While cross-border enterprises have been facing a cold wave, practitioners have also encountered a cold wave. The demand for jobs has decreased, wages have declined, and coupled with concerns about aging, some operators have begun to think about the future development direction. Some people pointed out that the end of Amazon's operation is either working alone or under management.

This has been proven. In order to retain high-quality talents and accelerate the development of the company, Anker Innovations and ZEBO's parent company Xinghui Shares have recently implemented equity incentive plans. Youkeshu's parent company Tianze Information has also launched an employee stock ownership plan, which has benefited its management and core technical and business personnel.

The industry is cooling down, and the development of operations careers is facing challenges

As the global epidemic eases, the resulting e-commerce dividends gradually disappear, and the development of the cross-border e-commerce industry slows down to a normal pace. Compared with the past two years, not only are cross-border e-commerce companies facing a revenue gap, but many types of work such as operations that rely on industry development have also ushered in a period of adjustment. From current salary conditions to future career development, many practitioners have begun to think about where to go, which is particularly evident in the industry's largest group of operations.

Before 2019, the industry's demand for operations personnel continued to rise. After 2020, the number of recruitments for this position began to decline steadily, and showed a significant drop this year.

( Source /JobFriends )

In the first five months of this year , the demand for Amazon positions on major platforms decreased by 64% compared with last year. In March, April and May, the number of recruitments for this position decreased by 77%, 94% and 79% respectively compared with the same period last year, which is a significant decrease. Not only has the demand for labor decreased, but job remuneration has also declined. Compared with 2021, the salary and remuneration for operations in 2022 will decrease by 6%.

In this environment, many employed operators lamented a drop in income, and those who planned to change jobs also found it difficult to find a new job of their choice.

A senior operator raised a question: In Shenzhen, are there many Amazon boutique operators with 1-5 years of experience who earn more than 200,000 yuan a year? After some analysis, excluding factors such as five social insurances and one housing fund, if you want to achieve an annual income of 200,000 yuan, you must have a basic salary of at least 100,000 yuan and a commission of 7,500 yuan per month.

This topic has sparked discussion, and most people think that this goal is difficult to achieve. For ordinary operations, the base salary for those with 1-5 years of experience is mostly 6-10k, and the standard above 10k is set relatively high; in addition, clearing inventory has almost become the norm in the industry. Every day, operations enter the clearance group to find clearance channels. Some companies even have a large backlog of goods and directly arrange special people to be responsible for clearance. In this case, the operation is likely to miss the commission. An operation with 5 years of experience said frankly that he has been clearing inventory and just hopes not to have his base salary deducted.

The operating income of employees has shrunk, but in addition to this, some people have another worry about age. Cross-border e-commerce practitioners are very young. Today, those born in 1998 and 2000 are already active in the workplace. Newcomers are more enthusiastic about work and more adaptable. For operators without strong capabilities, the impact from the new generation makes them uneasy. The topic of "30-year-old is a hurdle" has been frequently mentioned. Approaching this hurdle, some operators are confused about the future development direction. Should they continue to be grassroots staff, work alone, or change industries?

Age is not an absolute limit. For talented candidates, the bonus of work ability is greater than the former. Employers consider ability > experience > age /gender. For older candidates, companies will pay attention to their performance and work experience. If they have accumulated a resume with outstanding achievements in the past, job hunting is not a problem.

But it is undeniable that old employees may have a certain degree of rigid thinking or lack of topics to communicate with young colleagues, which is why they are easily rejected in job hunting. How to break the deadlock? An industry insider said: "The end of Amazon's operation is either to work alone or to develop into a management position. Otherwise, you will find that the base salary of an operation with a few years of experience is sometimes almost the same as that of a fresh graduate. Although it is cruel, this is the reality."

Once they reach the company's management level or become core business personnel, they will change from being passive to active in their career development and transform themselves into high-quality employees that the company is eager to retain.

Anker Innovations spends a lot of money to motivate more than 400 employees

In order to retain high-quality talents, most companies in the industry are willing to provide various welfare measures, among which the most common and effective one is equity incentive. For companies, this helps to establish a long-term incentive mechanism, attract and retain outstanding talents, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of employees, and promote the long-term development of the company by combining the interests of shareholders, companies and employees.

Last week, Anker Innovations launched its first stock incentive plan since its listing. The draft plan shows that Anker intends to grant about 6.49 million restricted shares, accounting for about 1.6% of the company's total share capital, of which about 5.2 million shares will be granted for the first time and about 1.3 million shares will be reserved, accounting for 80% and 20% of the total grant, respectively.

The initial stock price granted by Anker was RMB 40 per share, while before the draft was announced on June 20, the closing price of its company stock was RMB 63.61 per share, a price difference of nearly RMB 24 per share. The incentive plan will initially grant incentives to no more than 426 people, including directors, senior managers, core technical and business personnel of the company (including subsidiaries, the same below).

The initial grant and the reserved grant have three vesting periods, during which 1/3 of the shares are vested. The assessment of the incentive plan is divided into two parts: the company level and the individual level.

At the company level, the assessment period corresponding to the vesting of incentive stocks is the three fiscal years from 2022 to 2024, and the assessment will be conducted once a year. One of the vesting conditions for the incentive objects in the current year is to achieve the performance assessment target. The performance target is that the annual operating income growth rate is not less than 15% year-on-year. For example, based on the operating income in 2021, the operating income growth rate in 2022 is not less than 15%, and so on. The assessment year for the reserved part is 2023-2025, and the performance assessment target is also that the annual revenue growth rate is not less than 15% year-on-year.

The performance appraisal at the individual level is conducted annually, and the vesting ratio of the current year is determined based on the individual's performance evaluation results. The actual vesting amount of the individual in the current year = the vesting ratio × the individual's planned vesting amount in the current year. The individual performance appraisal results are divided into five levels: S, A+, A, B, and C. If the incentive object has a B result for two consecutive times or a C result at any time in the performance appraisal of a year, it is unqualified (the vesting ratio is 0), and other situations are qualified (the vesting ratio is 100%). Stocks that cannot be vested due to appraisal reasons will be invalidated and cannot be deferred to the next year.

Under the dual assessment, this incentive plan can not only improve the enthusiasm of employees, but also play a certain restraining role on them.

In fact, this incentive fee is not a small amount. Assuming that Anker first granted about 5.2 million shares in June this year, the estimated cost is 134 million yuan, which will be amortized to the next few years, namely 42.1911 million in 2022, 57.7801 million in 2023, 26.2683 million in 2024, and 7.468 million in 2025.

But considering the potential incentive benefits and Anker's profitability , the investment is worthwhile.

With the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, cross-border e-commerce has collectively ushered in a period of rapid development. In that year, Anker 's revenue was 9.353 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 40.54% ; the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 856 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.7% . Even on this huge base of dividends, Anker's performance in 2021 was not inferior. Its operating income exceeded 10 billion for the first time, reaching 12.57 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.45%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 982 million, a year-on-year increase of 14.7%. The rapid development is evident.

In the first six months of this year , 22 institutions made predictions about Anker Innovations' performance in 2022, predicting that its average net profit for the year would be 1.22 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.24%. Among them, 14 institutions gave a "buy" rating, 6 institutions "overweight", 1 institution "outperformed the market", and 1 institution believed that it should be "cautiously overweight". Overall, the forecast is very optimistic.

Judging from the current situation, Anker has set a performance evaluation target of no less than 15% annual revenue growth for the incentive targets, which is very likely to be achieved. In addition, there is no lock-up period after the shares are vested , which is also a real benefit to the relevant employees and will have a significant effect on enhancing team cohesion.

Among the leading companies in the industry, equity incentives are a relatively common incentive measure. Zebao's parent company, Lechuang, Suntech and other leading companies have all implemented such plans.

To retain talent, many big retailers implement equity incentives

Before Anker, Zebao's parent company, Xinghui Holdings , proposed a restricted stock incentive plan for 2022 in April and May, and completed the first grant in early June.

Xinghui shares plans to grant 26 million shares, accounting for about 7.36% of the total share capital. Among them, 24 million restricted shares are granted for the first time, accounting for 92.31% of the total number of shares to be granted under the incentive plan; 2 million restricted shares are reserved for grant, accounting for 7.69% of the planned number of shares to be granted.

Among them, the first type of restricted stock is 18.5 million shares, of which 16.5 million shares were granted for the first time at a price of 3.49 yuan per share, and the total cost is expected to be 35.31 million yuan; another 2 million shares of this type of stock are reserved for grant. The second type of restricted stock is 7.5 million shares, which are granted once without reservation at a price of 3.49 yuan per share, and the total cost is expected to be 17.6127 million yuan.

There are 32 people in total for this incentive plan , including directors, senior managers, and core technical/business personnel working in the company (including subsidiaries). The first class of shares granted for the first time will be released from the lock-up period in three phases after 12 months from the date of grant, with the unlocking ratios being 20%, 40%, and 40% respectively, but the corresponding performance threshold is not low.

During the three lifting of the lock-up period, the company must achieve one of the following assessment targets in terms of revenue or profit:

1. Revenue in 2022 shall be no less than RMB 2.6 billion and net profit shall be no less than RMB 50 million;

2. Based on the revenue in 2022, the growth rate of operating income in 2023 shall not be less than 26.92%; based on the net profit in 2022, the growth rate of net profit in 2023 shall not be less than 160%;

3. Based on the revenue in 2023 , the growth rate of operating income in 2024 shall not be less than 30.30% ; based on the net profit in 2023, the growth rate of net profit in 2024 shall not be less than 61.54%.

When either revenue or profit is fully achieved, the company-level lock-up release /attribution coefficient (M) is 100%; when the achievement of one of the two is between 80%-100%, the M value is 80%; when the achievement of both is less than 80%, the M value is 0.

In addition, there are individual assessments to motivate employees. When the company-level performance completion rate reaches 80% or more, the number of restricted shares that employees actually release from sales restrictions in that year = the number of restricted shares that the individual plans to release from sales restrictions in that year × the company-level release coefficient × the individual-level release coefficient.

For Zebao's parent company, which has been blocked, such performance assessment is not a small goal. Last year, Xinghui's total revenue was 3.66 billion, down 1/3 year-on-year, and its net profit attributable to the parent company was a loss of about 1.524 billion. In the first quarter of this year, Xinghui's revenue was 588 million, down more than half year-on-year, and its net profit attributable to the parent company was a loss of 26.86 million, down 1.7 times year-on-year.

The account suspension has had an indelible impact on Zebao. After a large number of accounts were blocked, sales dropped sharply. In the first quarter of this year, Zebao's sales on Amazon were only 179 million, down 80% from 975 million in the same period last year. Although Xinghui shares stated that the sales revenue of Zebao's main products in the first quarter was basically the same as the peak season in the fourth quarter of last year, and the sales situation did not continue to decline, it is not difficult to guess that Zebao's days are not easy, and the account suspension incident will not be revealed.

Not long ago, Xinghui Co., Ltd. filed a lawsuit against Zebao's original founder Sun Caijin and other related parties. The reason was that during the performance commitment period , Zebao's founder and team manipulated Zebao to violate Amazon regulations in order to achieve performance, resulting in the platform blocking incident. The company suffered huge losses, and the assumption in the previous acquisition "Evaluation Report" that Zebao Innovation "continues to maintain the original business management model and continue to operate" is no longer valid. Therefore, it was required to reduce Zebao's acquisition amount from 1.53 billion to 430 million yuan, and Sun Caijin and others returned 1.04 billion yuan to Xinghui Co., Ltd.

The original target of this stock incentive plan was 32 people, but perhaps due to concerns about the uncertainty of the company's performance development, before the grant date, 4 of the original incentive targets voluntarily gave up all the restricted stocks to be granted for personal reasons, and 1 person voluntarily gave up part of the restricted stocks to be granted for personal reasons. The total number of stocks in the incentive plan was adjusted from 26 million shares to 25.6 million shares. On June 2 , Rixinghui Co., Ltd. granted 23.6 million restricted shares to 28 incentive targets.

Not only Zebao's parent company, but also Youkeshu's parent company Tianze Information released the " 2022 Employee Stock Ownership Plan (Draft)" at the beginning of this year, intending to use approximately 6.5 million shares to repurchase shares at a price of 1 yuan per share. The shareholding plan can be participated by no more than 200 people including company supervisors, senior management, middle-level management and core backbones.

In the end, the company's directors (excluding independent directors), supervisors, and senior management who participated in the shareholding plan contributed a total of 2.01 million yuan, accounting for 30.94% of the total shares of the employee stock ownership plan; the total subscription amount of middle-level managers and core backbones did not exceed 4.48697 million yuan, accounting for 69.06% of the total shares of the employee stock ownership plan.

Compared with the company's share price of about 6.6 yuan per share at the time, Tianze Information's acquisition price of 1 yuan was a bargain. However, the company has set up performance appraisals for this purpose. The appraisal years are the two fiscal years of 2022-2023, and the appraisal will be conducted once each fiscal year. The revenue growth rate in 2022 and 2023 is required to be no less than 30% based on the revenue of the previous year.

Tianze Information's total revenue in 2021 was 1.764 billion yuan. After suffering the Waterloo of account suspension, its revenue in the first quarter of this year was 230 million yuan, a 30% increase from last year's revenue, which means it will reach 2.29 billion yuan. It seems that the assessment standards are not low.

In order to maintain team stability and motivate employees, industry sellers such as Leckey, Ecovacs, and Aosun have also tried equity incentives. In addition to this more common method, some powerful sellers have recently launched internal housing loan projects. Although some people in the industry joked that the loan amount is insincere and is a drop in the bucket for buying a house, it is better than nothing. I believe that this money is still helpful for employees who have urgent needs.

Lending money to employees to buy houses, big sellers are coming up with new ideas

Well-known sellers in the industry, such as Anker and Leckey, have launched initiatives to lend money to their employees to buy houses.

Not long ago, Lechuang released an announcement about providing financial assistance to employees for purchasing houses, mentioning that the company plans to set aside RMB 3 million as loans for employees to purchase houses. After the amount is used, the loans returned by the employees and the unused amount will be used in a circular manner for subsequent company employee loan applications for purchasing houses.

The scope of Lechuang loan employees is in-service employees, and employees must have served the company and its branches and subsidiaries for 1 year or more. The conditions are relatively loose!

However, in addition to the above conditions, the borrowing employee must also have excellent work performance and an excellent performance evaluation within the team. The area where the loan is used to buy a house must also be recognized by the company.

So how much money can employees borrow? It is understood that the amount borrowed by the borrower cannot exceed the annual salary, and the highest level does not exceed 250,000. This amount is not much for buying a house, but it is good to solve some of the funding problems.

The loan term for Leckey employees is most often no more than 5 years. If an employee leaves within 1 year, the loan interest rate is calculated at an annual rate of 8%; if an employee leaves within 1 to 3 years, the loan interest rate is calculated at an annual rate of 6%; if an employee leaves after 3 years, the loan interest rate is 0%.

In 2021, LEACHO's operating income was approximately RMB 2.871 billion, and its net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was approximately RMB 185 million. The company's cross-border e-commerce sales revenue increased by 38.76% year-on-year, of which independent site sales increased by 89.19% year-on-year. LEACHO's development prospects are good, and its employees can also enjoy dividends.

In addition, Anker Innovations has also decided to set aside 40 million yuan to be used for employees to buy houses, medical expenses, etc. In principle, the total amount of loans for a single employee shall not exceed the total pre-tax salary in the year of the first loan.

In 2021, Anker Innovations' net profit after deducting non-recurring items reached 707 million yuan; in the first quarter of this year, its net profit after deducting non-recurring items was 158 million yuan, with strong profitability! While the company is moving forward, it also supports the living needs of its employees.

The fact that big sellers have paid out of their own pockets to provide housing funds for their employees also proves that they have sufficient cash and relatively considerable revenue and profits. In order to keep the company moving forward, big sellers have taken the initiative to invest and provide support for core employees, which to a certain extent also proves their sincerity in retaining employees.

In general, for employees with strong capabilities, especially those with core competitiveness, aging brings more experience and ability accumulation. If they can keep learning and improving, they will be more comfortable at work. Companies often spend a lot of money to recruit such employees, who get more room for development and will encounter career bottlenecks later.

Of course, for practitioners with ambitions in mind, working is a process of fighting monsters and upgrading. Once they have figured out the ways of cross-border business, they will go out and start their own businesses, and basically be free from worries about career development.