Anker is popular again after lending 40 million to employees to buy houses!

Due to the impact of the overall environment, the cross-border e-commerce industry seems to be having a harder time this year compared to the past two years, and the employee benefits of some companies have declined. Under such circumstances, the wishes of some practitioners have been adjusted from "promotion and salary increase" to "no salary cut" and "the company's stable operation allows me to keep my job."

At this time, if a company comes forward and takes the initiative to increase benefits for its employees, it will definitely be a great show.

Anker Innovations has always been a benchmark in the industry. Yesterday, the company announced a "Regulations on Employee Loan Management", stating that it would further improve the employee welfare system and take out a loan quota of 40 million yuan for employees to buy houses and pay medical expenses. As soon as the news came out, Anker Innovations immediately became "other people's company" and people in the industry cast envious eyes.

Anker took out 40 million yuan to buy houses for employees, etc.

Anker Innovations has already grown to a large scale, but it hopes to take more steady steps forward, which requires a stable core staff and team to “row the boat”.

Yesterday, Anker Innovations announced an internal employee loan policy. Anker Innovations said that in order to further improve the construction of the employee welfare system, attract core talents, continuously enhance the company's competitiveness, ensure the achievement of the company's medium- and long-term strategic planning, and at the same time ensure that the interests of the company's small and medium-sized investors are not harmed, it has specially formulated the "Employee Loan Management Measures" to regulate the application, approval and execution management of employee loan benefits.

This loan method is applicable to personnel in important positions of Anker Innovations and its domestic and overseas holding subsidiaries. The loan purposes mainly include: to attract core talents; to buy houses for company employees; to pay for medical expenses for major diseases and accidents of employees or their immediate family members; and other approved fund turnover purposes.

The total loan amount provided by Anker Innovations to its employees is RMB 40 million. In principle, the total loan amount for a single employee shall not exceed the total pre-tax salary of the employee in the year of the first loan.

There are certain thresholds for borrowing. Employees applying for loans must meet the following four conditions at the same time:

1. Applicants must be core staff, business backbones and other important positions recognized by the company's chairman or general manager;

2. The applicant is not a controlling shareholder, actual controller, director, supervisor, senior manager, shareholder holding more than 5% of the company's shares, or a close family member of the controlling shareholder;

3. The applicant has no bad credit record and has not been listed as a dishonest debtor by the People’s Court.

4. The purpose of the loan must comply with relevant agreements.

( Anker Innovations Employee Loan Application Form )

In order to ensure the reasonable allocation of loans within the fund pool, the application quotas shall be centrally planned by the Human Resources Department and submitted to the Board of Directors for approval.

In the loan process, eligible employees need to fill out the "Employee Loan Application Form" truthfully and submit the relevant information. After that, the Human Resources Department will review the applicant's qualifications, application form and information, and then the Finance Department will review the applicant's qualifications, application form and information, and report to the Board of Directors for approval. Finally, the applicant approved by the Board of Directors will sign the "Employee Loan Agreement" with the company, and the Finance Department will remit the approved total loan amount to the employee's personal bank card in one lump sum based on the relevant information.

After the loan is completed, the borrower needs to repay the loan annually within the repayment period specified in the contract. Within the specified repayment period, employees can choose to repay part of the loan or repay the loan in advance. The interest on the funds will be based on the central bank's loan base rate or interest-free, depending on the purpose. In addition, if relevant taxes need to be paid, employees should bear the personal income tax generated by the loan.

So the question is, what if an employee leaves the company before repaying his loan?

According to the regulations, if an employee resigns during the repayment period specified in the loan contract, the unpaid loan balance must be repaid in one lump sum by the employee before the labor relationship with the company is terminated. Special circumstances may be approved by the chairman or general manager, and a repayment commitment must be signed to agree on the repayment time.

This loan management method will take effect and be implemented from the date of approval by the board of directors. On May 16, Anker Innovations held a meeting and reviewed and approved the proposal to formulate the "Employee Loan Management Method".

Will lending large sums of money to employees have an impact on the company's operations?

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. Although its profitability is relatively strong, Anker Innovations has a large business and is currently focusing on the domestic market. The need for funds is self-evident. Now, the company has taken the initiative to take out 40 million yuan from the fund to support the living needs of employees, showing its sincerity in retaining them.

After verification, CICC believes that compared with the company's profits and asset scale, the employee borrowing plan of Anker Innovations is within a controllable range. Anker Innovations will invest part of its idle own funds to reduce the financial burden of employees without affecting its normal operations, which will help the company attract and retain core talents in key positions and will not harm the interests of all shareholders, especially small and medium-sized shareholders. CICC has no objection to the matter.

Confident! Anker has considerable cash flow

According to the 2021 financial report released by Anker Innovations in April, the company's cash flow is nearly 12 billion. With such a considerable amount, Anker Innovations has enough confidence to provide loans to employees.

In 2021, Anker Innovations' cash flow from operating activities was RMB 11.7 billion, and its net cash flow from operating activities was RMB 449 million, an increase of 139.11% over the same period last year, mainly due to the optimization of cash flow management from operating activities; in 2020, this figure was RMB 187 million.

The strong support for sufficient cash flow comes from Anker Innovations' continued growth in revenue.

In 2021, Anker Innovations achieved revenue of 12.574 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.45%; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 982 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.70%. In terms of quarters, from the first quarter to the fourth quarter of 2021, Anker Innovations' revenue was 2.427 billion, 2.943 billion, 3.055 billion and 4.149 billion, respectively, and net profits were 204 million, 204 million, 237 million and 336 million, respectively.

In 2020, Anker Innovations achieved revenue of 9.353 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 40.54%, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company for the whole year was 856 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.70%; in 2019, Anker Innovations' revenue was 6.655 billion yuan, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company for the whole year was 721 million yuan.

In recent years, Anker Innovations' revenue and net profit have continued to grow steadily. Anker Innovations is a well-known cross-border e-commerce leader, headquartered in Changsha, and is mainly engaged in the independent research and development, design and sales of its own brand of mobile device accessories, smart hardware and other consumer electronic products. Its products mainly include three series: charging, smart innovation, and wireless audio.

Its sales model covers all channels of "online + offline", with online channels accounting for a large proportion. As of the end of 2021, Anker Innovations' business has covered more than 146 countries and regions, with more than 100 million users worldwide.

Anker Innovations' overseas e-commerce platforms include Amazon, AliExpress, eBay, etc. In China, it also sells online through Tmall, JD.com, etc. The company's most important sales platform is Amazon. In the past two years, the company's revenue from Amazon accounted for 61.74% and 54.66% of its total revenue respectively.

It is Anker Innovations' employees who create value for the company. According to the 2021 financial report, the company has a total of 3,532 employees, of which R&D personnel account for as many as 1,605, accounting for 45.44% of the total number of employees!

Looking at the educational level of all Anker Innovations employees, college graduates account for the highest proportion, with nearly 90% of them having a bachelor's degree or above. Students with less than a bachelor's degree have almost no chance!

Anker Innovations certainly hopes that high-tech talents will stay and continue to contribute to the company. To this end, the company has specified an employee salary management system including the "General Principles of Anker Innovations Project Bonus Management", "Anker Transfer Salary Rules", "Anker Annual Salary Adjustment Plan Process" and other specific rules, hoping to establish a stable workforce and attract high-quality talents through a reasonable salary system and scientific management and allocation.

In the future, the main framework of Anker Innovations' compensation system will continue and be revised according to development conditions. At the same time, more emphasis will be placed on the evaluation of employee job performance and job value, and the incentive compensation system will be further improved. Based on the company's existing compensation system and future business development plans and personnel recruitment plans, the company's average employee compensation is expected to match the company's business development trends.

In addition, Anker Innovations also attaches great importance to the construction and training of talent teams. The company has established the "Anker Innovations University" to achieve continuous improvement in its business management level through talent training concepts such as new employee induction training, one-on-one "mentorship" assistance, job skills training, general skills accessories, and management skills training.

As practitioners of cross-border e-commerce, everyone is generally concerned about the treatment of Anker Innovations' overall employees. The editor asked an industry insider, who introduced that Anker's employee treatment is relatively good and higher than the level of the same industry.

In the 2021 annual report, Anker Innovations disclosed the remuneration of senior executives. It is understood that in 2021, the total salary of Anker Innovations' directors (excluding independent directors), supervisors, senior executives and other core personnel was 9.9025 million yuan.

( Salaries of some Anker executives in 2021)

The remuneration of senior executives consists of salary, bonus, social insurance and housing provident fund. The remuneration level is determined by comprehensive factors such as personal education, work experience, job responsibilities, and reference to the level of the same industry. The company provides an annual allowance for each independent director.

In addition to senior management, Anker Innovations also treats other employees very well. Comparing its past actions, it is not difficult to find that Anker Innovations is not stingy in recruiting talents.

Recruitment is generous, fresh graduates may earn 1 million in three years

In this spring campus recruitment, Anker Innovations' hot positions include: technology research and development (electronics development /software development/institutional development/acoustic development), e-commerce operations/GTM, hardware products/software products, strategic management, after-sales service management, supply chain and human resources, etc. The main job locations are Shenzhen and Changsha.

In addition to the company's current status and development prospects, salary is also a key concern for fresh graduates. Anker Innovations made a bold statement: it provides the most competitive salary in the industry - "You can be promoted to management in three years, with a total income of 1 million!"

In terms of long-term incentives, the top 30% of employees can receive no less than 9 months of current wages. At the same time, they can add operating results analysis awards every year. In 2019, Anker Innovations issued 100 million yuan, and by 2020, it had already issued 200 million yuan! In addition, Anker Innovations also has a year-end excellence award, with an individual award of 50,000 yuan and a team award of 300,000 yuan in 2020.

In addition to the salary, Anker Innovations' benefits are also very attractive. In addition to regular benefits such as five insurances and one housing fund, employee physical examinations, weekly massages, wedding and childbirth gifts, the company also has special benefits such as three meals a day, monthly 4-hour short vacations, and new product experience packages.

In addition, outstanding employees who have been employed for more than two years can enjoy medical insurance worth one million yuan, and outstanding employees of the year can enjoy luxurious overseas vacation benefits. Employees with five years of service can enjoy an additional five days of paid vacation and a travel allowance of 3,000 yuan; employees with ten years of service can enjoy an additional 10 days of paid vacation and a travel allowance of 10,000 yuan.

The series of benefits are not only attractive to fresh graduates, but also to industry insiders. However, since Anker Innovations offers high salaries, its requirements for employees must also be extremely high.

Previously, an operator said: "When I graduated, I heard that Anker's recruitment required an English resume and a self-introduction, and the interview was all in English. My English was so poor that I was almost defeated." Another netizen who participated in the recruitment said that it took five rounds of interviews in both Chinese and English before he was qualified.

Overall, Anker Innovations employees have a high degree of recognition of the company. A current employee who has been employed for 6 years said that he is very happy at work, the company is developing rapidly, and it also values ​​its employees. Excellent employees receive generous bonuses and the cultural atmosphere is good.

Even among former employees, Anker Innovations has received a lot of praise.

A former employee who left in 2020 said that the work pace at Anker Innovations is relatively fast, but the intensity of the work is nothing in Shenzhen. "The company really works hard to create an open, transparent and relaxed office culture. From time to time, there are various cultural activities for us to have fun and eat. The treatment is the same as that of a large company, with annual salary increases and various bonuses." Afterwards, the netizen left the company to start his own business, but still missed the food in the company cafeteria.

In addition to the positive feedback about the above content, many people also complained about the company's lengthy interview process and excessive overtime. However, the flaws do not outweigh the merits. In the industry, Anker Innovations is still a golden signboard, and many people hope to be among them.

R&D expenses exceeded 200 million in the first quarter, and R&D personnel became popular

In this year's spring campus recruitment, Anker Innovations specially conducted a round of recruitment for R&D positions. The hot recruitment positions include assistant power engineer (requires a master's degree or above in power electronics, circuits and systems related majors), assistant wireless charging engineer, assistant high-power power engineer, assistant embedded software engineer, etc.

Within Anker Innovations, R&D personnel account for nearly 50% of the company's employees . Such an astonishing configuration is very rare, but it is in line with Anker's positioning of "innovation + technology". The company has invested heavily in R&D.

In the first quarter of this year, Anker Innovations achieved operating income of 2.865 billion yuan, an increase of 18.04% year-on-year; net profit attributable to the parent company was 199 million yuan, a decrease of 2.74% year-on-year; net profit attributable to the parent company after deducting non-recurring items was 158 million yuan, a decrease of 0.87% year-on-year. Among them, one of the reasons affecting the company's profit in this quarter is that the company invested 207 million yuan in R&D expenses from January to March, a year-on-year increase of 69.50%, which is higher than the growth rate of operating income; the absolute amount of R&D investment increased by 85 million yuan year-on- year .

Specifically, its R&D expenses in the first quarter increased by nearly 70% from 120 million yuan last year, mainly due to the increase in the number of R&D personnel, leading to an increase in wages and salaries.

The overall education level of Anker Innovations employees is also high, which is particularly evident in the R&D team. In terms of the educational background of R&D personnel, there are 1,089 undergraduates, 267 masters, and 12 doctors. The team is relatively young, with 646 people under the age of 30, 880 between the ages of 30 and 40, and only 79 people over the age of 40.

An anonymous industry insider said: "Anker Innovations' R&D staff are paid very high salaries, and the average salary increase is also quite fast . It may have exceeded the average value created. " In any case, the company has its own judgment, and basically no company will keep idle people. In the long run, the value created by employees needs to match their salary.

In addition to having high-level R&D personnel, Anker Innovations is also continuously upgrading its supporting R&D centers.

In August 2020, Anker Innovations was listed on the ChiNext, raising a total of RMB 2.72 billion. In terms of idle funds, in 2021, without affecting normal operations, the company used no more than RMB 2.1 billion of idle raised funds to purchase principal-guaranteed financial products for no more than 12 months. In addition, Anker Innovations used 40% of the over-raised funds of RMB 480 million to build a new raised-fund investment project, the "Global Marketing Service and Brand Matrix Construction Project", with a construction period of two years.

As an outstanding consumer electronics brand, it is understandable that Anker spends heavily on marketing. In comparison, the value of its R&D link is no less impressive.

In February this year , Anker Innovations held its first extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in 2022, and reviewed and approved the "Proposal on Adjusting Some Fundraising Projects and Using Over-Subscribed Funds to Increase the Investment Amount of Some Fundraising Projects" and other contents, and agreed to use approximately 360 million yuan of over-subscribed funds to increase investment in the fundraising project "Shenzhen Product Technology R&D Center Upgrade Project", and at the same time adjusted some investment details and usage progress of the "Shenzhen Product Technology R&D Center Upgrade Project", "Changsha Software R&D and Product Testing Center Project" and "Changsha Headquarters Operation Management Center Construction and Upgrade Project".

The electronics industry is updating very quickly, which requires strong R&D capabilities to strengthen barriers and break new ground. The first item in Anker Innovations' main work plan this year is to increase R&D investment, lead the exploration of innovative technologies and create benchmark products .

In 2022 , Anker Innovations will continue to increase its investment in product research and development, technology, etc. On the basis of consolidating existing product technologies, it will continue to promote technological innovation in products such as charging and wireless audio by continuously strengthening the construction of new R&D centers; and increase R&D and innovation efforts in consumer electronics products such as smart innovative products.

At the same time, based on the existing R&D technology, the company will further attract high-end talent teams, purchase advanced equipment, introduce advanced technology, optimize R&D processes, improve organizational management and other measures to comprehensively improve the technical level, design level, quality and service of its products and achieve multiple leadership in technology and products.

Judging from Anker Innovations’ actions this year, his leading plan is progressing.

Anker

staff