Pitango Venture Capital says most start ups provide employees with stock options. In its first employment survey of 40-50 portfolio companies, Pitango said that 80% of companies have employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).
Pitango said that 65% of employees at start-ups keep their jobs for 4-6 years, an unexpected figure given the transient nature of many start ups. Most CEOs were the companies' founders. 70% of employees at start ups are men and 30% are women.
The survey's importance from the perspective of the funds is to provide a more in-depth look at the demands and conduct of the personnel at start-ups, which is considered a relatively sensitive sector in high tech. Personnel is a major concern of start-ups. For new high-tech companies, the failure to attract suitable employees can jeopardize the company's survival, and there is a constant worry that the demand for skilled manpower greatly exceeds the supply. Pitango's survey found that the supply of workers supports companies' growing demand, so there are no expectations of substantial pay hikes in the coming year.
That said, it is hard to find suitable employees in high-demand professions. 46% of the respondents reported difficulty in hiring, especially of experienced software engineers. As a result, the average starting salary of an applications software engineer is 14% higher than current engineers, at NIS 15,500-21,500.
Pitango VP human capital Einat Drutin said, "It is difficult to find engineers, so their salaries are high. An engineer entering the market will usually find several companies competing for him. In general, demand and supply are in equilibrium, because we saw the closing of R&D centers last year." She added that the rise in salaries was negligible, compared with the pay hikes during previous booms such as in 2006-07. 35-50% of the respondents reported raising employees' salaries by up to 5% during 2012, after a 6% rise in 2011.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 19, 2013
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