Unicorn gaming and esports startup MPL introduced a new system aimed at rewarding team performance over individual achievements, and changed its Esop (employee stock ownership plan) vesting period from yearly to monthly, reported the Economic Times. The company laid off 100 employees or about 10% of the workforce in May and shut down its Indonesian operations.

MPL is among many new-age companies that are modifying the remuneration structures, as they look to retain key talent despite layoffs amid a funding shortage that has hit the technology world globally due to a slowdown in public and private markets.

“This new approach makes the reward process completely transparent. More importantly, team performance will now take precedence over individual achievements,” co-founder and chief executive Sai Srinivas Kiran G told ET.

Additionally, the policy of exercising vested options after 30 days of exit has been changed to 10 years from the vesting date, even post-exit. There will be immediate vesting of unvested options in the case of the death or disability of a participant.

The mobile gaming segment was one of the big beneficiaries of the COVID-19 pandemic that forced people to stay indoors which resulted in a massive surge in mobile game downloads and user engagement.

Mobile app downloads in India had increased by 50 per cent and user engagement rose 20 per cent, according to a recent report by consulting firm RedSeer. “The philosophy of growth at all costs is now reversed. The market is now rewarding profitable growth overgrowth at all costs,” MPL co-founders Sai Srinivas and Shubh Malhotra said in an email to employees last month announcing lay-offs.