Swiggy Outperforms Zomato in Employee Retention and Compensation but Falls Behind in Gender Diversity

Food delivery giants Zomato and Swiggy have revealed contrasting employee management strategies in their FY25 regulatory filings. While both companies pursue profitability and operational efficiency, their approaches to workforce composition, compensation, and retention demonstrate distinct organisational philosophies in the competitive food delivery and quick commerce landscape.

Workforce Composition Shows Different Strategic Approaches

Zomato closed FY25 with 6,903 permanent employees compared to Swiggy's 4,488, reflecting a more aggressive hiring strategy, as per news reports. The larger workforce at Zomato indicates expansion across domains, including product, operations, and integration with Blinkit. However, when including the total workforce with contractual and temporary staff, Swiggy maintained a slight edge with 7,431 employees versus Zomato's 7,406.

This suggests that while Zomato leads in permanent roles, Swiggy maintains a leaner core team while engaging more flexible or outsourced resources. In terms of gig worker strength, Swiggy had 5.4 lakh monthly active food delivery workers compared to Zomato's 4.73 lakh as per Q4 FY25 results.

Swiggy Demonstrates Superior Employee Retention Performance

Swiggy achieved significant progress in employee retention with attrition rate falling to 33.37%, representing a 41.3% year-on-year decline that reflects improved workplace stability. Zomato reported a considerably higher 44.3% attrition rate, showing a 19.7% increase compared to the previous fiscal period. Both companies clarify that these figures include inter-company movement from group companies to subsidiaries.

Read More: Swiggy Board Shakeup: Anand Daniel and Sumer Juneja Exit, New Director Appointed!

Compensation Gap Reveals Different Pay Structures

Swiggy offers substantially higher median salaries across gender categories. Male employees at Swiggy earned a median salary of ₹14.33 lakh in FY25 compared to ₹7 lakh at Zomato. For female employees, Swiggy paid ₹13.5 lakh median salary versus ₹6.3 lakh at Zomato. The compensation gap could be attributed to differences in organisational structure, seniority distribution, or strategic compensation approaches.

Gender Diversity Across Both Platforms

Zomato demonstrates better gender diversity with a 71:29 male to female ratio compared to Swiggy's 81:19 distribution. Despite Zomato's relative advantage, both companies maintain significant gender gaps that highlight ongoing challenges in achieving balanced workforce representation in the technology and food delivery sectors.

Employee Benefits Expenses 

Zomato reported a 54.2% year-on-year increase in employee benefits expenses while Swiggy's costs grew by 26.7%. The divergent trends reflect Zomato's higher hiring volumes, salary adjustments, and benefits provisioning across group entities, including Blinkit and Hyperpure, while Swiggy maintained more disciplined cost management.

On workplace safety compliance, Swiggy reported 6 POSH complaints during FY25 with 4 resolved cases. Zomato received 19 complaints and successfully resolved 17 of them. The higher complaint volume at Zomato correlates with its larger permanent workforce size.

Financial Performance 

Zomato's parent company Eternal posted a 70% revenue jump to ₹7,167 crore in Q1 FY26 while profit dropped 90% to ₹25 crore. Swiggy registered a 45% revenue increase to ₹4,410 crore in Q4 FY25 but losses nearly doubled to ₹1,081 crore, with Q1 FY26 results yet to be filed.

Swiggy Share Price Performance

On July 31, 2025, Swiggy share price opened at ₹400.00 on NSE, below the previous close of ₹401.10. During the day, it surged to ₹407.00 and dipped to ₹397.70. The stock is trading at ₹400.85 as of 12:22 PM. The stock registered a marginal change of -0.06%.

Over the past week, it has declined by 1.74%, over the past month, it has moved up by 3.85%, and over the past 3 months, it has moved up by 26.69%.

Conclusion

Swiggy's superior performance in employee retention with 33.37% attrition versus Zomato's 44.3% and higher median salaries of ₹14.33 lakh versus ₹7 lakh demonstrates effective workforce management. However, Swiggy's 81:19 male-to-female ratio lags behind Zomato's 71:29 gender balance. As both companies focus on profitability in FY26, these contrasting workforce strategies will significantly impact their competitive positioning in the evolving food delivery and quick commerce markets.

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