“We conduct an anonymous monthly survey and consistently find that our colleagues rate their job satisfaction and loyalty to Careem way above tech industry averages. There are a lot of different factors contributing to our colleague value proposition, but anecdotally, we know the unlimited leave policy is a key contributor to happiness for a significant number of colleagues,” he said.

Tan also mentioned that the policy gives the company a “competitive advantage” when it comes to recruiting talent. “One of the things we’re most proud of is Careem helping reverse brain drain from the region — that is, recruiting really talented people originally from the region who moved away to come back and help us build awesome tech here to serve the people of our region. A lot of these colleagues have friends, and in some cases, families living really far away, so the flexibility to travel to see them is a great benefit for them.”

Toye said the idea behind unlimited vacation days is to provide employees with more flexibility and autonomy over their work-life balance. “It's also intended to encourage employees to take time off when they need it, which can lead to increased productivity and job satisfaction.”