This
year’s study brings out both the significant
strengths that Organisations who have made it
to the list have, as well as, some of the key
challenges that Organisations face in making
the grade. Thankfully, employees who have rated
their Organisations as Great workplaces and
their management have given us enough clues
to figure out which are those critical questions
the answers to which have made the difference
between a Good place to work and a Great place
to work in this year’s list.
Is
your Organisation perceived to be a Fair Employer?
Again
and again employees of organizations, which
made it to the list, talk about their trust
in the people they work for. Employees in Great
Places to Work® may not be happy with aspects
of their work but they know that they will get
a “fair shake” if they appeal in
that Organisation. What is striking about these
Organisations is the degree of fairness that
exists. An analysis of the scores of the Top
25 companies reveals that an overwhelming number
of employee in the sample population believe
that people are treated fairly regardless of
their religion (95%), race (91%), gender (92%)
or age (87%). This is clear evidence of the
fact that meritocracy is the cornerstone of
great workplaces.
While
Camaraderie, Pride, Credibility and Respect
as dimensions are often measured in many employee
surveys, Fairness gets pushed under the carpet
when senior managers discuss employee initiatives
from an employer’s standpoint. Organisations
inherently are not assumed to be democratic
institutions. This is where Organisations like
Sapient with their Global Ethics Hot line, which
is accessible to all employees, score over others.
Federal Express has a grievance filing procedure
called the Guaranteed Fair Treatment Process
where an employee who feels s/he has been treated
unfairly can challenge a manager's decision,
and keep on challenging the same at progressively
higher levels of management. It is mandatory
for FedEx managers to communicate to all employees
about this policy.
The
survey also reveals why achieving employee perception
of fairness is one of the toughest challenges
faced by most Organisations, and as we shall
see later this is true not for India alone.
For example, Infosys works on a role-based structure
wherein employees who demonstrate the required
competencies and are able to deliver results
can be moved to higher roles, irrespective of
their qualifications or length of experience.
It is thus promoting a culture of meritocracy.
Does
your Organisation promote work – life
balance?
Great
Work Places have physically safe work places
with facilities that create the right ambience
that inspires good work. However, only 67% of
the employees in the Great Places to Work®
2004 list feel that they have a work life balance.
The Indian economy has many opportunities and
today’s generation is working very hard
to create wealth for themselves, a factor witnessed
in Japan and Germany in the sixties and seventies
and by the Asian tigers in recent times. This
is also due to the fact that due to challenges
in infrastructure, people tend to spend more
time at work to overcome constraints such as
power shortages, delay in arrival of goods,
unpredictable disruptions such as ‘bandhs’
and strikes, water logging in monsoons etc.
We also tend to mix our personal and professional
lives and do not think twice before inviting
business partners home or taking and making
telephone calls at home or spending a lot of
time on email on our home computers and laptops.
Even
though only 67 % of employees feel that they
are encouraged to balance their work life and
their personal life, this is an improvement
of 10 per cent compared to the 2003 list, thus,
showing that the area of work-life balance will
be a differentiator in Great Places to Work®
in the days to come.
In
companies like Texas Instruments, crèche
and playground facility are provided for employees’
children. TI has launched Dosti, a counseling
service for employees that offers telephonic,
online and face to face counseling. TI also
celebrated life in balance month sometime back
wherein issues such as quality time with children,
relaxation and spinal care were addressed.
Is
your Organisation able to instill pride in employees?
Great
workplaces have been particularly successful
in fostering pride in employees. Compared to
the 2003 study, 20% more employees in the Top
25 list are agreeing with the statement that
they feel a sense of pride at what they have
accomplished, 19 per cent more employees in
2004 are saying that their work has special
meaning and that it is “not just a job”.
Similarly 17% more employees in the Top 25 list
in 2004 agree with the statement that people
are willing to give extra to get the job done.
Employees
at Sasken take great pride in their work culture
and core values and their vision of “Unleashing
Indian Creativity” inspires employees.
Newcomers to the Organisation are encouraged
to interview employees at random to discover
the Sasken Values in action rather than being
shown the values in handouts and presentations.
ST Microelectronics has a process of patent
mentoring to encourage employees to produce
and register unique ideas for patents. Whether
it is Texas Instruments or ST Microelectronics,
employees take great pride in the work they
do and measure their contribution in terms of
patents filed.
