How
much do you invest in development of your people?
As
the Indian economy over last year has started
to move in a growth trajectory, the shift from
cutting costs to investing in people is apparent.
A significant 18% increase in employee perceptions
on the statement saying that they are offered
training or development to further themselves
professionally, and 11% more employees saying
that they have special and unique benefits in
their organisation, proves that great workplaces
are putting their money where their mouth is.
For
example, in CSC not only does the Company pays
for the fees of higher qualifications being
acquired by any employee, any break in service
for acquiring higher qualifications is treated
as work experience for the purpose of determining
seniority within the Organisation, and there
is an assured job for the employees after completion
of his/her course. For employees pursuing Ph.D.,
the organization not only pays the fee and other
incidentals, it also provides the employee with
time break to meet his/her guide, and also pays
for the travel that the employee may have to
undertake to meet the guide.
Has
your management style kept pace with changing
expectations of people?
Being
approachable and easy to talk with is fast becoming
an essential criterion for managements at great
workplaces with 17% more employees agreeing
with this statement in this year’s list.
Overall, 81% of employees in the list agree
with this statement. Employees also feel more
respected with 11% more employees agreeing with
the statement that management involves people
in decisions that affect their jobs or work
environment. Managements of Great Work Places
are perceived by their employees to be competent
(89%) and honest and ethical (89%). This is
because in today’s time you cannot be
successful only because you have the ‘right’
contacts and manage to restrict the entry of
new players by operating in a protected economy.
Managements of the organizations who made it
to the list also discharged themselves creditably
in the area of delivering on promises with 10
per cent more employees agreeing that management
delivers on promises. This is a tough task as
leaders discover that the more they do, the
more people expect.
Senior
managers of many of the companies in the list
routinely hold meetings at a formal or informal
level with a group of randomly selected employees.
These meetings help in overcoming the shortcoming
of large group interactions as people can talk
on a more personal basis and in greater detail.
Where large groups need to be involved on account
of importance or time constraints, companies
are using principles of Large Scale Interactive
Processes to design processes that ensure adequate
communication without diluting employee involvement.
Managers
in great workplaces encourage employee participation.
Classic Stripes, a no union company, has a Relationship
Committee, which meets the management each month,
discusses the issues and tries to create win-win
situation all the time between employees and
the Organisation. Aviva has introduced
the ‘Ideas 4 Aviva’ scheme, wherein
every member of Aviva has an open invitation
to influence any aspect of business by giving
suggestions and ideas on how to work smarter
and better. The ideas are reviewed by their
‘Ideas Task Force’ whose role is
to shortlist and evaluate winning ideas and
facilitate their implementation. Project managers
are assigned to every winning idea. Further,
to ensure that people keep sending in their
ideas, feedback is provided to all designate
personnel on ideas received, their feasibility
‘rating’ and implementation status.
Infact,
the average of Credibility scores across these
25 companies is amongst the highest and the
best in the world. It is a common characteristic
of Great Workplaces that the senior leadership
of the organization takes active interest in
people – taking feedback from them on
a continuous basis, communicating with them
regularly, and being genuinely concerned about
the development of people. It is therefore
not unusual for one to find the CEO of Godrej
Consumer Products Ltd. having lunch with employees
everyday, or for the CEO and HR head of Wipro
Spectramind to have open doors for employees
at all times.
