|
As we unveil the second
Businessworld- Grow Talent list of Great
Places to Work®, we are amazed by how
things have changed in the course of one
year. Last year when we did the Great Places
to Work® survey in India for the first
time, India Inc was just emerging out of
the woods after a period of painful restructuring.
The previous few years had seen significant
job losses in Manufacturing, end of the
Dot Com boom, and the inadequacy of ESOPs
as a wealth-creating tool for employees.
Though the companies that made it to the
list in 2003 managed to differentiate themselves
in the employment market from others, the
overall employee morale was still at low
ebb. Though 78 per cent of employees in
the Businessworld- Grow Talent list agreed
with the statement “Taking everything
into account, I would say this is a great
place to work”, this was 11 percent
below the corresponding figure for the US
Top 100 list published by Fortune magazine
in the same year.
This year, employees at Organizations that
have made it to the list in India have a
different story to tell. 86% of the employees
of the Top 25 Great Places to Work®
in India in the 2004 survey have endorsed
the statement that taking everything into
account their Organisation is a Great place
to work®. This is comparable to the
88% score that the US Top 100 companies
got for the same statement in 2004. (Though
strictly speaking comparison should be with
the US Top 25 where the score is higher
at 92%)
Employees this year are much more upbeat
about what they have to say about their
…“When I joined the company
and my mum was ill, I had to spend a lot
of time with her- running to the hospital
etc. My work was relaxed so that I
could concentrate on my personal things.
When I lost her the amount of help that
was offered, as I was very young, was incredible.
I get a feeling of not just a company but
a family.”…
…“We
have a uniform that we wear daily.
Unlike most other places, I love my uniform
and have the most amazing feeling when I
put it on daily. And when other people see
me in this uniform I feel the way they look
up to me. I just love that.
Bottom line is “I LOVE MY WORKPLACE”…
And
these comments have found their way into
the scores that employees have given for
the 57 statements that comprise the Great
Places to Work® employee survey conducted
by Grow Talent to determine the list of
Top 25 Great Places to Work® in India.
For
over 20 years and in 23 countries the Great
Place to Work Institute, San Francisco,
has been recognizing great workplaces. The
Institute has a simple definition of a Great
Place to Work®. If you trust the people
you work for, take pride in what you do,
and enjoy the company of people you work
with, you are working in a Great Place to
Work®.
It
is perhaps the elegance of this definition
plus the fact that unlike other surveys,
the Great Place to Work® model looks
at workplace relationships from the employees’
perspective that prompted 179 reputed companies
to participate in this year’s survey,
up from 120 who participated last year.
Ultimately, 130 organizations could complete
the entire process. Selecting the
Top 25 was a daunting task. Each organization
evaluated made an excellent case to warrant
a position on this list. For the few
that made the cut this year, it is a great
accomplishment indeed. For those that
didn’t, it is a step in the right
direction- no doubt their time will come.
Twelve of the Organisations featuring in
this year’s list did not feature last
year.
|
