Breath of fresh air

It has done away with dated HR practices and brought in a new work culture

When Thomas Verghese joined the AV Birla group five years ago as executive president of its viscose fibre business, he was anxious. The viscose business all over the world was in shambles, but that was not what bothered him - it was the prospect of joining a typical family-managed group. "The company was perceived to be a Marwari company run by chartered accountant babus, and I took my time to decide if I wanted to join," says Verghese.

Attracting top-notch professionals like Verghese was high on Santrupt Misra's list of priorities. Misra had also joined as HR head around the same time. He had realised that changing external perceptions was critical. "The group was going through massive consolidations, we had to build a brand name and make ourselves more visible, attract fresh talent and put processes in place. That meant a lot of clean-up on the inside. Organisational transition is easy, but it takes much longer for people to change," says Misra.

Creating a new work culture was easier said than done. Misra and his team chose a back-to-basics approach: performance management systems were put in place, merit-based promotions were initiated, training needs were identified, new people were hired, and a retirement policy was started (now this was a major departure from the company's 'employer for life' policy). The old guard reacted sharply. "People were used to a paternalistic environment. Suddenly, they were told that their performance was being monitored and that poor performance would not be tolerated," says K.K. Maheshwari, group executive president, who has been around for 18 years.

To build a meritocratic organisation, the focus wasn't just on managing performance. Misra backed it up with initiatives on learning, relearning and organisational renewal.

Take their management learning centre Gyanodaya. The campus was set up in Navi Mumbai three years ago. Today, nearly 1,100 managers have been to seminars and workshops on courses like business leadership, marketing and branding or even competency-based training like mentoring or executive coaching. Last year, an e-learning venture was kicked off. It ran 136 courses in soft skills and functional areas. "We realised that not all managers could take time off to attend workshops, so we started an e-learning initiative on our intranet," says Misra.

A group which had traditionally looked after its employees also had to tweak its compensation to attract top-notch talent. It always offered benefits like its network of 22 schools across India, mid-career education support and healthcare. But now, salary levels were upped. "We don't hesitate to pay the right person, and our appraisal system is so transparent that an exceptional performer will be rewarded," says Misra.

The transformation isn't over yet, but old-timers like Maheshwari have blended well with new recruits like Verghese. A company that was known to be a commodity trading company run by CAs won this year's Nasscom-ET award for excellence in IT. "We don't claim to have done anything extraordinary, but the challenge lies in the scale of operations - managing 78,000 employees (global and Indian) is no mean task," says Misra. Employees also tend to agree