Is your company a great place to work?

The Pike Place fish market helped protagonist Mary Jane in the book FISH to turn around a workplace she described as a ‘toxic energy dump’ into an environment that was engaging, fun and happy. However, few of us might go through that kind of transformation and hence look up to our employers to give us the right kind of ecosystem that would help foster our growth both as an individual and an employee.

New York-based Great Place To Work Institute has been engaged in research centered around good workplaces for 25 years now and believes that trusting the people one works for, having pride in what ones does, and enjoying the people one works with are the three tenets to a truly good company.

Yuvika Gulati Consultant, Great Place to Work Institute, India

“Our model takes the employee to be at the centre having a relationship with three chief entities in an organisation, namely, the management, their job, and the people they work with. The sum of these relationships is directly impacted by the policies in an organisation,” elaborates Yuvika Gulati, consultant with Great Place to Work Institute, India.

The company annually collects data from more than 2 million employees in 49 countries representing over 6,000 organisations of varying sizes, industries and structures on 62 statements reflecting various elements that constitute a great place to work for. Hiring practices for new employees rank high on the list of attributes. RPG Life Sciences for instance has a 5P model of hiring to evaluate a candidate’s reason for moving out of the company. This includes: Profits (CTC hike), Position (higher designation), Profile (better role), Place (convenient location of the workplace), and People (discomfort with the team at current workplace or eagerness to work with the team at RPG). A fitment analysis of the candidate to the job as well as to the culture pillars of the company is also conducted and post appointment of a candidate, a box of chocolates sent along with the offer letter. Dr Reddy’s Labs (DRL) conducts multi-point video conferencing of the HR with new hires from premier campuses to address their queries and concerns and set their expectations right.

Lupin has introduced a standardised induction programme called ‘UDBHAV’ that is conducted at the Lupin Learning Centre, at Lonavla. Each employee up to middle management level undergoes this 12-day module from their second day of joining the organisation.

Divakar Kaza President – HRD, Lupin

Elaborates Divakar Kaza, President- Human Resources Development, Lupin, “In order to foster lateral thinking and harness the innate potential of employees, we have the GLOW AND GROW programme that enables them to think without restrictions in areas related to work, yet unrelated to routine working. In the manufacturing facilities, each month of the year is designated a theme related to different areas of plant operations/ functions, such as quality compliance, energy conservation, enhancing production etc. Employees come up with innovative ideas and solutions, thereby channelising their efforts towards achieving excellence in that particular area.”

Employee engagement has also become a necessity for companies faced with a challenging global economic climate. Research by Hay Group, a global management consulting firm, shows that engaged employees lead to improved bottom line performance, reduced staff turnover and an increased customer satisfaction, all of which boost revenue growth by 2.5 times.

Prasanth Nair Global Head – HR, Cipla

“This figure can go upto 4.5 times when ‘barriers’ to performance are removed and employees are empowered with right mechanisms, structures, and tools that help them show initiative and take decisions,” pitches in Gaurav Lahiri, Managing Director, Hay Group India. A recent study conducted on employee engagement across 46 countries by them found that, on an average, only about 66 per cent of employees feel engaged with their jobs, including those in India. The rest claim that their organisations has barriers that prevent them from excelling at work.

Interpersonal relations seem to be game changers for employees rating workplaces as healthy. Feeling a part of a team through appreciation and acknowledgement by colleagues is important. While employees at RPG Life Sciences voluntarily donate their leaves to someone in need of time away from work on an urgent and critical basis, employees at DRL give their colleagues a URJA (U R Just Awesome) card and ribbon as a token. Absence of bias at work is another criteria with appropriate forums to resolve conflict, transparency between senior management and those at lower levels in the hierarchy, mentoring and coaching to identify top future leaders.

Cipla has done away with designations, thus doing away with hierarchial structures to foster a spirit of oneness. Each person in a particular department reports to its head of business, with promotions that give added responsibilities instead of designations. Says, Prasanth Nair, Global Head, Human Resources, Cipla, “Performance development is an ongoing process at Cipla. We believe in fostering a sense of empowerment and purpose through our flat structure.”

There are certain things great workplaces do better than the rest that make themstand out from peers. While each company brings a unique proposition to the table as far as giving their employees a comfortable, welcoming and open environment, perhaps what each employee would wish for can be summed up in a quote from Stephen C Lundin’s book FISH, “Imagine a place where everyone chooses to bring energy, passion, and a positive attitude every day.” Amen to that.

[email protected]