New Age organisations offer innovative rewards to keep employees—and themselves—happy
RAMESH Melwani joined a leading leather company. An entrepreneur-driven, fast-growing exporter of leather accessories, the company had been doubling its turnover every year for the last six years. Melwani joined with a 2.5-fold jump in salary. Within a week he was back in his old company. Reason: he couldn't survive the ruthless, 16-hour-a-day regimen, where the individual was given no respect. Today he's a lot poorer, a lot happier.
Welcome to New Age organisations. When high salaries cease to motivate, they opt for more humane, more caring methods of getting—and keeping—talent. Bottom-lines, they realise, are important. But even more important are people who make them. Says Srini Rajam, MD, Texas Instruments (India): "When you've to lead the industry, no investment's too much." The human touch is evident at the Banga-lore-based manufacturer of electronic equipment and developer of computer software. Says Mangesh Kirtane, director, human resources: "We give all tangible and intangible benefits to employees." The seven-acre campus has a home theatre, jacuzzi, gym and a golf club in the neighbourhood. Just for 330 employees and their families.
These intangibles extend deep into Texin—that's what employees are called—homes. For instance, whenever Texins go out of the country for a week or more, their spouses are flown to their parents' place. If that's not possible, the parents are flown to the Texin's home at Bangalore. "The idea is: while the Texin is away, the spouse should not be inconvenienced," says Kirtane.
And at the workplace, for those engineers who aren't interested in climbing the management ladder, there's a technical escalator. Employees who've had a role in developing nearly 80 patented technologies are also rewarded with an annual allowance. Thus, rewards are shared equally between managers and technocrats.
There are a whole lot of lessons to be learnt from such practices of companies. More so, because they've actually worked and been fine-tuned over time. Profit, no doubt, is the ultimate motive. But if the very employee who ensures high growth rates among companies isn't taken care of, the high growth rates could remain projections. It's this concern that makes companies think about the welfare of their employees—even beyond the four walls of the office. Some companies just stop short of saying: "Have a ball." Like NIIT. This New Delhi-based computer education institute apparently believes what makes the world go round is...well, love. With young graduates joining the company every year, there's bound to be interest generated between the sexes. Instead of pretending it doesn't exist, or worse, even discouraging it, NIIT has included a dating allowance in the salary. Once married, couples get a movie-music allowance to spend time together. If the employee is sent on one of several overseas postings, he gets a "ball allowance".
Says S. Chandrasekhar, vice-president, human resources: "These practices are more unique than unusual to provide unique employment opportunity. The pay's structured so as to participate in the employees' lifestyle. " A well-cared employee gives his best to the organisation, goes the thinking.
On the outskirts of New Delhi, in Gurg-aon, Hughes Software Systems, developer of computer software, takes the happy-employee idea onto another plane. Says Aadesh Goyal, assistant vice-president, human resources: "We don't believe anyone works for very good salaries and hence we've something beyond work for the employees."
Right from the day you join Hughes, you're entitled to a car loan. If you've changed your place of work, the US-based subsidiary helps you locate a home. It spends over Rs 50 lakh on the free cafeteria it runs for employees. Goyal says the intangible benefits that an employee gives to the company can, "if you try hard", be converted into numbers so as to help in his appraisal.
Appraisals at Eicher Consultancy Services are totally dependent on employees. At this New Delhi-based management consultancy firm, employees don't have any provision for leave, or leave encashment. Work's paramount; how it's done is not. Theoretically, an employee can be off 90 per cent of the time, and if the work he's been given is completed on schedule, his raise is guaranteed. "How you ensure people give their personal best is a question that needs answers," says Anil Sachdev, MD.
Every year, the entire staff is taken for a learning conference. There, questions from employees are encouraged, thought over, and if found relevant, implemented. An employee once asked senior officials whether consultancy fee charged from a client would be returned if the client wasn't happy with the results. Now, the company has decided to come up with an unconditional guarantee: if you aren't satisfied with the services, your money's returned, no questions asked. Says Sachdev: "In the last five years, there've been five such instances when we returned the money. And in four cases, the clients came back to us again."
Of course, these trends are largely confined to fast-growing, high-stress, deadline-driven services industries like computer software and management consultancy. Thus, NIIT, Texas Instruments, Hewlett Packard provide gymnasia, health clubs, billiard tables, jacuzzis, home theatres and similar facilities at the workplace for employees to unwind. A new idea catching up among these companies is of a creche close to the office or within the office, just to ensure young mothers don't have to worry.
As in IIS Infotech. According to MD Saurabh Srivastava, there were a number of women in the company who felt they weren't spending enough time with their children. Result: a creche at their newly constructed office at Noida, near Delhi.
All these in no way suggest employees can while away time. These facilities are supposed to complement their performance. If it doesn't improve, it shows in the performance appraisal at the end of the year.
According to Subrata Roy, chairman and managing worker, Sahara Group, companies are not able to harness the best from their employees because they don't take care of their emotional needs. The Rs 5,000-crore Sahara group tries to do exactly that. One of his practices is to distribute 45 per cent of the annual profits to the workers' welfare fund. During 1996-97, Sahara incurred Rs 25 crore on raises to employees.
Hewlett Packard regularly undertakes employee satisfaction surveys and one of the questions asked is: Do you feel like coming to office on a Monday morning? The company has institutionalised what's called the HP-way which ensures the company is people-sensitive. Says Himanshu Jani, vice-president, personnel: "The company is always open to ideas and is willing to implement them. These are intrinsic to us." V.S. Mahesh, management professor at the University of Buckingham, UK, holds a different view: "Quid pro quo has a negative impact and people are now questioning rewards." The better way, says he, is group rewards. Regarding innovative allowances given by companies, he says: "Good organ-isations don't go for such a thing but there are very few good organisations." Employees at these New Age organisations, of course, beg to differ.