As the vice president, human resources development (HRD) of CMC Ltd walks intothe lobby of the computer consultancy's Delhi office, you cannot help but notice that heis not wearing a tie. He then offers to make you tea himself, before settling down to adiscussion on what makes CMC a unique workplace.
The public sector company is one of the several infotech corporates at the leading edgeof creating a radically different organisation and a whole new way of work. Outlook studiesthree such companies, two of them part of the HCL group, to get a fix on thecharacteristics of state of the art HRD percepts for knowledge workers.
Task-Based Management : With the industry growing at50 per cent a year, HCL-Hewlett Packard (HCL-HP) reorganises constantly by creatingtemporary teams drawn from a range of disciplines to work around specific business issuesor projects. When the project ends, members go on to other assignments.
Such frequent job shifts, or "skills-based management", as S.M. Arif, deputygeneral manager, HRD, calls it, carries none of the burden of traditional reorganisationthat involves shifting of formal reporting lines and titles. This doesn't mean that peopleat HCL-HP have no bosses or designations. But the task-based model makes sure thatclimbing the vertical hierarchy is not the only way up. An individual can also progress bytaking up more challenging assignments in more promising projects.
Technology Initiative : At NIIT, everyone is on a network; officescommunicate through E-mail. "The E-mail culture actually accelerates the pace of workby cutting down on time and distance, thereby enabling the creation of virtual teams andvirtual offices," says Arvind Thakur, director and senior vice president.""Email does away with many of the time-consuming social proprieties of phoneconversation or face-to-face interaction," says Akhilesh Mohan, manager, personneldevelopment, CMC.
While both HCL-HP and NIIT are connecting all their offices through very small apertureterminals (VSAT), the latter is also setting up a video-conferencing link between Delhiand Bombay. It has provided cellular phones at every location and pagers in everydepartment to, as Thakur puts it, "beat around the status issues that crops up withnew gadgets".
Stress On Recruitment: NIIT is less interested in what prospectiveemployees know than in how they think and in their level of motivation. "The desireto excel is more important than actual knowledge for software developers," sysThakur. Managers are tested for style flexibility, of crucial importance where theorganisation is task-oriented and relationship-oriented. For example, there is a"deserter's score" that measures a person's sense of responsibility.Psychometric tests like these aim to ensure that there are no potential square pegs inround holes.
Empowerment: "When a fresh HCL-HP sales executive offers adiscount to the customer, the customer can be sure that even the chairman of the companycannot better the deal," says Sharad Tlwar, manager, marketing services. Extremeempowerment balanced by ultra-tough targets had made the company a fountainhead ofentrepreneurial projects, regularly spinning executives into equity owning CEOs of thegroup's new ventures. Whenever the potential pay-off seemed promising enough, a newcompany took birth, and an HCL executive was given the chance to be an entrepreneurialleader. NIIT, HCL Frontline systems and HCL Comnet are all led by former fast track HCLmanagers.
Innovative Reward Systems: CMC has broken the traditional time andseniority based promotions pattern typical of PSUS. The company uses a fixed matrix systemfor arriving at salaries based on educational qualifications, years of experience andpersonal attributes. "We never advertise for a designation per se. If a potentialrecruit fulfils our eligibility criteria, we take him on and fit him into theorganisational structure and hierarchy where he fits," says Farnaz Madon, officer,corporate personnel development. Based on the performance matrix, the recruits are giventheir increments every seven, nine, eleven, months or annually.
At HCL-HP and NIIT, the focus is not just on salaries, but on building up wealth. SaysThakur: "While income gets spent, wealth accumulates; while income is taxed, wealthappreciates." NIIT's capital assets scheme enables a fresh recruit to buy everydaynecessities like a fridge, TV or motorcycle at 60 per cent of asset value and pay for themin instalments for up to six years. The scheme graduates to a car and house as managersmove up. HCL-HP has similar schemes in addition to salaries that are an easy "30 percent more than the best in the industry for top performers," says Romesh Raina,general manager, HRD.
"Creative people, we have noticed, derive satisfaction not just from being highlypaid, which is one token of performance, but from recognition and appreciation," saysMohan. CMC has performance committee that nominates select managers for various awards.There are individual awards like the CMC Ratna for the high-flier of the year, fiveoutstanding performers awards and special recognition awards for 2 per cent of the staff,besides the 'one-minute manager', a recognition for any exceptional work done athat mayrange from booking a large order to publishing an article in a magazine.
NIIT rewards outstanding employees by making them members of two in-house clubs -- theManaging Director's Quality Club to which about 15 people are added every year andassigned to tasks that make a quantitative input to the organisation, and the President'sClub, membership of which is open to people who contribute to the speed of innovation.Every year, each employee nominates -- self nominations barred -- one individual fromwithin his team and one from outside. The highest vote-pullers make the grade.
Pride Of Ownership: HCL-HP has a unique stock option plan whereinevery manager, after putting in two years, is entitled to shares worth his basic packagedivided by the share value on that date, payable through a three-year instalment scheme."Schemes like these create an emotional bond with the company," says Talwar.This year about 35 per cent of the employees were covered under the plan, making it themost comprehensive stock plan in the country.
Trust And Caring: At CMC, there is no card punching or removal ofregister or black-marking for coming late. "The assumption is that if an employee hasto get in everyday at 9 o'clock, he will want to leave at 5 pm every day with disregard tothe urgency of meeting an assignment deadline," says Mohan. There is no fixed casualleave or sick leave, saving the company the forced year-end absentees. Instead, thecompany follows a totally need-based time-off policy. In addition, it allows maternityleave up to a period of one year that is available even in cases where a lady stafferadopts to destitute child.
In case of a staffer's wedding, he gets a five-day special time-off, along with achauffeur driven car and special gift cheque of Rs 2000. NIIT even has a dating allowancethat may have resulted in over 60 NIITians marrying each other from a base of 2,000employees, quips Thakur. NIIT also has concepts like paternity leave, half-day option fornew parents, children's education allowance, elderly care allowance, as well as compulsoryleave on birthdays and anniversaries.
The corporate organisation of the future will definitely demand much from itsemployees, but is also looking for far more than just business links with them.
