Business Today Survey: Top 5 companies to work for in India
Rank 1: Google
Since 2010, this global Internet giant has been in the top five of Business Today's Best Companies to Work For list. It has topped the list for the second straight year, thanks to the initiatives taken by the company to make its employees feel secure, at ease and responsible. Launched recently, Mentor-on-Call is one such initiative.
FULL COVERAGE: Best Companies to Work For Survey 2013
As Jayashri Ramamurti, Head of People Operations at Google India, simply puts it: "We train mentors in engineering to train other Googlers." This not only brings down the bureaucracy in an organisation, but also offers employees help at hand. Other initiatives include Action Item, which involves a list of parameters to judge employees' work flow, and Google Orientation, where examples of real internal success stories are shared.
And who can forget about Google's very own Hangouts, a direct interaction tool used for more targeted and focused training. According to Ramamurti, a constant exchange of ideas from top-down and bottom-up is important for an organisation's overall growth. Google also tries to engage prospective employees, which helps them to not only know the company's culture but also settle in better.
Rank 2: Accenture
"Reshaping talent agenda is becoming a company agenda," says Manoj Biswas, Managing Director of HR at Accenture India. Keeping this in mind, Accenture has taken up a new way of hiring, engaging, and training people. 'Social' is at the heart of this change. The technology and consultancy services firm has created a new interviewing app, where the candidate can start engaging with the company prior to the interview. The candidate can also know who the interviewer is. Then there is the Accenture talent tool, which is integrated with different social media apps such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to connect with potential candidates. "It's about building a relationship, and not always about hiring. It also helps in people suggesting for the right candidate," says Biswas.
Rank 3: TCS
The largest private sector employer in India, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) employed 300,464 by March 2014, and had an attrition rate of just 11.3 per cent. In comparison, rival Infosys's attrition rate stood at 18.7 per cent. TCS, as is obvious, did many things right. One of them is how the company manages its young and diverse workforce. The average age at TCS is 28 and it employs people from 118 nationalities. TCS works overtime to make them connect better. The favourite medium is social media. In 2012, TCS introduced an internal social networking platform called 'Knome', pronounced Know Me, to help connect the company's leaders with the employees. Ajoy Mukherjee, Executive Vice President, Head, Global HR, TCS, credits the company's "holistic" approach for its high retention rate.
Rank 4: Microsoft
Many have criticised software giant Microsoft for losing sight of its consumers - for its lack of connect with mobiles. Many, however, will also agree that it is a great employer. So, as the company tries to find relevance among new-age consumers, it also needs a much motivated and aligned workforce. One thing that the company's leadership team, headed by industry veteran Bhaskar Pramanik, is focusing on is to change its approach from a performance-oriented one to an impact-oriented one.
Rohit Thakur, HR Head at Microsoft India, believes that "lives have generally become more stressed, and personal life affects your professional life". Keeping this in mind, the company tries to take care of its employees' personal life. It can, for instance, customise their health insurance policies as per their need. Then, a third-party agency has been hired to listen to their grievances - personal and professional.
Rank 5: IBM
When D.P. Singh joined IBM 10 months ago as HR Head, India and South Asia, the company was in a transition. It was diversifying its business to verticals beyond telecom where it has traditionally been very strong. The employees were at the centre of this change. After all, for companies such as IBM, which has a lakh-plus employees in India alone, it is important to keep them happy. So, Singh thought of touching their lives in four ways: engagement, development, health and well being. In 2013, IBM created a social platform called 'New2Blue' in an attempt to create a community where new employees could interact with one another. The platform also allowed existing employees to help new employees with work and adapt to the culture. Singh is also trying to build a better integrated workplace for the new as well as old workforce. "You have to keep all generations engaged," he says.
