8/3/2019 Work Life Balance HCL Tech Shows the Way With EFC

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O F F I C E W O R K O U T S

Work-life balance-HCL Techshows the way with EFCsFive 'employee first councils' at the company allow staff to showcasetheir talent and build a committed workforce

B y R a j e s h w a r i S h a r m a

rajeshwari.s@livemint. com

D.K. SrivastavaSenior vice-president, corporate HR,

HCL Technologies Ltd

What: Employee first councils,

or EFCs, constituted by infor

mation technology compa ny

HCL Technologies Ltd.

When: January 2008

Why: "Employee first, customer

second" is the driving mantr a at

HCL ever since the company

began its transformation al jour

ney in 2 0 0 5 . The company be

lieves that only happy employ

ees can keep customers happy.

EF C aims to stren gthen em

ployees' bonds with the or

ganizat ion and encourage

them to find a healthy balance

between their professional and

personal lives.

"In this current global slow

down, the need for the employ

ees and the employer to bond

an d work together to tide over

the situation is crucial," says

D.K. Srivastava, senior vice-

pres ident , corporate human

resources, HCL Technologies.

How the EFCs work: Th eEFCs are basically an ef

fort to encourage em

ployees to pursue hobbies

even while they are at

work. There are five coun

cils—Grey Cells, Talent,

Wellness, Sports and Com

munity Service—which

work towards goals that

are of com mon interest to

the employees.

About 1,900 activities, includ- Nurturing talent: EFCs aim to strengthen employees'ing sports competitions, blood bonds with the organization.

donation camps, working with

not-for-profit organizations

such as Hope Foundation, Ad-

haar and Srijan, and co nduct ing

regular health check-ups and

fitness classes for employees,

have been organized since the

inception of the project.

Some of the recent activities

include the Wellness Week or

ganized by the Wellness cou n

cil in the first week of Decem

ber. The council orga nized

health check-ups across the

country for emplo yees and

also compet itio ns based on

fitness. The Talent coun cil

held a singing, dancing and va

riety enterta inment contest

from 15-19 D ecember .

The Sports council organi zed

HCL Soccer Cup 2 0 0 8 in the

same month , while the Com

munity Service council

launched the Teach@off ice

programme, an initiative to

teach the security guards in the

office in Octob er. This coun cil

also has a school intervention

progra mme for teaching senior

secondary students from gov

ernment schools.

"Even in this environment of 

tough economic

challenges, the

EFCs have been

given complete

independence ,

authority and

budget to con

duct their vari

ous activities,"

says Srivastava.

Members o f  

th e five c o u n

cils were elect

ed by the

5 5 , 0 0 0 employ

ees across the organizati on.

F ro m the 1 , 063 nominat ions

received, 879 employ ees we re

elected to the councils. The

elected me mber s of the EFCs

set up a com mon age nda, plan

ca lendars and conduct the var

ious initiatives acro ss all facili

ties in India.

The results: Srivastava says the

EF C projec t has changed the

way employee freedom is per

ceived in the company. The

five councils in action are an

example of democracy at work.

Such initiatives ac t as

ting and engaging factthese counci ls have

out performers, intel

altruists and brilliant

sperso ns. For examp

Talent council has n

musi c bands. Currentl

ar e four music bands

Technolog ies—H C L

Tunes, Bra hma z Mista

K eys and C ontraband

have partici pated an

prizes in many com

outs ide the company.

Th e council also

music c lasses ( instru

across the organization

Talent School. This t

showcased during

events as well as in in

pany compet i t ions .

"The fact that our attr

els have been declining

utively from 17.7% in D

2 0 0 6 to 14.2% as in Se

2 0 0 8 is a small victor

Srivastava. "What is m

portant to us is that we

cessfully building an o

tion full of leaders and

force that is committed

cused to delivering valu

Starting this week, C profiles human resource

 tives by various compan

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