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Insights on Future Workplace Trends in India

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Contents

Executive Summary .......................................1

Introduction ...................................................2

Business Priorities .........................................3

Survey Findings ..............................................5

Overall HR Priorities

Compensation and Rewards

Work-Life Balance & Flexibility

New Trends

Conclusion ................................................... 12

Interviews .................................................... 13

DISCLAIMER:

This Report is strictly for private circulation to the addressees only and not for re-circulation. Any form of circulation, replication, reproduction, dissemination, copying, disclosure, modification, distribution and/or publication of this Report or contents hereof, including by caching, framing or similar means, is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of Dun & Bradstreet Information Services India Pvt. Ltd. (D&B). The contents of this Report are solely meant to inform. The information contained in this Report should be independently verified before placing reliance or taking any decision on the basis of the information. D&B expressly disclaim all responsibility and accept no liability for the consequences of any person acting, or refraining from acting, on such information.Copyright © 2014, D&B, All rights reserved.

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The report Insights on Future Workplace Trends - A Study by Dun & Bradstreet is based on a survey of HR function leaders and business leaders in India. It attempts to identify the major emerging trends that will define the workplace of future.

Our study indicates that organizations are increasingly realising that having the right employee-friendly policies and practices at workplace will play a key role in driving organizational success.

The traditional model of a rigid office and workplace is rapidly transforming into an open and dynamic environment, where employees desire greater flexibility and opportunity. Accordingly, employers are revisiting their existing policies to accommodate emerging human capital needs with the objective of increasing productivity, improving work-life balance, and attracting and retaining talent.

The key findings of the study are listed below:

Major Challenges: Enhancing employee performance and productivity, and retaining and rewarding top performers are the key challenges faced by HR leaders.

Executive Summary

People Focus: Developing future leaders and succession emerge as the most important people-related area of focus for companies.

Compensation and Rewards: Non-conventional methods of compensation are gaining in importance among businesses. Three-fourths of the companies surveyed offer insurance benefits to their employees. A majority of the companies surveyed intend to provide healthcare and related benefits going forward.

Work-Life Balance and Flexibility: With a view to accommodate the emerging needs of employees for a more casual and open environment to perform, organizations are looking at providing employees with greater flexibility at the workplace.

This report discusses these findings in detail.

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Purpose of the Study

The objective of this study is to understand from HR function leaders their views on the key people issues and trends that will define the organization or workplace of future.

Through the primary survey conducted by Dun & Bradstreet, this report attempts to identify the actions that organizations are likely to take in order to attract and retain human capital.

Methodology

This report is based on a survey of HR function leaders spread across India. These leaders represent organizations spanning a variety of sectors. A primary survey was conducted among HR leaders across the manufacturing and services sectors. The responses were collected on a pan-India basis and the analysis is presented at the aggregate level. The survey was conducted during November-December 2013. In case of multiple choice questions, given that each respondent was asked to cite multiple priorities, the sum of percentage of responses will be greater than 100%.

Introduction

Traditional industries such as manufacturing sectors like textiles, automobiles, cement, pharmaceuticals, etc were covered under the study. Newer industries i.e. service sectors such as BFSI, IT-ITeS, logistics and retail, among others, were also covered.

We also surveyed business leaders (i.e. non-HR functions such as sales, operations, etc) with a view to get their views on key employee-related issues.

Our report also covers interviews of HR function leaders to gather insights and perspectives on the existing human capital related policies and practices in their organizations and their outlook on the trends going ahead.

Overview of Sections

For the purpose of identifying the relevant trends and meaningful insights, the data captured from the primary survey was classified into the broad categories of Overall HR priorities, Compensation & rewards, Work-life balance & flexibility, and New Trends.

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Along with capturing views of HR function leaders, the survey also collected responses from business leaders. In today’s business environment, critical business decisions and people goals move hand-in-hand. More importantly, organizations have to align their people-related policies and practices in tandem with the changing business environment. The Dun & Bradstreet Business Optimism Index Survey Report (the primary survey for this Report was conducted during the same time), based on a quarterly survey of companies in India, reflects that India Inc’s business confidence declined by 4.2% (y-o-y) for Q4 2013.

In line with this finding, as per our survey among the business leaders, reducing costs emerged among the most important business priorities for 2014. Nearly 66% of the business leaders indicated this. When asked about their key focus with respect to compensation going ahead, 51% of the business leaders indicated providing cost-effective alternatives, such as health benefits.

Business Priorities

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Managing salary expectations remains a critical challenge for businesses today. The volatility in economic conditions and uncertain times in which businesses operate is resulting in companies increasingly focusing on linking compensation to performance. This in turn, points towards a greater need for a more scientific method of evaluating employee performance. Nearly 52% of the business leaders surveyed indicated that a strong performance management system would be critical in managing and leading a 21st century workforce. Developing the pipeline of future leaders is another major challenge grappling organizations today. More than two-third of the business leaders (70%) cited developing future leaders as among their main people focus areas for 2014 and 2015.

The emergence and increased prominence of newer industries, particularly service sectors that are largely driven by people as its core assets is prompting organizations to re-visit their existing policies and practices. Organizations are increasingly focusing on implementing flexible workplace practices, as also providing healthcare and related benefits to their employees.

The workplace trends of future point towards organizations making available greater flexibility to employees. However, our survey also throws light on some degree of difference between how HR leaders and business leaders perceive the benefits of flexible workplace practices. While 70% of the HR leaders cited positive impact of workplace flexibility practices on recruitment and retention, only 47% of the business leaders cited recruitment and retention as among the chief benefits of implementing workplace flexibility practices.

Business leaders nevertheless see greater value from such flexibility practices, with 43% of them citing impact on revenues as among the key benefits, as compared to 28% of the HR leaders.

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Survey Findings

Overall HR Priorities

Enhancing employee productivity and retaining top performers are the biggest challenges for HR function leaders

Performance management and related issues seem to be the most critical challenge faced by today’s HR function leaders. When asked about the three main challenges, nearly 83% of the respondents identified enhancing employee performance and productivity, as well as retaining and rewarding top performers as the most critical challenges faced by them. Competitive compensation, which many a times, is closely linked to the performance aspect, emerged as another significant challenge.

While respondents from the manufacturing industries identified retaining and rewarding top performers (86% of the respondents) as amongst their most critical challenges, respondents from the services sectors placed enhancing performance and productivity (86% of the respondents) as among their most critical challenges.

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Our study also indicates that nature of hiring challenges varies across companies of different sizes. While hiring people with specialized skills is the primary challenge among the large-sized companies, for the medium-sized firms, managing salary expectations is a bigger hurdle.

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Compensation and Rewards

Traditional salary-based compensation continues to be the centre of compensation…

Not surprisingly, the survey indicates that direct monetary compensation is the primary driver of compensation practice among organizations. Over 70% of the companies surveyed offer bonuses to their employees in addition to fixed base salaries.

…But non-conventional methods of compensation are gaining significance

The survey also explored the plans of organizations to implement non-conventional compensation and rewards to attract talent going forward. Although the traditional monetary forms of compensation benefits dominate the

various benefits offered by companies, our survey shows that organizations

seem to be increasing their focus on the non-conventional methods of compensation. Nearly 77% of the companies

surveyed offer insurance benefits to their employees. When asked

about the key areas of focus with respect to compensation management

going forward, nearly 62% of the HR leaders cited providing healthcare and related

benefits to be most critical.

Nearly 41% of the respondent companies offer higher education support related benefits to their employees.

Figures denote percentage of respondents

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HR Leaders are also looking to innovate in terms of providing career-related rewards to employees in their organizations. In our survey, “providing employees with opportunities for global assignments” (56% of the respondents) and “support for pursuing higher education” (56% of the respondents) emerged as the top choices in rewarding employees.

Among the services companies surveyed, 57% selected providing global assignments (56% of the respondents from manufacturing sectors selected this) emerged as the most effective approach in rewarding employees.

Among the respondents from the manufacturing industries, 59% selected providing higher education

support (51% of the respondents from services sectors selected this) emerged as the most effective approach in rewarding employees.

Companies in the metro cities cited offering opportunities for global assignments as the most effective tool in rewarding employees, while as per companies in the non-metro cities, offering support for pursuing higher education is the most effective tool in rewarding employees.

Figures denote percentage of respondents

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Work-Life Balance & Flexibility

In-house doctor and in-house fitness centres emerge as the most effective practices in enhancing work-life balance

In our survey, we found that companies are looking to implement various facilities to create a healthy work environment for employees. Nearly 83% of the respondents selected having ‘in-house doctor’ or ‘in-house fitness centre’ as major priorities. In-house meditation centre also emerged as a key priority, with 78% of the respondents selecting this.

Providing casual/open work environment emerging as a key workplace flexibility tool to enhance employee productivity

About 76% of the HR leaders surveyed identified “increased employee productivity” as amongst the primary benefits of implementing workplace flexibility practices on organizational performance. Among the business leaders surveyed, 61% of them indicated increased employee productivity as amongst the main benefits of implementing workplace flexibility practices.

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When asked about the key workplace flexibility tools to improve productivity of employees, HR leaders rated a ‘casual/open workplace environment’ as the highest priority. This could include adopting a casual dress code, and building facilities such as nap rooms, zones for games/recreation and permitting appropriate use of social media.

Flexible work arrangements are seen to be having a positive impact on employee retention

About 57% of the companies surveyed have implemented flexible workplace practices. Among such companies, 83% indicated that these practices have had a positive impact on recruitment and retention in their organizations.

Figures denote percentage of respondents

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New Trends

Workplace flexibility and employee health & wellness initiatives emerge as key tools to retain employees and keep them engaged

Our survey results highlight the increasing recognition among companies that they need to provide much more than ‘compensation’ to their employees. HR Leaders seem to be driven by the fact that work-loads and stress tend to hamper employee health, productivity and overall motivation.

In this context, it should not be surprising that “Wellness and preventive health programs” (88% of the respondents) and “Providing flexible work arrangements” (82% of the respondents) emerged as the top choices with regards to new initiatives by HR Leaders. Further, 79% of the respondents also cited “Providing long service awards” as a key tool in motivating and retaining employees.

Figures denote percentage of respondents

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As the environment in which businesses operate becomes increasingly complex and the war for talent intensifies, companies are re-working their people strategies. In difficult economic circumstances, HR and business leaders find it difficult to balance the need for high productivity and efficiency with the objective of providing employees a stress-free, motivating environment.

HR Leaders are hence dealing with a situation of identifying cost-effective tools that have a high positive impact on employee morale and productivity.

Importantly, some of these workplace trends are clearly discernible through the survey and are presented below.

1. Compensation and Rewards: Companies are increasingly providing non-conventional methods of compensation to employees. In this regard, providing employees with opportunities for global assignments and support for pursuing higher education have emerged as more popular modes of rewarding employees going ahead.

2. Workplace Flexibility: Companies are looking at providing employees with greater flexibility at the workplace. The traditional model of a rigid office and workplace is rapidly transforming into a flexible workplace, as organizations increasingly realize the positive impact of flexibility on productivity. Workplace flexibility is also being extended to include items of wellness & comfort given that many employees spend a majority of their time at workplace. Some of the initiatives in this direction include a five-day work week, creches/on-site child

Conclusion

care facilities, and laundry services, among others.

3. Wellness and Comfort: The coming years are expected to witness greater focus of companies in offering wellness and preventive health programs as a key tool towards employee retention and engagement initiatives. Some of the initiatives in this direction include in-house fitness centres and in-house meditation centres.

4. Sectoral Trends

a. Traditional Industries (i.e. Manufacturing) - Owing to the nature of the traditional industries, as they grapple with the challenge of bridging the gap for skilled manpower, companies from the traditional sectors have an increased thrust on providing support to their employees for pursuing higher education.

b. Newer Sectors (i.e. Services): Companies from the newer sectors seem to be focusing on offering non-conventional methods of compensation to their employees. Providing opportunities for global assignments has emerged among the top choices in rewarding employees.

Going forward, we expect the above trends to gather greater momentum given that organizational and market complexities are only increasing.

Interviews

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Saurabh GovilSr. Vice President - Human ResourcesWipro Ltd

Q. As an HR Leader, what do you foresee as your top three Human Capital related challenges in the coming years, and what would be your strategies in meeting them?

A. Our top three human capital challenges in the coming years would be 1) Re-engaging the workforce and building a stronger employer brand; 2) Acquire/Build capability in specific/specialized skill sets; 3) Stitch all talent management practices together for uniformity, and focus more attention on those that will deliver higher results.

Q. Could you please elaborate on the work culture of your company? Over the years, how has the changing workforce diversity influenced the work culture of your organization?

A. Our culture is a values-based culture, and this has helped us thrive as a global organization. Values have global appeal and anyone anywhere can relate to them. Diversity & Inclusion is an integral part of our business and human capital strategy. It has helped us build and nurture a global workforce, while at the same time being sensitive to local contexts - therefore, more agility. This is reflected in our policies and practices.

Q. The war for talent is intensifying. Could you elaborate on the retention policies of your organization? What new initiatives is your organization planning to take in the year ahead to attract and retain the best talent?

A. We will focus on making the entire talent lifecycle more robust. We find that this comprehensive approach works best and delivers results in the medium and long term. Some key practices we will build on are managerial effectiveness, cultivating deeper skill sets, flexible career models, and leadership connect.

Q. Could you please elaborate on few of your company’s policies with respect to employee management, especially employee engagement initiatives?

A. Our talent management policies are well structured, carried out and articulated, and the employees are clear on the intent as well as how things work. In all of this, our effort going forward will be to bring in greater stakeholder input into talent management. The workforce is mature enough and aware enough to quickly evaluate and give feedback on any practice we put in place, and at Wipro we make it a point to create a balanced mix of fairness, innovation and optimization.

We have a well institutionalized engagement approach, with clearly stated intent, goals and metrics. We will continue to drive the same. Our engagement model is also a participatory one, in the form of the Employee Advocacy Group. Different businesses have customized engagement practices to fit business contexts. For instance, in Wipro BPO, the engagement parameters and processes work differently to suit the dynamics of floor operations.

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Q. Please throw some light on the importance of employer branding as an organizational strategy.

A. We are at an interesting phase where branding is concerned. The more the turmoil and change that we are exposed to, the more we appreciate clarity and strength of stand. That is what branding will be all about going forward - being clear and transparent, differentiating with a purpose, taking a stand. Employment branding is going to gain in importance and prominence. Audiences worldwide are more mature now and are quick to reject brands in which the promotion does not match the experience. Branding has to be more grounded, more in tune with reality, with what we are and also blend in that element of aspiration – what we want to be.

Q. How can organizations benefit from flexible workplace practices? What are its impact on employee engagement, employee retention, and organizational performance?

A. Flexibility, when implemented correctly can have a positive influence on engagement, retention and performance. Many organizations have tried out different approaches towards flexibility and made many changes over time. Some approaches have succeeded, some have failed. I think there is no one best way to approach and implement flexibility. We need to customize flexibility for different needs.

Flexibility is all about placing control in the hands of employees - this has a direct positive impact on an individual’s engagement.

Q. Having a strong leadership pipeline is indispensable. What is your organization’s strategy with regards to leadership development and succession planning?

A. We have a well institutionalized leadership development and succession planning strategy, approach and history. Building leadership capacity and capability have been integral, consistent elements of our organizational strategy for over two decades now.

Our approach is to define certain behaviours that define leadership at various levels, measure them and cultivate them on the job. The focus on building leaders is global, across levels, and is well understood across the organization. We build in leadership expectations into various dimensions of the job, so that people see it as a natural expectation and outcome, and not as a stand-alone feature. For example when assessing individuals for role fitments for senior levels, we also assess specific leadership behaviours that are most relevant to a specific role.

Leadership behaviours demonstrated also becomes a key element in the succession planning exercise. It helps us differentiate between individuals demonstrating similar levels of performance, and also helps us create more concrete and intelligent developmental plans.

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Jacob JacobChief People OfficerApollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd

Q. As an HR Leader, what do you foresee as your top three Human Capital related challenges in the coming years, and what would be your strategies in meeting them?

A. The key human capital challenges that we foresee in the coming years are making quicker and more efficient people related decisions; creating a talent pipeline for our future needs; and curbing high employee turnover especially on junior medical professionals & nursing.

We are in the process of implementing an integrated HCM system which will help us streamline our HR processes and also provide real time HR data to enable quicker people related decisions. Talent pipeline issues are being addressed by identification of high potential candidates who will be groomed through focused interventions to take on higher roles in the system. In addition, we are also hiring potential talent from management institutes and grooming them for leadership roles in our system.

Junior medical professionals, especially doctors aspire for career development opportunities. We are looking at providing various skill development avenues through tie-ups with educational institutions.

Q. Could you please elaborate on the work culture of your company? Over the years, how has the changing workforce diversity influenced the work culture of your organization?

A. About three decades ago, Apollo Hospitals was only a fledgling of an idea. Born of a necessity to offer better healthcare to Indians, it has since become one of the leading healthcare service providers in India. The Apollo Hospitals Group has consistently envisioned patients’ needs and introduced game changing innovations.

Three words that define our culture are Excellence, Expertise and Empathy. Considering the nature of the industry in which we operate, where around 40% of our workforce is nurses who are mostly women, we ensure that we bring about diversity and inclusion in our policies and processes.

Over the years with our geographical expansion and with the establishment of hospitals across the country, we have ensured that people from various age groups, regions, religions, etc are represented in our workforce.

Q. The war for talent is intensifying. Could you elaborate on the retention policies of your organization? What new initiatives is your organization planning to take in the year ahead to attract and retain the best talent?

A. Employee retention is critical as organizations invest significant time and money in hiring and training candidates. Hence failing to retain a key employee is a costly proposition for any organization.

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We at Apollo Hospitals have robust Employee Welfare, Reward & Recognition & Employee Engagement practices which helps us to retain some of our best talent. We also take our Employee Engagement Surveys seriously. The feedback from these surveys is diligently tracked for each category of employee, based on which we work on the areas of improvement.

Since the war for talent is going to intensify further, we have planned a few more measures for talent retention. For example, we are cognizant of the fact that the immediate family members of an employee have a huge role to play in employee loyalty. We are looking at creating an Apollo Employees Spouse Community for group events. The main intention is to strengthen the bond between Apollo employees and their families, as well as to create a platform to encourage hidden aspirations and talents.

Q. Could you please elaborate on few of your company’s policies with respect to employee management, especially employee engagement initiatives?

A. We believe in productively engaging our employees, touching upon the emotional, welfare and performance related needs.

For example nurses, who constitute about 40% of our workforce, have a very comprehensive engagement plan at each phase of their employee lifecycle. When a nursing staff joins us, they first undergo a 3-day HR Induction Program followed by a 10-day departmental induction program. Once they settle in, they need to undergo several in-service training programs and on-the-job-trainings to improve their competency levels in ensuring clinical and service excellence.

We also have a robust job rotation for nursing category to provide them with opportunities for career growth. We have also defined a clear career path for them, indicating the experience and

qualification required to move up the career path. The nursing leaders are groomed for leadership roles through various Leadership Development Programs through various interventions. The healthcare industry can be quite demanding in terms of work ethics. It can be mentally and emotionally draining for young healthcare professionals due to the amount of pain and suffering they encounter each day at work in looking after patients. We in HR are cognizant of this and try our best to provide our employees with a positive experience by engaging with them and uplifting their spirit.

Q. Please throw some light on the importance of employer branding as an organizational strategy.

A. Professional services brands are built on reputation, relationships and intellectual capital – in other words, their people. Employees that have a strong bond and a clear understanding of the corporate brand can be the company’s most valuable brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors are an innovative and efficient way to promote your company’s brand while engaging your employees and fostering loyalty.

But to generate this type of enthusiasm and unity, employees must feel a sense of shared purpose, a fundamental connection to the company’s mission, vision and values, and an understanding of how they contribute to the company’s success. And, they must be empowered with the right tools to communicate that brand externally – whether at a social gathering or a business function, through email, social media or a phone call.

Some of the employer branding strategies that Apollo Hospitals have included involving employees in CSR activities; employee referral schemes; and an alumnae programme for ex-Apollo employees.

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Q. How can organizations benefit from flexible workplace practices? What are its impact on employee engagement, employee retention, and organizational performance?

A. Flexible workplace practices such as work-from-home, flexi hours, part-time systems etc have grown in popularity within organizations, especially after the advent of MNCs in India. It is a boon for professionals especially women, who can manage both home and work due to the flexibility provided by their employers. It is well understood that these initiatives have a positive correlation with employee engagement, retention and even organizational performance. Although, it might be difficult to provide work-from-home options for employees in service organizations, especially for hospitals and hotels, as it involves lot of direct customer interfacing. A case in point is few of our hospitals have break shifts for the employees in lab services department, where there are peaks and troughs in the volume of work in a day. They allow employees with more than a year’s experience to come in at 8 in the morning, work till 12 noon and come back at 3 pm in the evening to work till 7 pm. These employees log out of work for up to four hours, using the time to run errands, look after children or attend classes, and return to office later in the evening. This practice has improved employee engagement & retention in our Units and at the same time has helped in improving organizational performance.

Q. Having a strong leadership pipeline is indispensable. What is your organization’s strategy with regards to leadership development and succession planning?

A. Our organization is looking at rapid growth in the next 2 years. The progression management in this context will be handled using appropriate systems and processes for succession planning. The first step towards succession planning is to identify critical roles in the system. Next, we identify high potential candidates who can be successors for the critical roles. Using our leadership competency grid we assess their current competency level and the gaps in competencies are addressed through robust leadership development programs, balancing the “three Es“- Experience, Exposure & Education.

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G Y SuhasHead - HR, IR & AdminL&T Construction Equipment Limited

Q. As an HR Leader, what do you foresee as your top three Human Capital related challenges in the coming years, and what would be your strategies in meeting them?

A. In the coming years, our top three human capital challenges and focus areas would be Employee Retention, Change Management, and Employee Management. Our employee retention focus would involve developing suitable retention strategies for the best talent, without having any demoralizing impact on the other employees. The change management initiative will be to devise an effective and customised strategy to suit the change management process in an effective manner. Tackling employee engagement challenges would involve realigning the priorities to meet business expectations and initiatives to take employees along the company’s growth journey.

Q. Could you also elaborate on the employee engagement initiatives undertaken at L&T Construction Equipment Limited?

A. Apart from structured discussions with the Union, several cross functional teams have been formed for driving employee engagement activities in various sphere of work, such as safety, sports and cultural activities, CSR activities, where not only the employees, but their spouses and family members are also involved. The company honours the talented children of employees and the end result of all these initiatives is excellent bonding among everyone.

Q. Could you elaborate on the retention policies of your organization?

A. The key objective of our retention policies is to retain/nurture and develop the best talent to shoulder the highest level of responsibility at various levels of management.

Based on the Performance Management System, the top performers are rotated in different sections and are developed to head the section, department, unit and ultimately to go on Boards of the company. They are provided with intensive leadership training at various levels, which include Supervisory Development Programme, Executive Development Programme, Managerial Development Programme, Global Leadership Programme, among others. Apart from training and job rotation, they are also given special retention pay and special monetary rewards, apart from annual performance linked rewards. This boosts their morale. The result of these initiatives is that the top performers are ultimately developed to head the section/departments/Unit and also various senior and top management positions.

Q. The war for talent is intensifying. What new initiatives is your organisation planning to take in the year ahead to attract and retain the best talent?

A. In our organization, there is an excellent co-ordination between Gen X and Gen Y employees, with both respecting and valuing the views of each other. Changing workforce diversity has, in fact,

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improved the overall work culture of the company manifold. Some of the new initiatives that we plan to take going ahead to attract and retain the best talent include leadership development programs, fast track growth, career path progression, leading edge programs, employee engagement initiatives, and providing an excellent working environment.

Q. Please throw some light on the importance of employer branding as an organizational strategy.

A. Employer branding plays an important role in increasing the visibility of an organization in the corporate world and among the public. The leaders of the company address various gatherings and participate in various important sessions conducted by various associations and bodies such as CII, NHRD, BCIC, IIM, etc, where various initiatives and achievements are elaborated with facts and figures. This brings creditability as the claims are substantiated by showing the actual results.

Q. Having a strong leadership pipeline is indispensable. What is your organization’s strategy with regards to leadership development and succession planning?

A. L&T has very strong initiatives in building the leadership pipeline. Apart from leadership programs, assigning enhanced roles always takes employees in confidence and increases their preparedness in meeting expectations. The star performers are well groomed to take up future leadership roles. In fact, the top management team of L&T started their carrier at entry point of management position as graduate engineer trainees.

Q. Can you give some examples of workplace flexibility practices implemented at L&T Construction Equipment Limited?

A. The workmen are accommodated to take change of shifts to meet their requirements and also that of the company. During the slowdown of 2008-09, after discussions with the Union, the employees were granted paid holidays. In return, the employees compensated and worked for 50% of the holidays availed when the production requirement gained momentum again in 2009-10. Our organisation’s main focus continues to be employee engagement, retention and organizational performance. Workplace flexibility practices are used as a tool to meet the organizational requirements.

Q. Could you please elaborate on the work culture of your company? Over the years, how has the changing workforce diversity influenced the work culture of your organisation?

A. Our founder chairman Mr. Henning Holck Larsen says “Machinery must be there, buildings must be there… but without people, it’s all nothing. People are our only real assets”. Our company is focused towards resolving the concerns of our employees. Our company takes care of its employees; in turn, all other needs of the company are taken care of by the employees themselves, who highly committed to their work.

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Saurabh NigamVice President - HR, IT & AdminBeroe Consulting (I) Pvt Ltd

Q. As an HR Leader, what do you foresee as your top three Human Capital related challenges in the coming years, and what would be your strategies in meeting them?

A. I think the top most challenge in the coming years would be to find the right talent at the right time and at the right cost for the organization. The war for talent is only going to intensify and organizations will have to come up with innovative strategies to identify and hire top talent. This will include leveraging the social media to reach out to the best in class talent, building internal and external networks which can be leveraged for talent scouting and focusing on building their employer brand which will transcend beyond the traditional geographical boundaries.

Another key challenge which is fast approaching us is the ever increasing presence of the next generation or Gen Y employees in the workplace. This generation is highly networked and extremely tech savvy. They have their own unique expectations from the organizations they work for and since they are going to form the majority of the workforce in the coming years, organizations have to really think deep to come up with innovative talent management strategies which will cater to the aspirations of this generation.

Q. Could you please elaborate on the work culture of your company? Over the years, how has the changing workforce diversity influenced the work culture of your organization?

A. Beroe is a fairly young organization with the average age of employees being around 27 years. This has resulted in a highly energetic and charged up work atmosphere. The culture of the organization is built on three key tenets of Meritocracy, Flexibility and Transparency.

Q. The war for talent is intensifying. Could you elaborate on the retention policies of your organization? What new initiatives is your organization planning to take in the year ahead to attract and retain the best talent?

A. I think the culture of the organization plays a key role on how your current and future employees view their careers in the organization. We have tried and built a culture which treats every individual with mutual respect and dignity, allowing them the freedom and the flexibility to express themselves at Beroe. We have a strong culture of meritocracy at Beroe and we have ensured that all the right enablers are in place for every employee to realise their true potential at Beroe – this to me is the key to retaining top talent.

Q. Could you please elaborate on few of your company’s policies with respect to employee management, especially employee engagement initiatives?

A. We at Beroe believe in aligning employee engagement initiatives with the aspirations and expectations of our people. A lot of our initiatives

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our driven completely by the employee wherein the HR team plays the role of an enabler or facilitator. The employee engagement portfolio encompasses the entire gamut of activities such as clubs (quiz, sports etc), events (festivals, sports, cultural activities etc), participation in inter-corporate events, communication channels like newsletters, meet the leaders meetings, townhalls, team outings, and rewards & recognition.

Q. Please throw some light on the importance of employer branding as an organizational strategy.

A. In today’s world, which is highly networked, a strong employer brand is paramount to attract, motivate and retain top talent in your organization. Employer branding should focus on developing a well-crafted story for the organization that describes the mission and values of the organization and highlights its commitment to track, develop, reward, and retain the top talent.

Q. How can organizations benefit from flexible workplace practices? What are its impact on employee engagement, employee retention, and organizational performance?

A. With more than 50% of today’s workplace comprising of Gen Y, it is almost certain that organizations need to provide flexibility to them as that is a key expectation of this generation. Flexibility at the workplace can go a long way in improving the work-life balance of employees, which in turn has a positive impact on their productivity at work.

Q. Having a strong leadership pipeline is indispensable. What is your organization’s strategy with regards to leadership development and succession planning?

A. We have a strong focus on developing future leaders from within the organization and we have put in various enablers for that, for example - chalking out a clear path for different functions, building a transparent and objective performance measurement system, training & development, coaching and mentoring.

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