What makes these 7 workplaces the best to work

The Great Place To Work Institute is dedicated to building a better society by helping organizations transform their workplace culture. For over 25 years, the institute has been studying and recognizing the best workplaces across the globe. Over the years, organizations of various sizes across various industries participate in the workplace culture studies conducted by the institute.

This year, for the first time, Great Place To Work Institute India, in association with Nasscom, recognized the 50 best companies to work for in the Information Technology—Business Process Management sector. 149 organizations applied to be assessed and recognized as one of the best companies to work for in the IT-BPM sector. Out of the 136 organizations which were assessed for the recognition, 50 were recognized, in alphabetical order. In addition to this, five organizations in the following categories were recognized:

• „„Emerging organizations in IT-BPM, 2015: Firms which have been in operation in India for five years or less
• „„Small organizations in IT-BPM, 2015: Firms with up to 500 employees
• Medium organizations in IT-BPM, 2015: Firms with 501 to 5,000 employees
• „„Large organizations in IT-BPM, 2015: Firms with > 5,000 employees Independent research

Lately, many companies are trying to change this saying by treating their employees like their customers. Indian IT-BPM sector is focusing on enhancing employee perception like equity in pay and profit sharing, full involvement in decision and demonstrated caring, etc, to create a significantly positive impact on its employees. Out of top 50, we have identified companies that stand out from the rest and are at the forefront in creating employee-friendly environment.

FRIENDLY AND WELCOMING WORK ENVIRONMENT: GOOGLE INDIA

Every new employee at Google, or, ‘Noogler’ attends a comprehensive orientation program. The resident cultural anthropologist provides the Noogler class with an overview of the company history, highlights key business and product milestones, and shares fun anecdotes about the way the culture has evolved. Nooglers also hear from a rotating group of speakers welcome Nooglers. After the ‘Noogler lunch’, they take them for a fun office tour!

Post this, Nooglers dig into the basics to learn about growing the company, growing their careers, total rewards, information security, health, safety, and legal issues. When orientation concludes, Nooglers are taken to their desks by their managers, where they are greeted with a welcome balloon, a bag of chocolates and their new teammates, of course.

Once they settle down in their roles, not to let them forget the feeling of being a Noogler, the Noogler orientation team gets them back for a get-together/pizza party, so the relationships they’d formed initially can be strengthened.

NON-DISCRIMINATION ENVIRONMENT: PITNEY BOWES SOFTWARE INDIA

Within the organization, diversity ratios are monitored very closely at the corporate level—it is imperative to maintain women leadership representation and ratios at all levels. At the organization, the ratio is 1:3.5. Apart from this, the Diversity and Inclusion Council gives out Diamond award which recognizes people who are taking action to create a workplace where everyone feels valued.

One of the magic mantras they follow is to listen their employees. It is fundamentally important to build an employee friendly workplace. The effectiveness of their policies and practices is solely due to the fact that they listen to their employees. From non-operational coffee vending machines to learning to growth to career opportunities, they never miss out on any concern that the employees have. Not only do they solicit employees’ feedback, but also enact on the same.

SMOOTH AND FUN HIRING: HAPPIEST MINDS TECHNOLOGIES

All candidates who attend the interview at Happiest Minds receive a set of 7 leaves—one on the company, technologies, services & industries, and one leaf on each of the SMILES values. Each leaf in addition to the mission statement (Happiest People. Happiest Customers) has a short story that explains the value succinctly.

All candidates who have been selected to join the company, receive, along with their offer letter, a book titled: ‘How Full is Your Cup’, a collection of 64 short stories that can transform the way they look at life. Authored by JM Sampath, this book is sent with a personalized first page and a bookmark with company information.

SHARE MATCHING PLAN: SAP LABS INDIA

The Share Matching Plan (SMP) fosters a longterm commitment through stock ownership

at SAP and serves to attract and retain the best qualified employees. This plan also aims at wealth creation. Providing matching/bonus shares is quite an innovative market practice with the following postulates:

„„Participation formula: 331—Invest in 3 shares (minimum), hold these for 3 years and get 1 matching share

Discount: Shares are offered in packages of 3 at 40% discount

„„Maximum number of shares: Percentage of employees’ annual base salary on cutoff „„Minimum number of shares: 3 shares

FAIR EVALUATIONS AND IMPARTIALITY: INAUTIX TECHNOLOGIES

The promotion process at iNautix is driven by an independent committee constituted by the management. The committee will have representation from various teams in the organization. This committee is entrusted with the responsibility of reviewing, processing,

and recommending promotions.

FUN FRIDAYS: INNOMINDS SOFTWARE

Friday fun time is a time where the entire organization participates and enjoys the most.

Those 30 minutes are filled with enthralling events in the floor and competition between the groups makes it more lively. Entire organization is spread across four different

teams—Power Panthers, Razzing Rhinos, Regal Eagles, and Bashing Bulls. Competition happens between these four groups and groups accumulate points on winning the events every week for a mega award on annual day.

INVOLVEMENT & CARE: ADOBE SYSTEMS INDIA

To generate peer conversations, Adobe has physical feedback walls. Each time the company conducts an event, launches a practice, etc, it encourages its talent to share their thoughts with them. Apart from this, there are some special interest groups that were created to address and drive employee engagement issues, where employees could also nominate themselves to contribute to various important aspects in addressing and driving employee engagement issues.

The groups discuss, debate issues, and come up with enhancements or introduce new processes in place. When it comes to selecting talent, management firmly believe in ‘best refers the best’. To enable their employees to refer acquaintances who they feel are the right fit for Adobe, they have business specific Employee Referral Helpdesks, through which they help in resolving employees’ queries on referral policy, referral bonus payouts, refree’s status updates, etc. As a referral reward, they pay a flat bonus, `50,000. For some niche job categories, they play a flat referral bonus of `100,000.