10. Philips Software Center: Down, but Not Out

Reduction in salary increments: 77.5% Cut in cost to the company: 75% Reduction in tour entitlement: 67.5% Reduction in perks: 55%

Relatively high employee satisfaction on work culture, compensation and training

Disenchantment with the appraisal systems and interpersonal relationships with peers

I am very stressed at work: 12.5% I get a sense of great professional and personal satisfaction from the work I do here: 75%

I would definitely recommend this company to a close friend of mine: 85% I have exciting growth opportunities in this company: 65%

This Bangalore-based R&D center slipped down the rankings to 10th from 5th last year–not really a huge fall given that two companies ahead of it are really new entries (Siemens and CSC). More importantly, it continued to rank at #3 in the small company listings.

Reason–the company’s employees still gave it the thumbs up on company culture, training and compensation packages.

Employees are really happy with the work culture and the open work environment of the company. Perhaps the only crib in this area was that they did not feel very empowered (with very low ratings on statements like “I have the freedom to make decisions on my own relating to my work” and “The work I do is crucial to the company’s growth”). Employees were pleased with the quality of training offered even though they would like to have more days of training.

With the company being among the top paymasters in the industry, about 70% of its employees expressed strong satisfaction with both their salary and perks and benefits. About 60% also said they were very happy with the salary hikes they got. That is despite and taking into account the fact that recession has hit salary increments at Philips over the last year.

The downsides were essentially on the appraisal and people front–which together brought its employee parameter rankings down from #3 to #8. There was overall disenchantment with the appraisal process with only 48% of employees strongly agreeing that the appraisal process
was fair. Philips employees also were dissatisfied with their immediate bosses and their peer relationships. And
even though it was one of the few companies where employees stated technology as their number one reason
for joining the company, only 65% of them said they were really excited by the technology they were working on.

The best news for the company, however, came from its Preferred Employer polling. It was one of only two companies where more of its own employees named it their dream company this year compared to the year before. In comparison, preferred employer percentages of almost every other company went down during the year.