If you enter the HCL Infosystems office at Noida, turn left from
the reception and cross the conference room, you come to a room where any
employee who has spent over 20 years with the company, and anyone at the senior
management level, can come and have lunch, on the house.
Says ML Taneja, executive vice president, HRD, who is himself an
old hand at HCL Infosystems: "As a policy we fill up middle and senior
management positions internally." The free lunch is a small gesture from
the company to show respect for the commitment and loyalty that these people
have shown towards the company.
HCL Infosystems dates back to 1975, when it was just HCL, India's
indigenous computer systems and services company. Today, as part of the HCL
Group, it is a 4002-member organization with a turnover of Rs 7,800 crore at the
close of last fiscal. Typically, an organization of HCL Infosystems' profile
would face challenges that are completely different from those prevalent in the
software side of the industry. One, the employees are geographically highly
dispersed-a sizeable number are located in some of the most remote locations
in the country-and two, management of the huge sales team. Says Vivek Punekar,
associate vice president, HRD, "The sales people are always looking for
dynamism and excitement at work and we need to ensure that the company is
providing them the relevant satisfaction levels so they don't change their
jobs."
|
"HCL has always been a very employee-friendly
company," says Punekar. Assess this: A member of the company's service
team at Ranchi met with an accident while returning from a service call at
Jamshedpur. Within 15 minutes of his telephone call, 12 members of the local
team reached the spot, while three teams from Kolkata, Patna and Kerala left
immediately after the information went out. The employee's wife who was in
Delhi was airlifted while his son stayed at Punekar's house. Says D Baskar, VP
of the system support division, "The message that 'we care' is loud and
clear and no HR policy can do this." Indeed.
Baskar, who began his career 21 years earlier as a trainee,
recounts his first trip to the US and how it took him over four hours to reach
his hotel despite the company providing him with all the necessary information.
Today, HCL Insys ensures that every single person who travels out of his
hometown, domestic or international, is received at the station or airport,
accompanied to his or her place of stay and assisted till he or she settles down
completely at the new location.
How the Magic Worked
Traditionally, HCL Infosystems is not known to be the best in terms of
compensation or HR measures. So we were a little surprised when the hardware
company gave a grand performance in our Dataquest-IDC Tech Star Employer Survey,
and employees expressed highest satisfaction levels on all parameters. So what
is it that the company did that won the hearts of its employees? For one, HR was
internalized into the business. Put simply, line managers were transformed into
HR managers, informally, and were made responsible for their team. For example,
now a manager has to take a trainee along during any customer visit, a key
measure of on-the-job learning but often not followed. However, in a smart move
by the HR team this was incorporated into the KRAs of the line managers. The
system was also automated which helped management keep track of the process.
|
Two other factors helped the satisfaction level reach the height
it did. For one, the HR team has made sure that appraisals in the last two years
were completed on time. Says Taneja, "We worked day and night to ensure
that not only appraisals happen on time but also that employees get their
paychecks along with the increment letter." By the end of one week, the
team was able to complete 99% of the appraisals. The second factor is pure
monetary and is actually a combination of two smaller factors-compensation and
ESOPs. Says Punekar, "We have performance-based pay, and we actually ended
up paying more than what we had committed." Compensation today is
performance-based, a major reform from the days when it was need-based. While
compensation received a facelift, incentive schemes were also strengthened. Last
year, the company paid up to 130%, while this year the performance incentive was
to the tune of 170%.
The rest of the magic was made by stock options. HCL Infosystems
first issued shares under the Employee Stock Options Plan to employees with over
one year of service, in 2000. By mid-2005, over 2,000 employees received company
shares. The company stock was trading at Rs 816.5 on December 31, 2004. Eight
months later (during the Dataquest-IDC Best Employers Survey 2005) and post a
stock split in the ratio 1:4 in August this year, the stock stood at Rs 259
(August 24, 2005). Clearly, the notional wealth created by the company for its
employees was significant. Today, on the 15th of every month employees who
complete one year of service are issued stock options.
'Mine' HCL
One of the biggest challenges the industry faces today is of attrition. HCL
Infosystems is no different, with attrition numbers hovering around 16%, up 4-6%
from its earlier figure of 10-12%. The hardware service industry has four large
players today, in addition to HCL, and all four prefer to get tailored and ready
manpower as opposed to HCL Infosystems, which regularly visits campuses,
recruits freshers and trains them. Laments Taneja, "There is no effort from
the other players in the industry to create talent."
|
It was primarily to address this issue that the management
launched the 'MIndia' campaign (M representing Mine) in January 2004, an
in-house initiative to create a sense of pride among employees for the oldest
and Indian brand in IT hardware and services space. The opening line of the
campaign read "These are the minds that are creating the globe". Says
Ajay Chowdhary, chairman & CEO of HCL Infosystems, "We compete with
MNCs in our business and it was important to create a sense of pride among
employees for their organization which is the leader in many categories-copiers,
projectors and PCs." The MIndia campaign was held across 14 locations in
the last one-year. It brought cross-functional teams together and helped create
a bond and cohesiveness between employees and the top management. The message
was loud and clear-recognize the power of HCL and take pride in the brand.
Growth Guranteed
Today all regional managers in the company had started their careers as
trainees at HCL. Not only does the company have a strict policy of filling top
management positions internally, empowerment and nurturing talent are critical
components of HR management. Says Punekar, "We ensure that beginners are
trained and cultivated to reach the top." Adds Taneja, "Opportunities
are plenty. It is just that the employee has to decide if he wants to have a
career with HCL."
|
The growth path is fairly simple. After five years of experience
one is qualified to become a manager. From there, the growth is fairly
exponential. In addition, it is the business dynamics of the industry that
provides a high degree of empowerment at work. "Empowerment creates a sense
of ownership and this yields fabulous business results for the
organization," explains Baskar. Sums up Rakesh Mehta, "We absorb
mistakes and promote and encourage innovation." That's life at HCL
Infosystems.