Sunny Days

There is something about youth that is irrepressible. Energy and enthusiasm

and sometimes if you’re lucky, a certain amount of non-conformism–traits

that individuals and companies strive to hold on to as they get older. But it

isn’t always easy.

Companies, like people, tend to grow old. They get ossified in their own

systems and with growing size, ‘procedural proprieties’ often replace the

ability to move fast and quick and dirty.

Hemant Sharma’s brief when he joined as head of HR at Sun Microsystems

India in November, 1999 was to prevent just that. Sun needed a larger setup in

India that however retained the verve and flexibility of a small organization.

Hemant’s job - to help the company grow up but not grow old. "When I

joined, Sun India had 11 software engineers and 21 support, systems and sales

executives— a grand total of 32," says Hemant. Two and a half years

later, that number has grown 15 times to 540 people. And so far at least, the

company hasn’t lost that often-elusive elixir— the attitude of youth.

Sure, little things count...



It shows in numerous ways — both big and small. If you walk into Sun’s

sixth floor office in Bangalore, you’re quite likely to hear loud cheers,

music or shouting from various cubicles. Or the dress code. At a time when most

software engineers have taken to ties and formal shoes, at the Sun office,

T-shirts and jeans are just fine. Even an occasional employee in shorts doesn’t

make people scurry for their protocol officers. (That’s only the software guys

though. Marketing and sales executives still have to wear the customary tie and

coat.)

But these are the small things. A hangover, one might argue, from the early

days of the industry when a bohemian environment was the rule, not an exception.

What really makes Sun’s HR policies interesting is its ability to match its

business goals and attitudes with its employee philosophy. Sun has always been

the industry rebel for instance, placing its unwavering faith on specific

technologies while most industry majors preferred to hedge their bets. It has

also deliberately chosen to be the recalcitrant upstart, which has taken almost

all dominant players head on at various points of time. To maintain a position

like that without requires a matching employee culture within. Essentially — a

very open one.

...But big things matter more



Globally, Sun’s HR policies have been designed to meet this need. Says

Hemant, "We have a very flat structure. There is very little hierarchy and

employees are encouraged to take their own decisions and risks." Within Sun

India for instance, there are only two kinds of HR positions — the individual

contributors and the people managers. Contrary to industry norms, seniority is

not a function of how many people you manage but how much business you bring in.

As a result, people with greater seniority are often independent workers while

their juniors may be managing a couple of people under them.

Another result of this is that there are very few layers from top to bottom.

Sun India’s marketing head, KP Unnikrishnan for instance, is just five layers

removed from CEO Scott McNealy while Hemant and Sun India MD Bhaskar Pramanik

are a mere four levels below Scott. This translates to a very quick decision

making process - there aren’t too many layers of approvals to go through

before geography-specific decisions are taken.

Even so, there is a great deal of autonomy in local decision making. For

instance, a few months ago Sun India decided to take on IBM servers through

flyers in a campaign reminiscent of the Coke-Pepsi slug outs. Sun had never done

that before in any geography and the Asia South office that India reports to,

was a little chary of such a campaign. Says Unnikrishnan who spearheaded that

campaign, "Finally, however, the decision rested with us. If we believed

local conditions allowed us to carry off such an exercise well, we were free to

do it. And we did."

Staying slim and trim



The obsession with fleet-footedness has also directed how Sun India has

managed its growth. Explains Unnikrishnan, "We do what we do best. And the

rest we outsource. It keeps us small and fast like a guerilla force." The

HR and training department for instance, consists of only four people. There is

a vendor who coordinates all recruitment and another who coordinates all

training. Says Hemant, "Even internally, employees in the human resource

department act more as consultants and advisers. The actual day to day

management of HR issues is the job of line managers. They are after all the

actual people managers who have to deal with and drive their team members."

A lot of other functions are also similarly outsourced, from IT

infrastructure (to AT&T) and finance to a significant amount of marketing

initiatives that include event management, database marketing and customer touch

programs. "There are eight agencies who solely or largely handle Sun

marketing for us," says Unnikrishnan. This said, however, it isn’t as if

the company doesn’t have extensive systems and procedures in place–it does.

The difference really is that these systems are designed to keep the company and

its employees on its toes.

Put your money where...



Most human resource policies generally fall into three categories. The first

is the unstated policy that is however clearly observable and impacts employees

on a day to day basis. Acceptable dress code and office behavior for instance–can

you or can you not walk into your boss’s office or his boss’s office or do

you need to take an appointment with his secretary first?

The second part consists of handbooks on how to apply for leave or time off,

file for benefits, book tickets for official travel, and the like. Most IT

companies today have e-enabled this process as has Sun and added a few more

interesting features in the process like creating local interest groups within a

company and allowing for better communication between employees.

The last part consists largely of homilies meant to create a ‘company

culture’ and to assess and tweak employee attitudes. For the latter, numerous

companies in recent times have started what is called a ‘360-degree Appraisal’.

That is–employees get appraised not just by their bosses and seniors, but also

by their peers and subordinates. Most often, it stops there. Employees are told

what their peers and subordinates think of them and told to deal with any

attitude issues they may have.

Says Hemant, "It gives me great confidence in the management of the

company and the appraisal system when the big boss, the chief executive officer,

announces his weaknesses to the whole company." And that really is the last

big test of a good HR policy–how much do your employees trust you? As of now,

Sun India seems to have little to worry on that count.

Sarita Rani in Bangalore