HR White Paper 2012

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2 H U M A N R E S O U R C E S W H I T E P A P E R 2 0 1 2

Copyright 2012

International Youth Centre, Teen Murti Marg, Chanakyapuri

New Delhi 110 021, IndiaTel: +91 11 2301 0199 Fax: +91 11 2301 5452

Email: [email protected]

Designed & Produced by

CREATIVE INC

Tel: +91 11 4163 4301Email: [email protected]

A copy of this report is being provided to the recipient for information purposes only. The recipient should

conduct his/her own investigation and analysis of, and form his/her own conclusions with respect to the

information contained in the report. No recipient is entitled to rely on the work of NASSCOM contained

in this report, for any purpose. NASSCOM make no representations or warranties regarding the accuracy

or completeness of such information and expressly disclaim any liabilities based on such information

or omissions therefrom. The recipient must not reproduce, disclose or distribute the information

contained in this report, without the express prior written consent of NASSCOM.


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The Indian IT-BPO industry has come a long way since the Y2K crisis. Not only has offshoring establisheditself as a sound business strategy, the industry is playing a key role in maintaining Indias economicgrowth, while serving the needs of global customers. It has also emerged as one of the leading privatesector employers in the country.

With export revenues of USD 69 billion and direct employment at nearly 2.8 million in FY2012, theindustry today represents a diversied player landscape (Indian, MNCs, GIC/Large, medium, small,micro) offering a wide canvas of services ranging from low- to very high-complexity across severalverticals. The industry is now moving towards making India the innovation hub for the world and ithas the necessary wherewithal, in the form of a robust talent pool, to achieve the goal.

Talent, in the form of existing and potential employees, is one of Indias key strengths and over theyears, the industry has established various measures to attract and retain top quality talent. In thisendeavour, rms have launched: initiatives to identify potential talent, frameworks to manage careeraspirations, programs to advance technical and soft skills, policies to integrate a globally distributedworkforce, efforts to stay relevant to employees, etc.

This whitepaper aims to put forth a set of these best practices and also identify next practices thatwould serve as industry standards, going forward. Our endeavour has been to identify a set of themes,based on insights garnered through the NASSCOM Exemplary Talent (NExT) Practices Awards 2012,and highlight relevant practices that would serve as guidelines for the rest of the industry.

We hope that you nd this whitepaper useful, and we welcome your feedback and comments([email protected]).

Som Mittal

President

FOREWORD


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TABLE OF CONTENTSIntroduction 8

Emerging Themes 9

Connecting with the Gen Y workforce 10

Building depth in the talent pipeline 14

Localising global business, culture, people and practices 17

Attracting and engaging talent 20

Conclusion 28


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IT-BPO: One of Indias largest private sector employers...

Indias IT-BPO industry has been growing from strength to strength over the last two decades. Duringthis time, it has evolved into an industry of strategic importance for the Indian economy. Its signicanceis highlighted by the fact that the FY2012 IT-BPO revenue (USD 101 billion) accounts for about7.5 per cent share in Indias GDP. Along with this, it has also emerged as one of the largest private

sector employers with its direct employment during FY2012 standing at nearly 2.8 million and indirectemployment at around 3.2X (~8.9 million).


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Business challenges driving HR mandate...

Given the importance of human resources to the IT-BPO industry, the large size of employee baseand the need to attract future talent, the industry has been initiating various measures that ensurean employee-friendly work environment. However, with the recent recession, the industry has beenfacing various challenges both at macroeconomic and operational levels.

These challenges are inducing the industry to develop various innovative talent managementpractices like:

Employee engagement, ensuring career progression, while enabling a balanced personal life

Firms adapting to emerging technologies to stay relevant to employees

HR policies focusing on localising talent, while businesses go global

Industry constantly developing talent ecosystem to mould future leaders

SMEs also implementing HR Best Practices to emerge as Employers of Choice

In order to showcase and recognise the sustained and continuous commitment shown by IT-BPO rmsto counter specic human capital challenges and have a future-ready talent pipeline in place, NASSCOMinstituted the NASSCOM Exemplary Talent (NExT) Practices Awards in 2011.


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...to implement exemplary talent practices to source, attract, developand retain talent

Five broad themes have emerged based on more than 136 nominations received from 80+ rms forthe 2012 awards.

Introduction to the awardsThe nominations in 2012 spanned ve categories:

The Nurturers To recognise the rm that has been the leader in bridging the employability gapand has been able to derive business value from the same

The Connectors To recognise the rm that has leveraged technology or designed special HRsystems/initiatives targeted at energising the Gen Y workforce

The Business Impacters This award recognises the rm that has taken the less trodden path bydesigning and implementing an HR process/system that is expected to contribute to the industryin the long run

The Glocalisers This award is for the rm which has been able to successfully drive an integrated

global employer brand while balancing the need for localisation

The Talent Magnets This award recognises the rm that has created, communicated and drivena compelling and differentiated employee value proposition

Mercer has been the knowledge partner for the awards from 2011 and has designed the awardscategories and evaluation parameters in partnership with NASSCOM. The evaluation parameters lookedat alignment to business needs, innovations and benets derived from the implementation. In therst phase, Mercer analysed various nominations to shortlist ve rms across each category. Of these,three were shortlisted as the nalists, in consultation with NASSCOM. Post this, the nalists presentedtheir case to a jury panel which consisted of Prof Narendra M Agrawal (IIM-B), Ms Anita Ramachandra

(Founder, Cerebrus Consultants), Mr Francis Rebello (Strategic Human Asset Consultant), Mr SudipBanerjee (ex-CEO, L&T Infotech) and Mr Krishnakumar Natarajan (CEO, MindTree), who evaluatedand selected the winners. Their evaluations, insightful questions and industry perspective enabled arigorous selection process thus recognising deserving practices.

We would like to thank all participating organisations for sharing their practices and driving HRsophistication in the IT-BPO industry. We hope that the NExT Practices Awards will serve as a platformto identify and share innovative talent management practices.


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Emerging themesThe nominations provided an insight into the improvements organisations have brought in design andin the implementation of HR practices and systems. A detailed analysis of the same has thrown upcommon issue themes that rms are trying to address:

1. Connecting with Gen Y workforce

2. Building depth in the talent pipeline

3. Attracting and engaging talent

4. Localising global business, culture, people and practices

While the HR practices addressing these issues are across varying degrees of sophistication, the focusof this white paper is on Best and NExT practices. Best practices are processes or systems that havegained acceptance in the industry as effective practices to address specic challenges, while NExTpractices are enhancements made on these Best practices. While the NExT practices are currentlybeing implemented by select organisations, these have the potential to become industry standards,leading to their large scale adoption.


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Connecting with the Gen Y workforceWith the Gen Y (those born after 1980) accounting for more than 70 per cent of the workforce,organisations are investing in understanding this generation, their drives for engagement andidentifying processes that t in with various talent segments. Common themes which emerged fromresearch, as conducted by organisations include, challenging and meaningful jobs, continuouslearning, work-life integration, individuality, exibility and building greater visibility, especiallyamong peers. 1

The industry is increasingly tapping technology among other interventions to connect and build aunied culture across the distributed global workforce. As a Best practice, most organisations haveaddressed Gen Y needs by creating and maintaining organisation pages on social websites to aidinternal and external branding, creating peer-driven recognition programmes, introducing exi-workpolicies, concierge services, fun at work activities, etc. As a NExT practice, rms have introducedinternal social platforms to drive exibility, innovation, communication, collaboration, work-lifeintegration and initiatives that offer real-life challenges to employees.

The features vary on the basis of the platform sophistication:

Organisation communication through blogs, articles, etc. on the social platform to streamlineinformation, reduce information overload and provide line of sight for employees with the largerorganisational strategy

Collective and social feedback through polls, additional features to share, like, comment, etc. toensure interactive and instant feedback. Employees thus not only get a view of the organisations goalsbut are also able to provide inputs leading to improved organisational policies and processes

Individual proles through online resumes, areas of interest. Firms are providing tools foremployees to build their professional and personal proles to enable them greater visibilityamong peers. They can also use the prole database to search for subject matter experts or particular

skillset, reach out to them for queries, projects, research, etc.

Communities to drive focused discussions on projects, new technologies and personal intereststo ensure collaboration across teams, geographies, etc.

HCLs Meme: In-house social networking platform which gives Gen Y employees complete socialmedia experience while at work. It was conceptualised to enhance connect with Gen Y andto demonstrate two key EFCS tenets: building trust through transparency and inverting theorganisational pyramid. It can facilitate dialogue, discussions, engagement, collaboration andinnovation across geographies, time zones and employees.

In a short span of four months (since its launch in April 2011), there were 25,000 members, 521 groups,4,300 posts, 1,030 albums

It is continuously evolving new applications, blogs, engagement activities, discussion fora most ofthem created by employees themselves

HCL has seen an increase in employee satisfaction scores, greater connection (both amongst employeesand with the organisation) and enhanced awareness of EFCS business philosophy

1Collated from nominations submitted for the category of The Connectors


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Crowdsourcing to drive innovation and knowledge sharing. This ensures that various pockets ofemerging technologies/best practices are on the organisations radar

Information-on-the-go through extension of social platforms to non-traditional deviceslike smartphones, tablets to ensure employees can balance work-life priorities and toincrease productivity

Linkages with other systems and processes to streamline internal processes and improveproductivity, e.g. leave applications, performance dashboards, project status reports, etc. Thisensures that employees do not have to use multiple portals to edit or view data and all importantinformation is captured and updated in real-time

Genpacts Glue is an internal collaboration network that facilitates social interaction betweenemployees, builds a collaborative knowledge pool, identies and engages experts and ultimatelycreates a common global culture. It is powered by a world-class collaboration platform and hasleading edge tools such as groups, discussions, blogs and status updates, as well as social featuresincluding like, comment and share.Glue is seamlessly integrated into Genpacts SharePoint-based document repository making all

knowledge available on demand. It is accessible through web and smartphones.Since its launch in October 2011, Glue has quickly become a critical part of theorganisations work culture with an adoption rate of 30 per cent and a rapidly growing poolof knowledge.Glue impact: Improving Deal Cycle EfciencyBefore: The sales and deal management teams are geographically distributed and acquaintedto work with a small group; directly connected to a given deal. This did not leverage the tacitknowledge and information around the client/industry/geography available. Also, the teamsSharePoint-based document repository had limited adoption.Now: Today, there are cross-vertical and practice collaboration groups on Glue whichsolve these problems. Entire deal information is shared with and engages the collective intelligenceof a much wider set of members. Historical information is immediately available through theSharePoint connector. This has resulted in better quality submissions within shorter time.

Key success drivers for implementation of such social platforms have been the use of crowdsourcingfor design and continuous improvements of platform features, focus on information generationfrom bottom-up rather than top-down and active usage by senior management to communicate andgather feedback.

To engage Gen Y, InfoPro Learning has developed Gnosis, an online collaborative learningplatform to bridge the gap between formal and informal learning. Some of the key featuresof Gnosis include connectivity with formal training material, communities of practice,information repository, discovery-based learning, analytics to measure and report learnersperformance in the platform and an intuitive easy-to-use interface. The platform can beaccessed through mobile devices, integrates smoothly with all major LMS, e-learning courses,corporate intranets or third-party tools and also allows live sharing of knowledge through demovideos and screen sharing.


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A few larger rms, with global workforce, are also leveraging enterprise network platforms andhave launched their own corporate radio and TV stations, as a means to keep the Gen Y engaged

Infosys

InfyBubble Infosys enterprise networking platform, was launched with the objectiveof providing a face-to-face interaction with colleagues they write to everyday, fostercollaboration and innovation on cloud, while creating a knowledge repository. Currently,100,570 employees are registered with 395,022 connections globally

InfyRadio Indias rst corporate radio station was launched with an objective of employeeengagement and innovative communication. On an average, it receives 8,000 hits a day. Theradio station is a mix of music, Infosys-related content and generic content; runs interviewswith Infosys leaders and also musical geniuses

InfyTV In keeping with the era of YouTube where people are using video as a communicationmedium, InfyTV was launched in May 2008. Today, it is upgraded with the latest socialmedia features like Rate, Comment, Upload and Share. Any Infoscion can upload andshare videos with the entire Infosys community. Infoscions can view the videos as latest,most viewed and top rated. Currently, each video receives over 7,000 views

Another practice that rms are adopting to channelise the restless energies of Gen Y is in the areaof innovation; a key driver of competitive advantage. Firms are putting in place frameworks, bothformal and informal, that would enable employees to brainstorm and come up with the next bigidea, products/solutions that can be commercialised. Innovation is now a strategic mandate for manyrms. For this, they have cross-functional teams, with the top management and representatives fromvarious business units to drive innovation internally.

Idea generation: Organisation-wide programmes/contests to identify potential transformationalideas

Idea ltration: The panel reviews the various ideas generated and makes available regular andtimely feedback to the ideators

Idea selection: Ideas are nalised for new product opportunities based on their compatability withorganisational goals and their commercial feasibility

ID8, a focused innovation programme at Yahoo! India R&D, is removing barriers to surfaceinnovation and accelerate ideas to market. As ID8 has demonstrated, with the right platformand quality ideas, it is possible for small, nimble teams to make a signicant impact globally. Forexample, at ID8 2011, three employees at Yahoo! India R&D came up with the idea of PolyAds, arevolutionary new 3D ad format that shows multiple ads in a single ad slot. With the backing ofYahoo! India R&D leaders, the PolyAds team then took this idea from concept to production in just one month. This patent pending, rich media ad format is available across all devices. Since itsNovember 2011 launch, this ad format has completed multiple campaigns across the US, EMEAand APAC.


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Firms are also engaging Gen Y by adopting a mobility-based work environment the Bring YourOwn Device concept

CSC has leveraged C3 (Connect, Communicate and Collaborate) to tap experience and assets fromthe organisation. Benets include greater collaboration, reduced business pitch processing timeand facilitated discussions, document sharing, Q&A, group creation and invitations around sharedinterests or projects. Key features include Bring your own device policy and people-driven rather

than technology-driven deployment.

Case Study: Cognizant Technology Solutions-1C and C2.0 Leveraging Technology to Energise the Gen Y Workforce

BusinessChallenges

Cognizant Technology Solutions grew to 60,000+ employees by the year 2006. Thisgrowth posed the challenge of sustaining high-touch employee engagement culture inthe organisation

With a large proportion (85 per cent) of associates being millennials, Cognizant alsoidentied the need to build a SOCIAL WORKPLACE and a CONNECTED ENTERPRISE

Initiatives One Cognizant An enterprise platform initiative that redenes the way the largely

millennial workforce of Cognizant interacts with corporate IT, designed with an objectiveto provide Associate delight through IT systems

CATalyst Programme Train millennial talent to become citizen developers withexpertise on social, mobile, agile way of application development

Citizen Developer Cognizant collaborated with top engineering colleges and conductedvarious challenges to provide opportunity to Gen Y to leverage One Cognizant indesigning and developing applications

Hackathons Provide opportunity to Cognizant associates to designend-to-end business critical applications within two days

Cognizant 2.0 Social business platform at enterprise level that drives collaborativework management, knowledge sharing, project/service management, innovationmanagement, programme governance and insight-driven decision making. It connects

Cognizant, customers and vendors on a single collaborative and knowledge sharingplatform

Key Benets Recent benchmarking study conducted within Cognizant showed the following benetsfor projects using Cognizant 2.0

- 15 per cent improvement in productivity in projects using Cognizant 2.0 effectively overthe average value of productivity across projects

- 8 per cent improvement in the ability to deliver projects on time and7 per cent improvement in the ability to deliver on-budget

One Cognizant led to

- 50 per cent reduction in new hire onboarding time

- 30 per cent improvement in data compliance

- 500 millisecond response time for the applications

- Increased employee satisfaction and engagement


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Building depth in the talent pipeline 2 Despite economic uncertainties, the war for talent is a top priority for the IT-BPO industry. As aNExT practice, firms are designing and implementing initiatives to augment capacity, bridgeemployability gap and build specialisation/expertise in the existing employee base. These initiativesare expected to:

Create employability through skill building

Build a ready, cost-effective talent supply chain to support business growth and continuity Reduce dependency on existing talent pool

Firms are looking at different avenues to broaden talent pool including partnership with academicinstitutions and sourcing from alternative talent pools. The Best practice has been to partner withacademic institutions, state governments and NGOs and penetrate Tier II and Tier III locations.

Organisations are also sourcing from alternative talent pools such as persons with disability,women and other geographies. These are supported by signicant investments in infrastructureincluding transportation facilities, technology aids, training facilities, policies like flexi-time,split-time working for women with family commitments thus ensuring smooth and sustainable talentdeployment. Organisations have also conducted sensitisation trainings for their workforce to ensuresmooth talent integration.

Firms are also attracting talent through educational initiatives to clarify the nature of work asperformed in the IT-BPO industry including conducting numerous road shows, training faculty toaddress queries, creating project banks, arranging industrial visits, communicating career paths,etc. Similar initiatives are also leveraged by product rms and rms in other domains (e.g. telecom)which compete with IT services organisations for talent. A few organisations have identied earlytouchpoints for branding through internship post +2 schooling, school level events, etc.

HSBC EDPsinitiative to build a solid talent pipeline for banking/BPO industry: The B. ComCustomer Service Management Programme, in collaboration with Andhra University (AU), isaimed at meritorious 10+2 students who are recruited as interns with a monthly stipend. Theyreceive world-class on-the-job training for three years and attend classes in Communication,Management and B. Com (CSM). On completion, candidates are given the option to joinas FTEs.

Recognising that deserving candidates often have several prospective employers to choose from,rms are also focusing on connecting with them through social media, opening doors before joiningdates, connecting them with employees to showcase the organisation culture and ensuring that the

selection process is smooth e.g. reduced wait time, helpdesks to support queries, etc.

Four Soft Limiteds education programmes for associates through ICFAI:

MBA: Mapped for Leads and Managers

MCA: Mapped for SE/SSE

Master of Logistics Management: Mapped for functional specialists

2Collated from nominations submitted for the category of The Nurturers and The Business Impacters


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Firms are also bridging the employability gap by designing curriculum in partnership with academia,training faculty and encouraging research. They are inuencing curriculum through provision ofteaching and learning aids, creating and publishing textbooks, oating certication programmes anddesigning industry-aligned electives. For faculty development, rms are providing training on emergingtechnologies, teaching methodologies, soft skills and communication skills. Research is fostered byopening research projects/innovation cells for collaboration and providing research scholarships, etc.Interestingly, small and medium-sized organisations are leveraging internships to ensure trained

candidates can be deployed in tandem with changing business needs.

Sears IT and Management Services India engages interns from engineering institutions inTier II and Tier III cities

Apart from looking only at the external talent pool, rms are also re-skilling and up-skilling theirexisting employees through targeted learning and development initiatives.

At Anthelio, career progression is not always linked to grade/designation increase; rather, it islinked to job enrichment and multi-skilling the workforce for career enhancement to take upwider responsibilities and challenging job propositions.

A fresh HR executive undergoes training in recruitment for six months. The HR executiveis then job rotated to HR operations for another six months and then moves on to handleBusiness HR role for six more months. This is how a HR executive is made capable of handlingthe responsibility of a HR partner.


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Some rms have created career path architectures which clearly map out competencies and skillsrequired for various roles that employees can play in their career, thereby enabling more participativeand focused learning. Increasing internal hiring through internal job postings is helping rms to sourcethe right skill internally. Domain academies have also been set up to build specic domain skills.

Organisations are recognising the benets of attracting their ex-employees. They are not only handlingexit processes more smoothly but are also maintaining alumni networks based on the understandingthat an ex-employee with an organisational context would be easier to re-deploy than a new recruit.

As a NExT practice, rms have begun to estimate future demand, both long and short-term, for talent.Firms are putting in place tools and frameworks to enable resource demand forecast from an overallorganisation perspective and aligned to the rms future goals (long-term) to unit/department leveland also for specic technical and soft skills (long and short-term).

InfosysCampus Connect and Project Genesis

AegisResource Innovation for Social Empowerment

(RISE)

Campus Connect Partnership with institutions tocreate capacity and a highly capable IT talent pool

Includes programmes like road shows, conclaves,faculty enablement, faculty sabbaticals, studenttraining, industrial visits, etc.

Coverage 175,000 students, 7,200+ facultymembers, 474 colleges

Project Genesis - An industry-academia partnershipprogramme, which assists academicians to handlequeries of students about career in BPO industry

Benets: Enhanced employability; better visibilityto students, faculty and management on industryexpectations; higher readiness of students whenthey join industry

In association with Vocational RehabilitationCentres (VRC) and SARTHAK, Aegis identies

people with disabilities who are willing to work andconducts training to make them employable

Supported by necessary infrastructure for apre-hire training programme at VRC orAegis centres

Benets:

20 per cent of PwD workforce hired

Average cost/PwD hire reduced from USD 40 toUSD 22

Offer acceptance ratio increased from 65 per centto 83 per cent

Rejection rate decreased from 40 per cent to15 per cent

WiproMission 10x

TCSDriving Employability through Afrmative Action

Wipro identied current teaching methodologies andcapabilities of faculty members of colleges as one ofthe key factors leading to the gap in employabilityof graduates. Bridging this gap came to be known asMission 10x. Some key features include:

Empowering faculty through innovativeteaching methodology

Mission 10x learning approach workshops to assistfaculty in unleashing their potential, help them tounderstand the need for a new learning approach,provide insights into interactive teachingmethodology and aids

More than 70 per cent of 20,000+ empoweredfaculty members from rural engineering colleges

Empowered 10,000 faculty members by 2010(rst three years)

In Phase II, it intends to empower 25,000 teachersby 2013

Initiatives at different levels Pre-Uni School,PG/UG level, research level and beyond

Includes programmes like IT Quiz, FacultyDevelopment Programme, Academic InterfaceProgramme, Tech Bytes Quiz, e-Connect, TCSResearch Scholar Programme, TCS Co-InnovationNetwork (COIN), Advanced Training Centre forVisually Impaired, etc.

Benets:

Hiring cost reduced to 60 per cent ( ` 16.79 crore)

Enhanced connect through pre joining interaction

Day one slot hiring - 99.7 per cent


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Localising global business, culture, people and practices 3

Organisations are rapidly globalising due to various factors of strategic growth, building global muscle,reducing geographical concentration risks, addressing protectionism and building business and linkageswith communities. A three pronged strategy of global talent, global policies and a one companyculture are being leveraged by select IT-BPO rms.

As a NExT practice, organisations are hiring locals as a part of their people strategy which helps

address unemployment in the local community and builds linkages with the community. Duringinorganic growth, signicant emphasis is placed on retaining the acquired rms leadership teamthrough allocation of independent, empowered, innovative roles with visibility on their career paths.This enables a smoother integration with controlled impact on customers and employees. Based onthese experiences and research, rms have created M&A frameworks across diagnosis, transitionand smooth integration to ensure steady state operations with strong focus on cultural analysisand assimilation.

Aegis has evolved the business philosophy of citizens serving citizens, employing local citizensfor serving customers in that country

Has between 95-99 per cent people of the soil across locations

In an agile and global organisation, the workforce needs to relocate frequently especially duringclient engagements and start-up of operations at a new location. Relocations are thus enabled by astrong framework and support structure for mobility, e.g. mobility helpdesk to support any queries/clarications. Though mobility is advantageous and desired by employees, it brings its challenges interms of cultural and social differences. Investments are made in tools/training programmes whichsupport cultural training at various levels travel orientation programmes, welcome kits, culturalsensitivity training, global buddy programmes, country-specic initiatives such as country-specicportals/handbooks which cover mandatory policies, dos and donts in the country context, businessetiquette and in-depth cultural aspects.

To attract and engage the global workforce, rms are designing global employee value propositionswith customisations based on local culture. However, the organisation values such as transparency,innovation, etc, remain consistent for global organisations as seen through the global innovation basedrecognition programmes, 360 degree feedback for leadership, etc.

iGATEachieved industrys best-in-class metrics and integration success parameters such asreduction in attrition, margin targets and customer retention post the acquisition of Patni.Focus was on (1) Competency-based Career Management System to cater to career aspirations,(2) Competency-based Leadership Development Programme to align the leadership across theorganisation with the new mission statement and (3) Review and Unication of HR processesand policies based on best practices.

3Collated from nominations submitted for the category of The Nurturers and The Business Impacters


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. HSBC Electronic Data Processing designed HSBC Technology and Services (HTS) PlatinumLeague an in-house global recognition programme aimed at mobilising 100,000 HTSemployees, working in seven different functions and six dispersed geographies and workscollectively towards a shared purpose. The initiative included setting a global benchmark for all HTSteams to aspire to and encourage high performance behaviour and cross-functional collaborationacross the HTS community.

Expansion also means that organisations need to comply with various legal policies in each country.This is driven by a strong compliance function which identies various legal, nancial and labourpolicies that the organisation needs to comply with. This includes maintaining a repository of policies,reviewing changes, analysing impact, revising organisational policies accordingly; for e.g. leave policies,benets, etc. monitoring compliance dashboards, conducting compliance trainings and multi-layeredaudits. Organisations are also going beyond mandatory requirements and understanding employeeneeds through feedback to arrive at policies which are acceptable by employees and which meetlegal requirements.

Consistent implementation of global policies and processes, communication by leadership onorganisational goals, cascade of the goals across functions and units, global organisation branding,etc. help build a one company culture regardless of the number of employees and countries that theorganisation operates in. Intranets and internal social networks are also enabling employees fromdiverse cultures to collaborate on projects/products. A local connect is built by creating multi-lingualsites for social networks, intranets, trainings and communication in regional languages.


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Case Study: HCLAn Integrated Global Employer Brand Balancing the Need for Localisation

Business Challenges HCL has adopted the industrialised global delivery model with global reach tomake delivery ruggedised. The following data points talk about HCLs balancedglobal presence:

- Presence in 31 countries

- Majority of countries have 50 per cent+ local workforce

- Top leadership across geographies are local hires - With global presence, HCL Technologies faced the business need to

integrate global brand with the local population

Initiatives Global presence driven by rebadging, mergers and acquisitions and local hiring

Consistent implementation of policies across geographies post anunderstanding of local customs, practices and policies

Slow migration to the HCL way of working

In order to drive global growth, HCL has designed the following initiatives:

- KALA The art of working across borders through Knowledge (GlobeSmart), Awareness (Culturati), Learning and Assimilation

- Diversity coaches promote Assimilation- Globe Smart is a web-based tool providing HCLites with quick and easy

access to extensive knowledge on how to conduct business effectively withpeople from different countries around the world. In-depth country-specicinformation for 60+ countries in 45 languages and e-Modules for culturalintroduction via interactive learning paths are some of the benets incurredthrough the tool

- Culturati is a customised cultural event. Festivities include cross-cultural exchanges via conversations around the themes of diversity andsustainability and facilitate exchange of ideas along with HCLites across theglobe and/or the customers

Key Benets In the past six years, 9,818 employees from 75 organisations across34 countries have become a part of HCL. Revenues during FY2011 have grownby 29.6 per cent as compared to FY2010

Revenues from US geography have grown by 26.3 per cent and that fromEurope by 23.9 per cent


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Attracting and engaging talent 4

For the IT-BPO industry, creating a cost-effective and differentiated Employee Value Proposition(EVP)has emerged as a critical mandate given the need to decrease personnel costs, address attritionand build domain depth. To drive this, most organisations have gone beyond compensation andbenets to esh out initiatives around work-life balance policies, career development and learningand development. However, as a NExT practice, organisations are dening and communicating thisplethora of initiatives in an integrated manner, under an overarching talent strategy/employeevalue proposition.

Rewards and Recognition Best Practices:

One of the important ways to attract and retain talent is in the form of adequate compensation either on par or higher than the industry average. With an increasing emphasis on developing subjectmatter experts and retaining them over time, rms are following Best Practices that have now becomestandards within the industry:

Annual variable pay: Based on performance of the rm, unit and the individual

Stock options: Either as a performance-based incentive or as a reward for long-term employees

Referral bonuses: Aimed at improving employee stickiness, these could range from either cashrewards to sponsoring holiday outings

Gifts: Gold coins, satellite TV connection, internet connection allowance, gaming consoles, etc.

Awards: To recognise individual/team achievements; monthly/quarterly/bi-annual/annual

Fast track career progression for high potential employees

Educational and nancial assistance

ADP has a policy of one additional leave for tenured associates an increase in annual holidayentitlement when they complete three and above years of service; for e.g., 0-2.9 years: 20 leaves;3 years: 21 leaves; 4 years: 22 leaves.

CtrlS Datacenters reward and recognition initiatives include Star of the Week, Employee of theYear, Customer Appreciated Performance, Innovation Award, Outstanding Sale Award, Behindthe Scene (Projects and Support team members), Together We Achieve (for Service Deliveryteams), Spot Recognition, Best Customer Service Agent, etc.

A few NExT practices organisations have created further nuances in the compensation and benetspolicies with increased focus on recognition and benets. Organisations are rewarding critical skillsetsapart from high performers through skill-based premiums and performance-linked pay. Equal emphasisis paid to process and results with categories designed for instant recognition and employee nominatedwinners. Interestingly, organisations have leveraged social networks in such a way that employees canshowcase awards e.g. virtual trophy cases which drive greater visibility among peers.

4Collated from nominations submitted for the category of The Talent Magnets and The Business Impacters


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Organisations have extended benets beyond statutory requirements or the minimum expectationsby supporting nancial investments and housing loans within limits, extending of maternity benetsby a month to a year, extension of medical insurance to cover in-laws and grandparents, celebratingemployee-specic days by provision of days of leave for anniversaries or birthdays or increasing daysof leave for tenured employees, etc.

Medical and hospitalisation insurance: Provides medical and hospitalisation insurance foremployees and their dependents spouse, children and parents. Insurance provided may have

100 per cent for all pre-existing health conditions. Premium paid could be in the form of eitherco-pay or borne entirely by the rm

Accident insurance

Ajubas Emergency Response Team: Formed and trained on internal evacuation process, rstaid process and re and safety, such that they could handle situations with immediate responsefor smooth resolutions. Both men and women employees are regularly trained and updated onsafety issues and are given orange tags for easy recognition.

Annual health check-up: Firms have also tied up with select hospitals/healthcare providers toenable quarterly, half-yearly or annual health check-up for employees; these check-ups are alsoprovided at subsidised rates for employees

ADPs Master Health Check-up is a unique programme for all its associates and their spousesaged above 35 years. This is a completely sponsored annual programme and is available at leadinghospitals in the city having a tie-up with ADP.

Grade-linked benets: Benets based on grade/position of the employee; benets include providing

mobile phones/laptops, club memberships, company car, etc. Gratuity: Based on their tenure and salary package, gratuity is provided to employees on their

retirement or separation

Firms are also investing in work-life balance policies to ensure diversity, workforce health and exibilitywhich in turn are expected to drive up employee engagement and productivity. Most organisationshave addressed the need for exibility through provision of facilities such as exible work timings/split-time working, work from home polices and mobile connectivity (laptops/broadband connection).Work-life balance has been addressed through provision of day care facilities/subsidised crches,gymnasiums/recreation facilities to drive work-life balance. Further differentiation has been built by

select organisations by focusing on psychological counselling, wellness programmes and conciergeservices (ticketing support, relocation support, online retail merchandisers, etc.).

Extended maternity and child care leave up to one year

Day care facilities/subsidised crches within ofce premises

Onsite doctors/healthcare facilities


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Shakti a womens forum is Ajubas initiative to promote women safety within/outside theorganisation. Facilities include:

Womens Lounge A special lounge for pregnant or unwell women employees to restand relax

Awareness programme on cervical and breast cancer by an in-house doctor

Self-defence workshop on awareness, risk reduction, avoidance and making them aware oftheir physical power

Poshan a programme designed to include a nutritious meal in the diet of pregnantwomen etc.

All organisations have focused on career development through identication of careers paths,merit-based progression, hi-potential tracks, targeted learning and development.

Some of the Best Practices that rms have implemented for learning and development include:

Leadership Development Programmes: Create a corporate pool of leaders who can take on currentand future business challenges

Management Development Programmes for developing rst time leaders

Subject Matter Experts programme for developing specialists

Industry recognised certications

Firms have also tied-up with national and international academic institutions for highereducation programmes. Select employees are given an opportunity to go on a sabbatical to pursuehigher studies

Professional Skills Development: Targeted at developing behavioural and soft skills, usually throughFinishing School programmes

Opportunities to work with global, marquee clients on leading edge technologies

Geometric: Employees are nominated for external Management Development Programme (MDP)at reputed management institutes to build leadership capabilities. Every year, a group of around50 managers are sent for a week-long MDP to one of the top institutes of India.

Yahoo! India R&D has tied up with top tier institutes to offer exclusively customised, entirely

organisation funded courses:

Since 2009, ~80 employees have beneted from the two-year BITS M.S. in SoftwareEngineering

Every year, a batch of 25 Yahoos, go through the IIM-B Executive General ManagementProgramme

PhD Co-op offered in association with IIT, allows employees to work full-time, while pursuingtheir PhD


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As a NExT practice, organisations have empowered employees with choice, personalised options andtools to build their individual brand, careers and learning. Organisations with large workforces haveleveraged the breadth of service offerings to provide options whereas smaller organisations havefocused on challenging projects which require multiple skillsets to deliver.

IBS has designed innovative initiatives in the area of R&R, smart working environment,communication, career development and work-life balance including:

Career Navigator: Interactive portal on career development

Vibes: Virtual hangout place

A close look at the initiatives themes which have emerged from Gen Y research:

Dened career paths and options (challenging and meaningful jobs, exibility)

Personal brand building opportunities (greater visibility especially among peers)

Personalised, real life and group-based learning (individuality, continuous learning, greater visibilityespecially among peers)

Personal brand building opportunities

Best Practices NExT Practices

Exposure to leadership teams through skiplevel meetings, leadership forums, careerseminars, etc.

Provision of networking opportunities (leadershipforums, industry forums, etc.) to build theindividual brand

Identication of high potential employeeson the basis of performance for fasttrack programmes

Identication of critical performers on the basisof performance and critical roles/skillsets fortargeted programmes

Conduct regular pulse checks (monthly to quarterly) tocheck for attrition risk amongst this group

Dened career paths and options

Best Practices NExT Practices 5

Build framework for employees to assesstheir strengths/weaknesses, chart careerdevelopment strategies, design an action plan

Provision of technical and managerial careerpaths dene career streams and jobs levelswithin each stream, competencies needed foreach job

Career advisors to training managers on

facilitating career-related discussions onthe basis of career aspirations andpersonal strengths

Internal job postings to open up opportunitiesto internal workforce

High performers are made part of thestrategic planning team

Clearly designed career movements through and across job families

Technology is also enabling estimation of futuredemand of particular jobs that employees can view

Personalised career proles covering employeeperformance, potential, learning opportunities andcareer options, thus, moving away from a one-size/option-ts-all

Provision of career-related data on a single platformthat is simple and easy to use

Internal campaigns promoting roles, career options,projects, etc. This is reected in senior stakeholderspresenting options and expectations within eachcareer path/business units

5NExT Practices are talent practices in addition to best practices


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Personalised, real life and group-based learning

Best Practices NExT Practices 5

Assignment of coaches and mentors forhi-potentials and senior leaders

Selection of mentors/coaches driven by employeesfrom a selected and trained group

Targeted learning programmes forvarious audiences based on entry into theorganisation, leadership level, job family,competency, etc.

Personalised learning programmes based onindividuals interests, learning styles, expertise, etc.

- Focus on domain/skill-specic learning andcertications and creation of academies/learningpathways to support this

Delivery of formal virtual and physical trainingprogrammes

Opportunities for on-the-job learningthrough job rotations, special projects and jobenrichment/challenging projects

- Adequate support to set up the employeefor success

Talent exchange programmes to ensureexposure to international markets, customers,culture thereby building managerialcapabilities

Internal job postings to encourage internalhiring by offering opportunities for careermovement within the organisation - full anindividuals career goals

Leveraging social networks for learning e.g. peerrecommended reading material/courses as seenthrough number of shares, likes, discussion forumsor Q&A sessions with experts/groups, formation ofcommunities for specic areas of work or projects

Creation of groups to collaborate on learning projectsbased on real life challenges

Leverage KM to extract learnings from differentpockets of excellence

Virtusa has implemented the Personal Excellence Process (PEP) initiative to enable individualexcellence by driving productivity, quality and estimation accuracy. The PEP programme providessoftware engineers with a disciplined personal framework for delivering better software and tofocus on personal improvement. Key features include individual dashboards that track metricssuch as personal quality, personal productivity and personal defect trends, which are visible tothe individuals and teams. Research shows that engineers produced 41 per cent better qualitysoftware after the PEP training.

5NExT Practices are talent practices in addition to best practices


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Case Study: IBM (IT Business) Partner Employee Engagement Programme Designing and Implementation of HR Processes/Systems for Partner Employees

Business Challenges In a highly volatile talent marketplace, IBM identied the need todifferentiate itself (in terms of inclusive culture, learning opportunities/careerdevelopments, innovative partnership, impact on world, etc.) in order to attractand retain talent in India and create a sense of shared agenda and prideamong employees

IBM also created a strong proposition that can drive the organisation to meetits HR strategy i.e. to consistently be an organisation of forward thinkingemployees in an inspiring environment creating world changing progress

Initiatives An enterprise-wide Career Framework, a one-stop-shop for planning,developing and tracking career progress within IBM, provides a structurefor employees to develop key client-valued career capabilities over time.It establishes clear criteria for career progression and provides a way foremployees to document their progress and showcase their talents forpotential opportunities

Business and Technical Leadership is the integrated pipeline management andsuccession planning process. The goal is to ensure IBM has the right leadershiptalent in appropriate key positions at the right time resulting in a world-classleadership team. Pipeline identication, development, talent reviews andplacement are the key focus areas to achieve this objective. IBM India leveragesits global processes which are customised to have local relevance

Talent Spark is an initiative with an objective to inspire and nurture top talentto realise their full potential by providing accelerated opportunity for learningand personal growth

Employee Speaks is the centennial jam across locations that providesemployees an opportunity to speak, express and contribute towards IBMsfuture strategy and success

EVP Communication (to employees and prospective employees): adoptsvarious channels of communication including virtual networking lotus livemeetings, W3, social media sites, all hands meet, IBM connections (blog),campus placements and talks

Key Benets 4.9 per cent decrease in attrition rate in 2011 (CY) over 2010

8.7 per cent decrease in top contributor attritionOffer acceptance increased from 74 per cent to 78 per cent

40 per cent open positions closed internally as against last year


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Case Study: Wipro Limited (IT Business) Partner Employee Engagement Programme Designing and Implementation of HR Processes/Systems for Partner Employees

Business Challenges There are certain businesses within Wipro, which run with almost 60 per centof employees hired through third-party contractors. Wipro faced a business riskbecause of the following challenges:

Customers Concerned with quality, data security and not fully engagedcontracted employees

Wipro Needed to put enormous effort to manage quality of intake from over

70 vendors across Tier I/II/III citiesContracted employees Low engagement because of absence of effortstowards aspirations and career management

Initiatives After trying out many options, Wipro adopted a Practice, where they wouldgo beyond the denition of regular employees and take on ownership for theircontract employees as well. The following initiatives were designed to fullyengage partner employees:

Onboarding and induction programme Assimilation through Wipro valuessession and clear articulation of commitment for career development forpartner employees

Performance management Clear articulation of work area and desiredbehaviour expected from partner employees

Fun@Work Arrangement for 30-35 fun events in which 3,000+ partneremployees participated

Training and development Various programmes on customer service,communication and technical programmes for partner employees

Rewards and Recognition Total 900 Spot and Quarterly awards to recogniseefforts and provide greater visibility to partner employees

Team Elite Career growth programme to help partner employees to becomeWipro employees

Key Benets Reduction in attrition across various lines of business (approximately10 per cent partner employees being provided career growth year-on-year)

Resignation reversals Talent was counselled and retained, thus enabling25 per cent turnaround >75 per cent of partner employees oriented on Wipro security policies, valuesand code of conduct

Over 6,300+ partner employees nominated for various soft skills and technicaltraining programmes

Increased contracted employee engagement

All in all, it was a win-win situation for all, while Wipro found a potential pool ofscalable talent, customers could see quality improvements, partners (vendors)had reduced attrition and employees were engaged


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ConclusionDespite volatile business scenarios, talent remains an area of focus for the IT-BPO industry. This hastranslated into greater involvement from business leaders in the design and implementation of HRpractices with leaders seen as drivers of the new systems and HR as the pit crew. The signicant changeis that the leadership is not only communicating the importance of the same but are also adoptingand evangelising. They are at the forefront of receiving feedback and holding the right stakeholdersaccountable for the same. This is substantiated by increased sophistication in metrics used by HR tomeasure benets and justify investments made in enhanced talent practices. As illustrated, NExTpractice organisations are not only measuring implementation and effectiveness metrics but alsoidentifying the business impact.

Illustration: Sophistication in metrics

While leaders play a key role in the design of talent practices, there is signicant involvement ofemployees across organisation levels as change champions, pilot groups, etc. Post implementationinvolvement is increased through institution of two-way communication channels. Though thesetalent practices are designed for the organisation as a whole, there is an increased focus on talentsegmentation as seen by customisations made for specic age groups, gender, experience levels,geographies, etc.

As organisations are growing in size, they are also personalising the touchpoints for employees toensure that an employees needs and aspirations are addressed. This is seen through personalised

career proles, learning paths, etc. Employees are also empowered by choice the choice of learningprogrammes, career paths, business units, mentors, etc. with the underlying philosophy that theorganisation will provide the tools, however, the employee is responsible for his/her own professionalgrowth. Though this philosophy has been touted for the past few years, organisations have realisedthe importance of providing the tools and educating on the same thus arming employees with theknowledge of options and choices. This helps employees understand the ever evolving labyrinth thatthe organisation is and identify the best path for his/her professional growth.

Organisations are also identifying talent in prospective employees including interns, alumina,candidates, vendor employees, school students, etc. Touchpoints with these groups including

recruitment, exit process, campus branding, etc. are being handled with adequate care to driveattraction in the future.

As documented, the IT-BPO industry is focusing on value-adding and cost-effective talent practicesby bringing innovation and maturity in HR systems and processes. The benets are seen throughsustainable talent development, community enrichment and adoption of practices in other industriesand geographies.


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HR White Paper 2012

Documents

Transcript of HR White Paper 2012