WORKPLACES How Credibility, Care and Career Growth Define Best Workplaces

THE 3 Cs THAT CREATE GREAT WORKPLACES How Credibility, Care and Career Growth Define Best Workplaces

Insights from India’s Best Companies to Work For 2020

13th Edition

Authored by: Prasenjit Bhattacharya

Edited by: Sreemoyee Sengupta

Supported By: Dr. Deepika Dabke, Gurab Virk, Punit Goyal About the Report It is the 13th year of the Great Place to Work® Institute’s ‘India’s Best Companies to Work For’ study, in partnership with The Economic Times. Over the years, the research conducted by Great Place to Work® has focused on the state and impact of Trust in workplaces across India. It has highlighted what drives trust in organizations and shared what the best workplaces do differently to gain and sustain this trust. Last year, more than 1000 organizations applied for the Great Place to Work® assessment and 869 formed the final base for evaluation and identifying the 100 Best Companies to Work For in the country.

This year is a unique year, enveloped in unprecedented circumstances. Therefore, today, our responsibility extends beyond articulating what our research tells us. Great Place to Work® Institute is humbled to be the partner of choice for so many organizations and through this year’s research report we hope to shed light on the hitherto uncharted way forward in the world of work. Company culture has time and again proven to be a differentiator for the best workplaces and it is leadership by far that has the largest and most direct effect on company culture. Having studied over 869 organizations throughout India this year, Great Place to Work® is delighted to present a personalized guide for Business Leaders that will facilitate their efforts to create and sustain High-Trust, High-Performance Cultures™ even in the most challenging circumstances.

If you are the CEO of a company, this is your time. People may not remember your predecessors, but they will never forget you! What were you doing - or not doing - when your company was hit by the COVID-19 induced Tsunami? This will be a question that will follow you for the rest of your life.

We spoke to over 250 organizations and many CEOs to find out what the leaders of the best workplaces had been up to.

Read our observations in a special section in this report on Page 22.

Regards, Prasenjit Bhattacharya CEO, Great Place to Work® Institute, India

6 A Great Business Case! 7 Participants Profile 8 India's Best Companies to Work For 2020 10 From Just 'Workplaces' to 'Great Workplaces' 12 Fairness The Foundation of Great Workplaces

14 Interesting Facts about the Participating Organizations 15 The 3Cs that Create Great Workplaces 21 A Focus on the Top 100 The Best Companies to Work For in India 2020

22 Leadership in Times of CRISIS 39 About Great Place to Work® Institute

Every year, more than 10,000 organizations from over An EMPLOYEE SURVEY seeking anonymous 60 countries partner Great Place to Work® Institute feedback for assessment, benchmarking and planning of actions to strengthen their workplace culture. Great Place to Work® Institute’s methodology is recognized + as rigorous and objective and is considered as the CULTURE AUDIT© 'Gold Standard' for defining great workplaces across business, academia and government organizations. 1/3rd All organizations that nominate themselves for weightage India’s Best Companies to Work For list undergo A study of the an assessment. As part of this assessment, all PEOPLE PRACTICES organizations are studied through two lenses. of an organization

The first lens measures the quality of employee experience through our globally validated survey With respect to this criterion, any demographic group instrument known as Trust Index©. The survey helps that forms 10% or more of the company’s employee in seeking anonymous feedback from employees and strength, should not have a significantly different carries 2/3rd weightage. experience (Trust Index© score) from the average score of the entire organization. The second lens is called Culture Audit©, which is a proprietary tool of the Institute that evaluates The Institute undertakes a robust validation process the quality of people practices of an organization, on the data gathered through the assessment covering the entire employee lifecycle. The Culture procedure. The cumulative score of the Trust Index© Audit© carries 1/3rd weightage. Furthermore, the and Culture Audit© determines an organization’s Institute evaluates whether an organization that has position on the ranking scoreboard and helps in met the criteria defined by the Institute on employee identifying ‘India’s 100 Best Companies to Work For’. experience and people practices is also a ‘Great No individual or jury has a say in who makes it to the Place to Work for FOR ALL', i.e. all employees in the Top 100 list – only employee feedback and quality of organization, irrespective of their tenure, age, gender, people practices determine if an organization is a great role, etc. are experiencing a great workplace culture. workplace.

Note: All the assessments for identifying the 100 Best Companies to Work For 2020 were conducted before 15th February 2020, prior to any impact of COVID-19 across the country.

Disclosure: For the organizations that participated in the research for ‘India’s Best Companies to Work For’ 2020, there was no participation fee. All participant organizations have had the option of subscribing to various data insights and reporting options at their own discretion/need.

Great Place to Work® Institute, India also has a Consulting Practice. The total consulting revenue of Great Place to Work® Institute, India from the 100 Best Companies to Work For 2020 in the financial year 2019-20 is less than 10 per cent of the total revenue of the Institute in India. Great Place to Work® Institute, India has a stated policy of not soliciting business from India’s Best Companies to Work For.

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 5 A GREAT A study of shareholder returns of the publicly listed great workplaces by RSM India reveals that best workplaces consistently outperform major stock indices such as BSE BUSINESS Sensex 30, Nifty 50 and CNX Nifty - Total Returns Index. In the current study, the best CASE! workplaces have outperformed major stock indices by a factor of 3 and have yielded almost 7x returns on initial investment!

800% 785% 750% Comparative Cumulative Stock 752% Market Returns 700% India’s 100 Best Companies to Work For 650% Hold Model BSE Sensex 30 600% Nifty 50 (CNX Nifty) CNX Nifty - Total Returns Index 550%

500%

450%

400% Best 350% Workplaces provided almost 300% Cumulative Returns Cumulative 7x times the 250% returns 246% 204% 200% 203%

150%

100%

50%

0% 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

The Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR %) of the India’s 100 Best Companies to Work For completely outshines major indices of BSE Sensex 30, Nifty 50, CNX Nifty - Total Returns Index consistently for the past 11 years (2008 – 2019).

21.51% India’s 100 Best Companies to Work For

21.92% Hold Model

10.63% BSE Sensex 30

10.59% Nifty 50 (CNX Nifty)

11.94% CNX Nifty - Total Returns Index

25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

5% 1% 1% 24% 5%

2% 4% Top 3% 100

12% 21%

15%

1% Information Technology

2% Manufacturing & Production 2% 2% Financial Services & Insurance 3% 3% Retail 1% 2% Construction, Infrastructure & Real Estate

29% Hospitality

Professional Services 9% Telecommunications TOTAL Transportation 1% Non-profit and Charity Organizations 4% Education & Training

Media 6% Agriculture, forestry and fishing

16% Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals

12% Advertising & Marketing

Other

Note: The industries represented here are only those that have featured in the Top 100 Best Companies to Work For 2020

1. Intuit India 25. Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd.

2. DHL Express (India) Pvt. Ltd. 26. Ericsson India Pvt. Ltd.

3. Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Ltd. 27. Synchrony International Services Pvt. Ltd.

4. Harrisons Malayalam Ltd. 28. ESDS Software Solution Pvt. Ltd.

5. Bajaj Finance Ltd. 29. Godfrey Phillips India Ltd.

6. Cisco Systems India Pvt. Ltd. 30. Aspire Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd.

7. Barbeque-Nation Hospitality Ltd. 31. Bharat Financial Inclusion Ltd.

8. BMC Software India Pvt. Ltd. 32. Hikal Ltd.

9. Sayaji Hotels Ltd. 33. Salesforce.com

10. Mahindra Insurance Brokers Ltd. 34. Blue Dart Express Ltd.

11. Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. 35. CEAT Ltd.

12. Hilton 36. DHL Logistics Pvt. Ltd.

13. Marks & Spencer Reliance India Pvt. Ltd. 37. PayPal India Pvt. Ltd.

14. Aye Finance Pvt. Ltd. 38. Cushman & Wakefield

15. Marriott Hotels India Pvt. Ltd. 39. GE India Industrial Pvt. Ltd.

16. Adobe Inc. 40. TransUnion Global Technology Center LLP

17. Indus Towers Ltd. 41. HERE Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

18. Novac Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. 42. InMobi Technology Services Pvt. Ltd.

19. Mahindra Rural Housing Finance Ltd. 43. Brigade Enterprises Ltd.

20. Mahindra & Mahindra Automotive & Farm 44. Kronos Inc. Equipment Sectors 45. S.C. Johnson Products Pvt. Ltd. 21. Tech Mahindra 46. DHL Supply Chain India Pvt. Ltd. 22. Atria Convergence Technologies Ltd. 47. NTPC Ltd. 23. Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt. Ltd. 48. Altimetrik India Pvt. Ltd. 24. Max Life Insurance 49. John Deere Technology Centre 76. Marico Ltd.

50. YASH Technologies Pvt. Ltd. 77. ADP Pvt. Ltd.

51. Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd. 78. Hero FinCorp Ltd.

52. Ernst & Young 79. Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd.

53. Walmart India Pvt. Ltd. 80. National Engineering Industries Ltd. (NBC Bearings) 54. Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. 81. GMMCO Ltd. 55. Lite Bite Foods Pvt. Ltd. 82. CESC Ltd. 56. METRO Cash & Carry India Pvt. Ltd. 83. UltraTech Ltd. 57. Forbes Marshall Pvt. Ltd. 84. Ericsson India Global Services 58. PUMA Sports India Pvt. Ltd. 85. RPG Life Sciences Ltd. 59. Cadence Design Systems - India 86. Arohan Financial Services Ltd. 60. [24]7.ai 87. Parksons Packaging Ltd. 61. Apollo Tyres Ltd. 88. Max Hypermarkets India Pvt. Ltd. 62. Whirlpool of India Ltd. 89. Bharti Foundation 63. Tata Communications Ltd. 90. Hygienic Research Institute Pvt. Ltd. 64. HP 91. CtrlS Datacenters Ltd. 65. Pegasystems Worldwide India Pvt. Ltd. 92. Lifestyle International Pvt. Ltd. 66. Fusion Microfinance Pvt. Ltd. 93. Amway India Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. 67. HIL Ltd. 94. Titan Company Ltd. 68. Infiniti Retail Ltd. 95. Varthana (Thirumeni Finance Pvt. Ltd.) 69. Sony Pictures Networks India Pvt. Ltd. 96. Indegene Pvt. Ltd. 70. FedEx Express Transportation and Supply Chain Services (India) Private Limited 97. Aadhar Housing Finance Ltd.

71. Piramal Glass Pvt. Ltd. 98. Akamai Technologies India Pvt. Ltd.

72. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. 99. Srei Equipment Finance Ltd.

73. Happiest Minds Technologies Pvt. Ltd. 100. Raychem RPG

74. Shree Cement Ltd.

75. KLAY Prep Schools and Daycare (Founding Years Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd.) FROM JUST ‘WORKPLACES’ TO ‘GREAT WORKPLACES’ When Robert Levering and co-author, Milton few, looked at areas like Quality, Strategy, Marketing, Moskowitz, published ‘The 100 Best Companies to Re-engineering and finally Management – all with the Work For in America’ in 1984, it revolutionized the ultimate aim of improving the return on investment for concept of workplace culture. the shareholder.

It can be argued that before this book was published, Levering and Moskowitz published their book when the idea that a workplace even needed to be ‘great’ the time was ripe for more equitable relationships was uncommon. Work, for each group, was a means to between owners, management and ordinary an end. For the owners, it was earnings against value employees. After harnessing the power of quality, spent; for the employee, a means to earn to sustain self strategy, marketing, re-engineering and management, and family. what remained was one factor of business which was still not fully tapped – the potential of the employee Generations of great management thinkers like to voluntarily give far more than what an employment Deming, Juran & Crosby, Michael Porter, Philip Kotler, contract can demand. Hammer & Champy and Peter Drucker, to name just a

A great place to work is a place where people trust the people they work for, take pride in what they do, and enjoy the company of people they work with. Great Place to Work® Institute When in 1988 Fortune magazine published their first special issue on the ‘100 Best Companies to Work For Great Learning: Is there a link between a Great in America’, authored by Levering and Moskowitz, it Workplace and its Firm Value? became the largest selling issue of the magazine. It eventually led to a partnership between Great Place to Alex Edmans and his colleague’s research paper Work® and Fortune that survives to this day. on the correlation between Great workplaces and their business outcomes concludes that great Such was the impact of their work, and the workplaces are positively linked to future stock consequent partnership with Fortune, that when we returns. routinely use phrases like “war for talent” or “employer branding” today, it may be apt to remember that it Their main source of data was the list of ‘100 all started largely with the publication of ‘The 100 Best Companies to Work For in America’ which Best Companies to Work For in America’ in 1984 and are determined using two analyses – Trust Fortune’s annual publication by the same name in 1988. Index© Employee Survey and Culture Audit©, which evaluates factors such as a company’s Great Place to Work® Certification – The Gold demographic makeup, pay and benefits Standard in Workplace Culture programmes, and culture.

As the Great Place to Work® certification increased Their paper shows that great workplaces are in popularity (currently spread across 60 countries), positively linked to future stock returns. In addition, businesses needed to be able to see the results of this this paper sheds light on a mechanism through employee experience on their topline and bottom- which being a great workplace improves stock line. It became apparent over the years, largely also returns: it leads to firms announcing earnings that on account of independent research, that the best exceed analysts' expectations. Ultimately, this workplaces recognized by the Institute gave superior paper finds that firms that are best workplaces, business results. as measured by inclusion in the list of the Best Companies to Work For in America, generate superior long-horizon stock returns.

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. 10 All Rights Reserved. The link between culture and business outcomes was This means a great workplace like Cisco Systems or soon established. DHL Express is a great place to work because their management understands their business model and A key reason for this apparent correlation was runs the business well, which in turn enables them found to be the ability of these best workplaces to be more than generous with their employees. to get what many researchers call higher levels of The benefits and employee experiences in great employee engagement. This brought focus to the workplaces, in turn, lead to other benefits for the concept of discretionary effort, the phenomenon organization and its leaders such as reduced rate of where employees go above and beyond the call attrition (the best companies have 20% attrition rate, of duty to achieve success. More than 30 years of on an average, vis-à-vis 24% in the rest) and higher research by Great Place to Work® Institute about the business growth opportunities. world’s best employers has confirmed that creating a great workplace yields real business benefits. Today, the Great Place to Work® Assessment and Independent studies have shown that companies Recognition Program is considered the Gold Standard who appear on the Great Place to Work® lists see in workplace assessment and recognition across the increases in employee commitment which lead to globe. Through more than 10,000 organizations from higher employee productivity, receive more qualified around 60 countries, across more than 21 industries applicants for every open job position, and experience partnering with us for assessment, benchmarking, two to four times lower voluntary turnover than their and identifying actions to strengthen their workplace industry peers. culture, our research continues to reinforce itself.

While convention highlighted perks and benefits at great workplaces, the Great Place to Work® framework has always emphasized the competence of the Management of these organizations and their ability to run the business well. In fact, the employee survey framework, popularly known as the Trust Index©, has statements about the competence of the management. In fact, we find that employees at the best workplaces, compared to the rest, perceive their managers to have a higher level of competence!

84 91 71 83

Management does a good job Management is competent at of developing managers for running the business leadership positions

84 85 74 72

Management hires people who Management does a good fit in well here job of attracting talent for key positions

Best Rest

Source: Best – Top 150 Best Workplaces in India 2020; Rest – All other organizations with more than 100 employees.

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 11 F airNESS - The Foundation of Great Workplaces Professionals and researchers are familiar with the five dimensions of a Great Place to Work – Credibility, Great Learning: Pay Parity Respect, Fairness (together leading to Trust), Pride and Camaraderie. Adobe began their journey three years ago with a clear objective of ensuring pay parity for male and The single biggest reason why most organizations female employees, with all criteria – experience, struggle to become best workplaces is Fairness, an performance, etc. – being equal in both India essential pre-requisite. and the U.S. After conducting gender pay audits globally, Adobe was able to establish a benchmark 75 79 82 to understand the existing pay gap and in 2017, 58 66 69 moved from 96% parity to 99% parity in just three quarters and eventually to 100% in 2018 in India.

61% of the best workplaces did a formal equal pay audit, compared to 42% in the rest (all other organizations with more than 100 employees). I feel I receive a fair People here are Performance of share of the profits paid fairly for the employees here is made by this work they do. fairly evaluated. organization. Fairness has another important element – Impartiality. Favouritism, politicking and backstabbing are 82 77 prevalent in many workplaces, but less so at the best 70 66 companies. When managers treat employees with impartiality, they support the bonds that keep teams and individuals moving forward together. When impartiality prevails in a company’s decision-making, employees have an easier time trusting their peers and going along with the management’s decisions. Everyone has Promotions go to an opportunity those who best to get special deserve them. recognition. Great Learning: Personal Interview at NTPC Best Rest For the personal interview in the hiring process, Source: Best – Top 150 Best Workplaces in India 2020; NTPC Ltd. has appointed The Interview Board Rest – All other organizations with more than 100 employees. – a 6 to 7-member team comprising of External and Internal Members. The Chairman of the Fairness demands . Equity in the workplace Equity Interview Board is an external person of repute to means paying employees fairly and considering ensure transparency and mitigate the chances of everyone as a full member of the organization. A spirit organizational bias, if any. There is also a subject of equity is conveyed through balanced treatment for matter expert – an external person from academia all people in the distribution of intangible and tangible or industry – to assess the technical knowledge rewards. of the candidate. The internal members consist of functional experts and HR representatives Earlier hierarchy differentiators such as reserved who have worked across locations of NTPC, are parking slots, executive canteens, top management well acquainted with and demonstrate the core holiday homes, separate washrooms for different values. The Board also includes representatives levels in the hierarchy are fast disappearing and for reserved categories, minorities and women to performance and meritocracy is replacing these. ensure equal opportunity for all and to minimize perception bias.

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. 12 All Rights Reserved. Meritocracy is the hallmark of a fair employer. Transparent processes with respect to performance appraisal, compensation and promotions mark these organizations. However, if politics, backstabbing and favouritism are reduced, there could still be implicit biases in organizations. Therefore, Justice, the third element of fairness, is so important. Justice is established through a lack of discrimination based on people’s personal characteristics and the presence and utilization of a fair process for appeals.

90% agree that 83% employees 71% employees people in the agreed that if agree that organization are they are unfairly managers in their treated fairly treated in their organization avoid regardless of their organization, they playing favourites age, sex, race or will be given a fair religion hearing if they appeal

As per India’s Best Companies to Work Every interaction is an For 2020 study (Top 100)

Even if there is ever some need for redressal, great opportunity to build trust workplaces have mechanisms that give employees Robert Levering, Co-founder, confidence that they will get a fair hearing and that Great Place to Work® Institute justice will be delivered.

Great Learning: Employee Call Centre

An effective way of handling grievances across a large, dispersed and diversified workforce, employees at Mahindra Rural Housing Finance Limited are sure to have their voices heard. With access to an on-the-go toll-free, multilingual employee call-centre, employees can call and register their grievances. Call centre employees are trained to resolve solvable queries on the spot. If required, the agent tags the complaint to the respective HR team. The request is closed after checking with the concerned employee. The queries and challenges are reviewed at regular intervals to understand the root cause and identify possible process improvements.

Over 869 21 21L Organizations Industries Employees

Years of Operations Age Gender

60% 100% 100%

50% 78% 80% 80% 69% 38% 40% 36% 60% 60% 30% 26% 40% 31% 40% 20% 22% 20% 20% 10%

0% 0% 0% Male Gen X Female Millennials Upto 10 years 21 years and above 11 years to 20 years

Tenure Employee Perception

60% 100% 91% 86% 48% 82% 50% 80% 77%

40% 60% 30% 24% 40% 20% 15% 20% 10% 6% 7%

0% 0% Overall Top 100

Upto 2 years Overriding Sentiment Trust Index© Grand Mean 2 years to 5 years 5 years to 10 years More than 15 years 10 years to 15 years

Source: India’s Best Companies to Work For 2020 study

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. 14 All Rights Reserved. If the indicator of a great workplace culture is an employee’s belief that “Taking everything into account, I would say this is a great place to work”, leaders in the best workplaces seem to be doing three things remarkably well.* • They build Credibility for their Leadership team Teh 3Cs that • They communicate they Care create Great • They are able to create opportunities for Career growth Workplaces Our research on India’s Best Companies to Work For We followed a simple, yet robust process to identify 2020 reveals the 3C Framework. the top drivers that lead to the employee perception of a great place to work.

85 88 74 78

There are opportunities here There is a "family" or "team" for my career growth. feeling here.

82 83 69 71

Performance of employees Management shows a sincere here is fairly evaluated. interest in me as a person, not just an employee.

85 89 72 80 With a very high focus on quality, we are transcending our attention from Quality of Work-Life Balance to

Management does a good I am treated as a full member Quality of Life. We are taking many job of attracting talent for key here regardless of my position. positions. initiatives to improve the overall quality of life of the employees. 86 75 Anant Goenka, MD, CEAT Best Rest

* These factors were identified using mediation regression analysis/ path analysis. We identified a causal chain where three mediating Source: Best – Top 150 Best factors (namely credibility, care and career growth) strongly influence an This is a psychologically and Workplaces in India 2020; employee’s overall perception about a great place to work. There are other emotionally healthy place to Rest – All other organizations with factors, as mentioned later, that influence the employee’s perception of work. more than 100 employees. these three factors.

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 15 C reDIBILITy of Great Learning: The Godrej Way Management: Their Actions Match Their Every employee of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd Words has a diary-cum-book that defines the way they do their business and their core values. Here is an extract: Credibility of Management is impacted by the following factors: “There are many ways to do business. We chose the Goodness way. In over a century, the one thing 84 92 we have never let go of, is Trust and being a good 71 82 company…

We hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards of personal and business integrity. Our word is stronger than any contract. We put people and our planet alongside profits.” Management's actions match Management is honest its words. and ethical in its business Godrej is one of the 12 Great Place to Work® practices. laureates (companies who have been in Top 100 for 10 years or more). A great example of a High-Trust, 83 86 High-Performance™ culture led by a management 70 74 team with uncompromising honesty and ethics.

Management keeps promises

Management delivers on its Management does a good job There is unlikely to be a CEO who does not want to promises. of assigning and coordinating create a great place to work – one where high trust people. results in sustained high performance.

86 83 75 72 It is interesting, therefore, that one statement in the employee experience survey conducted by Great Place to Work® that has consistently been identified as a key driver of perceptions of Credibility of Management and overall employee perception of a great workplace is, “Management delivers on their promises.” Management genuinely seeks I can ask management any and responds to suggestions reasonable question and get a and ideas. straight answer. Every time a leader keeps a promise, implied or articulated, he or she is building trust. Best Rest

Source: Best – Top 150 Best Workplaces in India 2020; Management is good at assigning and Rest – All other organizations with more than 100 employees. coordinating resources

Management is honest and ethical A large majority of employees have less than five years of experience in the work world. The management A strong sense of integrity built upon a solid style that they understand is that of a college where foundation of reliability, ethics and honesty is found there is a curriculum, a teacher to guide them, and at the best workplaces. When leadership delivers an examination where questions are set from the what they promise and acts ethically, both within curriculum. It takes two to five years for employees and outside the company, employees develop a to understand that in real life, the curriculum is one’s heightened sense of trust in the integrity of the past experience whereas the examination may not company. necessarily refer to the curriculum, for example, in

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. 16 All Rights Reserved. the current context of COVID-19. This is also the time Management is approachable – Asking any period when employees are the unhappiest. reasonable question and getting a straight In great organizations, management is not only able to answer ensure that employees perceive accurate coordination of resources, but they are also able to do this in the Most good workplaces have great communication context of younger employees. Being a critical aspect practices. However, there is a difference between top- of knowing how to get to the organizational vision and down communication and giving honest answers to mission, this is one tough area of employee perception uncomfortable questions. Marico has a practice called that the Best organizations have been championing. Face Time with the CEO. This is an initiative started in 86% employees of the Best workplaces express the 2015 by the MD & CEO with the objective of building belief that the management is good at assigning and a platform to directly interact with members at coordinating resources as compared to 74% in the rest Marico periodically. Managers and Partners across all (all other organizations with more than 100 employees). locations in India and internationally connect virtually for a webcast which is followed by a question and answer session. Participants submit their questions Management responds to suggestions and during the webcast, and these are responded to by the ideas MD & CEO live immediately after the webcast.

Collaboration between employees and management Credibility of Management, like Fairness, is a pre- requires management to reach out and genuinely seek requisite in creating a great place to work. The and respond to employees' suggestions and ideas. challenge of establishing Credibility is not in just Whether called upon to help reshape the benefits doing the above - it is in consistently doing the above. plan, name a newsletter or simply choose a spot for the office holiday party, employees who get to take The Best workplaces have institutionalized practices part in their company's decisions develop feelings of to ensure consistency in the above areas. That is one ownership, pride and enthusiasm for the organization's reason why Godrej Consumer Products Ltd or NTPC long-term goals. is on our list of Best Workplaces for more than 10 years, even though they have seen multiple changes in CEOs. Great Learning: Intuit’s Horizon Innovation Programme Cringa : Intuit India encourages new product and service Creating & Sustaining A ideas from every employee in the organization. If Psychologically & Emotionally an idea is selected by their Ecosystem Portfolio Healthy Place To Work team, the team that proposed the idea could get all the necessary resources to make their concept the next Intuit India offering (ex: funding, full-time roles Employee Wellness is increasingly becoming the and even advisors). number one challenge for great workplaces. The rate of change (witness the COVID-19 pandemic The practice was launched with the purpose of and related recession) in the outside world could discovering new ideas from employees across the be too fast for the individual employees to adapt to. organization and creating new businesses. The result is a very high level of psychological and emotional stress. NTPC realised this quite some time Employees/teams can share their business ideas ago. Snehal, the Employee Wellness Program, includes through a three-minute video of a prototype, a confidential counselling service which equips along with answering a few questions about the employees to meet life’s challenges in a more mature business case and customer evidence. Through and balanced manner. Professional counsellors assist this practice, the Ecosystem Portfolio Team aims to the employees in developing the necessary coping fund up to three teams per year. skills that ensure that they maintain emotional balance in their lives. This helps in taking important decisions, tackling problems and exploring new avenues for change and growth.

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 17 83 83 The third driver is the infrastructure and benefits and 71 71 practices of the organization. For example, at Indus Towers Limited a monthly wellness calendar is kept at every employee’s desk. This calendar includes small activities that are identified for each day of the month. The idea is that this would help complete the following cycle for each employee: Emotions, Hydration, Fitness, Management shows a sincere People are encouraged to Self-Care, Food and Goals. interest in me as a person, not balance their work life and their just an employee. personal life. Inclusion 93 87 86 78 Godrej is a case study in moving the Inclusion agenda beyond India and beyond gender. The relentless efforts of Godrej Consumer Products Ltd to make the workplace inclusive for women, SC/ST, differently abled and LGBTI communities through availability of medical benefits, gender neutral washrooms This is a friendly place to work. I can be myself around here. etc. exemplify how great workplaces care for their members. Best Rest

Source: Best – Top 150 Best Workplaces in India 2020; Godrej is among a handful of companies partnering Rest – All other organizations with more than 100 employees. a UN initiative to tackle discrimination against LGBTI employees. Management shows sincere interest in me as a person Friendly Place to Work

Leaders at the best companies demonstrate caring Camaraderie is one of the five core elements of a by providing a safe and healthy working environment great workplace. Friendly companies make people and by showing an interest in people's personal lives. feel welcome either by celebrating birthdays or work Often, this includes providing support for employees milestones, providing free snacks and drinks, or by to balance the demands of work and home life. organizing lunch gatherings to help new employees settle in. Hospitable companies encourage people Under the banner of the WeCare Program, DHL to be themselves, show their sense of humour and Express (India) Pvt Ltd emphasizes the need for make themselves at home. They make people ensuring that employees are Physically, Mentally, feel comfortable faster, allowing them to fulfill the Socially and Spiritually Healthy. The pillars of Good expectations of their roles and succeed at their jobs Health are Awareness, Preventive Measures, Aid sooner. They make the extra effort to ensure that new During Situations & Curative Measures. These pillars employees are integrated into the mainstream as are formally known as Refresh, Rejuvenate, Restore smoothly and as effortlessly as possible. and Recharge. Intuit India, like many other great workplaces have Work- Life Balance a Little Intuit Day where employees bring their little ones. However, it's not just the kids that their There are three major drivers of work- life balance. employees get to bring on Little Intuit Day – some even bring their parents! First, having a predictable business model and effective work processes. As one of their employee testimonials say, “I was a summer intern in May 2017. Intuit organized The second driver is a manager who demonstrates ‘Little Intuit Day’. I asked my mom to join me. It was sincere interest and care for the employee as a person. a proud moment for me as she paid a visit to my first A test of such a manager is one who knows the workplace. She loved it. She felt that her daughter is interests and gifts of an average performer in the team, very comfortable, safe and in the hands of friendly not just of the best performers.

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. 18 All Rights Reserved. experienced people. The pride in her eyes that I am an employee of Intuit sparks every time she talks about it.” OPPORTUNITIES Organizations which are psychologically and FOR CAREER emotionally healthy places to work have a family or team feeling. Their employees feel, “We are all in this GROWTH together.” And when employees feel like that, they are almost five times more likely to say that they are Opportunities for career growth has consistently working at a great workplace! featured as one of the top five drivers of the overall perception of working at a great place to work.

Unlike Caring, Career opportunities are tangible, and the results are visible. FedEx has a strong 'promotion from within' philosophy, requiring that all permanent 4.1X 4.7X positions be posted internally to existing employees I am treated as a full member Management is honest before external hiring may begin. here regardless of my position. and ethical in its business practices. 85 82 FAIRNESS CREDIBILITY 74 69

There are opportunities here Performance of employees 3.8X 4X for my career growth. here is fairly evaluated. Management is competent at There is a "family" or "team" running the business. feeling here. 88 76 CREDIBILITY CARING

Best Rest

Source: Best – Top 150 Best People here understand how Workplaces in India 2020; their role contributes to the Rest – All other organizations with 4.8X 3.9X organization's goals. more than 100 employees. We're all in this together. This is a friendly place to work. Fair Performance Appraisal CARING CARING A great performance appraisal process rarely creates a great place to work. However, the absence of a robust process impacts employees’ perception of fair opportunities for career growth. This is one area where the Best workplaces are 13 points higher in positive employee perceptions as compared to the rest. 4.1X 3.8X People here understand how There are opportunities here At Aye Finance, the formal annual appraisal process their role contributes to the for my career growth. organization's goals. is accompanied by a proprietary phone and web app for receiving and giving work-related feedback with CAREER GROWTH CAREER GROWTH a 360-degree view. Each employee can ask or give feedback anytime using the ‘Unnati’ app which is

The details mentioned above are elements of experience at the workplace, automatically linked to tasks or projects that affect which if positive, multiply the perception of working at a great place to work. her/his job KRAs. This helps provide the employee

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 19 with year-round assessment and create fairer annual assessments. Our strong culture of Role Alignment inspired innovation Purpose and Mastery are widely acknowledged continues strong in Kronos to be two important drivers of engagement, ever India. Though nearly all since Daniel Pink popularised his motivation theory. Fundamental to Role Alignment is knowing how the aspects of life have been role contributes to the overall mission and goals of impacted by the global the organization. Managers of the Best workplaces pandemic, many aspects know that the starting point is not the performance appraisal. It is Purpose. remain true at Kronos, including caring for each Once employees know the purpose, they will be interested in mastery which should reflect in the other, our customers, and performance appraisal. The reward is career growth. our communities.

The 3C Framework – Credibility, Care and Career Ashok Saxena, MD and VP, Opportunities – is the distinguishing formula for the Engineering | Kronos India 100 Best Companies to Work For in India 2020.

THEN COVID-19 HIT.

Sayaji Hotels Ltd.

Steps taken during this pandemic include - running of the team cafeteria during the lockdown for stranded inshorts team members, - Leadership team foregoing salary indefinitely to ensure timely payment of salary to all others, - e-meetings/training for all employees, prepping them for #CultureInShorts is a series of short necessary health and safety protocols, articles read by thousands of leaders every - video and conference calls with the team members asking about their wellbeing and extending assistance. day to help them stay updated about some of the most important insights and best people practices, instrumental to building Lite Bite Foods Pvt. Ltd. a High-Trust, High-Performance Culture™ Lite Bite Foods Pvt. Ltd. considers safety of their customers and staff as their highest priority. They have requested majority of their staff Hardcastle Restaurants to Work From Home. At entry points, the frontline staff undergo daily Pvt. Ltd. temperature check, sanitize their hands and also show their status on the Arogya Setu App. To create more awareness among the staff, they The organization is providing employees with have conducted trainings through video calls and also have many new the best quality protective gears like masks, programs planned out. gloves, and sanitizers along with following all safety and hygiene protocols. In these unprecedented times, and especially during the lockdown, they have created a unique ‘Work From Home’ policy for their restaurant teams and frontline crew to make sure that they continue to learn and grow via various training modules. Employees can access these on their phones. Through this, they hope to keep their people engaged, connected and motivated, so they are able to come back to work better and stronger. Download Culture In-Shorts App

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. 20 All Rights Reserved. A FOCUS ON THE TOP 100 – THE BEST COMPANIES TO WORK FOR IN INDIA IN 2020 While the 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2020 have mastered the 3C Framework, our research delved deeper into understanding what makes these organizations even more unique.

Celebrating the differentiated experience that the 100 Best organizations have been able to create this year as compared to the Rest!

76 60 80 65 84 71 77 65

I feel I receive a fair share We have special and unique This is a fun place to work. Management involves people of the profits made by this benefits here. in decisions that affect their organization. jobs or work environment.

71 59 75 63 78 66 82 70

Managers avoid playing People avoid politicking and People here are paid fairly for When people change jobs or favourites. backstabbing as ways to get the work they do. work units, they are made to things done. feel right at home.

81 70 82 71 83 72 83 72

Performance of employees Management delivers on its Management's actions match People are encouraged to here is fairly evaluated. promises. its words. balance their work life and their personal life.

82 71

Management shows a sincere interest in me as a person, not just an employee.

Best Rest

Source: Best – 100 Best Companies in India 2020; Rest – All other organizations with more than 500 employees.

This section of the report contains the author's personal views. All ideas are inspired by actual examples from some of India’s best workplaces. You can read about these examples at https://www.greatplacetowork.in/cis/ You can contact Prasenjit at [email protected]

Dealing How? with the Apart from pulling back all discretionary expenses like hotel renovation, the top 1000 managers have taken Crisis salary cuts to the tune of 65 per cent. (Remember, We, at Great Place to Work®, interact with some salary costs are a significant part of costs for a hotel.) brilliant leaders. All of them have business continuity plans or contingency plans. For many This is not the first time that they are doing it. When multinationals, these plans are tested every quarter they took salary cuts in 2008, they got back the cut in some geography or another, be it in the form of money with 12 per cent interest when the business economic upheaval, natural calamities or political rebounded! turmoil. Work From Home Transition None of them were even remotely prepared for this crisis. While most organizations were waiting to see if the immediate disruptions in the first phase of the The first case was tracked in China on 17th lockdown were just a temporary phase, Dr Sumit Mitra, November 2019. By 1st December, this information CEO of Tesco Global Services, had no such doubts. He was known to others. Not since the Spanish Flu of ordered 1000 laptops for people working from home, 1918 had the world seen a pandemic like this. transported office equipment (including furniture) to homes of employees, took permission from the India declared COVID-19 a notified disaster only on Government to operate an international business from March 14th and the lockdown was announced on home and quarantined his data service centres. “Most March 24th. people were waiting for the peak to flatten out, I was preparing for the peak. Now we are ready for the long True to style, many leaders of Corporate India had haul.” figured out the implications about a month ahead, i.e. around the end of February. In fact, Times The result? Headquarters of Tesco, recognizing the Network had already started “work from home” proactive steps taken by Sumit and his team, relied drills, well before the lockdown (and no, according on them to cater to the gaps in delivery. (At one time, to them they did not have any inside information!). over 50,000 employees of Tesco in the UK were quarantined or under medical leave.) Tesco Global What did these leaders do in March? Services business in India saw a 50 per cent jump.

Work From Home was not a part of the disaster Many things. Some of the common strategies were: recovery plan for most businesses. It required management principles to be clearly articulated. Scenario Planning Tesco in India is again a case study. Some of their guiding principles included: Meticulously prepared budgets for the new financial year were kept aside. They prepared a COVID budget. Stop random forwards on WhatsApp employee “How do you reduce fixed cost, and how do you groups. Reduce information to one or two credible protect people?” These were the two questions that sources like WHO. (Sumit borrowed many ideas from Patu Keswani of Lemon Tree hotels started with. His Sun Tzu, the writer of the Chinese treatise, The Art of team came with three scenarios – different levels of War. “It is fitting that I borrow ideas from the Chinese demand destruction, leading to different levels of cost to fight the virus that originated there,” he said, half in reduction. At the beginning of March, even they had jest.) not anticipated a fourth scenario – the entire country going through a lockdown. Focus even more on the core purpose. More than ever, people need to feel that their work has The result? As I write this article, while Lemon Tree’s meaning, it is not just a job. Sumit could mobilise his revenue went down by 80 per cent, their costs were people with one goal - “We have to feed the nations reduced by 70 per cent. Did Patu succeed in his aim of we serve.” protecting people? At the time of writing this article, no-layoff had been announced and the salaries of

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 23 Be clear on the guiding principles. MK Anand, the CEO of Times Network, makes no For example, secret of the fact that every year there is a set of forced attrition cases basis performance (the famous or • Protect the weakest (leading to actions like senior notorious forced ranking). There are no layoffs planned management taking pay cuts before others) at Times Network. That is because they did not wait Safety of colleagues for COVID-19 to create an efficient organization. “Any • CEO who was waiting for the Coronavirus to strike to • Customer focus - hold on to your customers. Take reduce people was not doing a competent job,” is the care of existing customers before focussing on new rather overarching comment he makes. customers. Unlike Times Network, for most organizations, a 20 Daily conversation – feedback is real-time • to 25 per cent reduction in staff cost seems feasible • Focus on brilliant basics and not discretionary items now, even at last year’s volumes. In other words, post-COVID, staff cost will be reduced for most Guiding principles come to one’s aid when the organizations. situation is uncertain and unpredictable. For example, one company had a guiding principle called “One Is it worth it? Family”. When the CEO was asked when people would be able to start air travel or travel using public That would depend on your industry. If it is IT Services transport, his answer was, “When we are comfortable or Staffing Companies, staff cost is the single biggest with an adult member of our family doing the same.” cost in the books. You will hear more about IT Services because they offer jobs on their rolls, while staffing Communicate - use this transition as an opportunity companies have multiple models of employment. to inspire your people Leaders have understood the need for daily If you are a large oil and energy company like IOCL, conversations. As I write this, over 500 branches of NTPC or RIL, staff cost is in low single digits. You have Mahindra Finance have opened and many are yet to other costs to worry about. open. Every day, people get to know about inspiring stories from these branches. Kotak Mahindra Bank But is there a good way to rationalize employee cost? has all its branches operating with reduced staff. The Here are some pointers from the best employers: fact that one employee took the initiative to drop First protect your customer base emergency medicines to the home of a senior citizen • who is a customer, might have been missed under • Question the business model - real cost savings normal circumstances. Not right now. Such stories go lies in looking at changing the assumptions of the all the way up to the CEO & MD. business model. For example - we need to meet the customer to sell. A war is not the time for Committees. Instead, you need a Command structure, clear strategy, simple • Make an emergency plan for liquidity conservation and consistent communication, feedback from the • Reduce establishment cost by taking advantage of frontline and fast decisions that cut through the remote working hierarchy. • Zero-based budgeting - minimum viable cost Manpower / Cost Rationalization of replacement as a benchmark for salary cost (not compensation surveys). Most good-to-have costs will The inevitable consequence of demand and supply be variable, only the must-have costs will be fixed. destruction is cost reduction. Lemon Tree hotels • Try to ensure minimum impact on the most always had better ratios compared to most other five- vulnerable star hotels. They expect that their operating leverage will increase by 10 per cent and staffing per hotel will • Humane graded layoffs – try to save the majority reduce by 20 per cent after this crisis. Unlike many Re-assess every business line – segregate between other hospitality chains, Lemon Tree is not laying off • short-term cost benefits and long-term implications. people yet. It is planning to expand! “We have always been a bit paranoid since we do not have a sponsor Despite best efforts, layoffs might be necessary. Great like many other Groups. We will be the last man Place to Work® has identified the following as good standing in any crisis!” practices:

• Support managers in having these conversations - Contrary to popular opinion, low work-life balance do not outsource it to Human Resources who may not does not necessarily lead to stress. A significant spurt know the context of individual employees in activity which does not result in tangible outcomes • Communicate transparently to the whole leads to stress. This seems to be more pronounced for organization working women who are managing home and office without regular domestic staff. Family fault lines are • Offer support to colleagues being laid off getting accentuated and personal relationships are being tested. • Engage employees who stay on your rolls • Follow up with those who have been laid off and The number of reported cases of anxiety and offer support, if possible, to those who need it depression and domestic violence has increased. As we know, reported cases are just the tip of the iceberg. During the last recession, organizations like Google and Intel, along with many other best workplaces, laid Inadequate Infrastructure at Home people off. What distinguished them was how they did it. There are reports of employees sitting on the floor, staring at a computer screen for long hours without a break, not having reliable internet access and not having the privacy required to do sensitive work. Most Employee organizations are yet to address the fundamental challenge - that homes have not been designed to be Issues offices. While there have been some benefits for employees, namely reduction/ elimination of Takeaways for Management travel time, opportunity to spend quality time with family members and a plethora of online Leadership across organizations have had to address learning opportunities with no or low commercial the following issues: investment, employees in our surveys have • That the unit of engagement is not just the reported several challenges. employee, but also their immediate family and context Key issues impacting many employees are as follows: • Supporting home infrastructure Not losing your customer focus Ambiguity and Fear • • Increasing focus on employee wellness, including Employees of the best workplaces are used to leaders counselling who know where the business is going and how to get there. They are struggling with a situation where • Monitoring productivity, collaboration and speed the leaders know where to go, but not necessarily the • Assessing enhanced risks arising out of Work From details of how to get there. Home

In such situations, the best employers are • Ensuring continuous feedback compensating by making their communication more frequent. Line managers are now in touch with all Please refer to the Annexure for some of the significant their team members daily and helping them define changes impacting employees post-COVID-19. priorities on a weekly basis. One of the biggest realizations that leaders now have Fear is also being produced by financial insecurity is that the key role in ensuring that all employees among employees. The best workplaces are trying to are connected with the organization lies with the reduce this by instituting transparent communication. line manager. Remote working means that the line manager has become the key driver to connect, inspire and develop employees.

Leaders at the best workplaces have been quick COVID-19 is the world’s most effective leadership to spot opportunities for business transformation. development program. Real leaders are emerging The digital account of Kotak Bank – 811 in the first in all organizations. Hierarchy has broken down. For 10 days of May saw around 14000 accounts being example, each hotel manager at Lemon Tree is now opened per day! a mini-CEO. By now, most CEOs know who their real leaders are. While everyone is selling products and services digitally, some have used this as an opportunity to Is the CEO a real leader? fundamentally change their business model. A well- known bank is radically reimagining its customer No corporate leader has faced a global pandemic of acquisition and customer care process using this magnitude in their lifetime. However, most have technology and digital nudges to enable all sales and faced multiple crisis situations. upselling. Some of the principles articulated by leaders of great Demand and supply destruction for some industries is workplaces are: an opportunity for supply acquisition for some others. Expect such consolidation to happen in hospitality, Define your priorities airlines, retail and even in manufacturing. Many For example, Customer Service versus Employee promising start-ups will be available for acquisition. Safety

One of the biggest changes witnessed by most ACT, the Bangalore headquartered company, defined organizations is the merging of multiple generations their order of priority as follows: like millennials, GenZ, GenY, GenX and others into one – the Post-COVID Generation! • Employee’s health and safety

The Post-COVID Generation is agile, digitally adept, • Uninterrupted service to customers comfortable with remote working and productive. • Attending to new customers They understand that the only way to increase compensation is to continuously increase their skills Leaders must role model so that their market value is slightly ahead of their ACT CEO, Bala Malladi, and his senior managers went compensation. out in the market to be with their field employees who were servicing customers since internet connectivity The good news is that employees are more eager than is an essential service. ever before to explore new ways of working. Years of mindset change and change management work has Establish direct and continuous channels of been done in a month by COVID-19. communication with employees – keep the focus on the Purpose Are you a leader who is willing to take this once-in-a- Tesco India has a daily communication process with lifetime opportunity to transform your business? Or are all employees and is able to calculate its Employee Net you only content with cost-cutting and running your Promoter Score (eNPS) on a daily basis. The messages business as usual? of the leadership reach all employees daily.

Focus on employee health, safety and wellness The immediate response of many leaders is to focus largely on revenue and cost. While that is a priority for the management team, it is a mistake to make that the priority for your internal communication. Focus on employee health, safety and wellness, before you talk about revenue and productivity.

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. 26 All Rights Reserved. Ensure you have a process to measure productivity and implementation of strategic plans Many organizations are falling into the activity trap. Managers who were comfortable taking and giving Key targets are now falling back on showing activities, as opposed to outcomes. Leaders must hold their Conclusions key managers accountable for both activities and outcomes. for India There are broadly two strategies being adopted Take a back seat! by countries trying to contain COVID-19 – Social After the first few weeks of leading from the front, Isolation or Massive Testing or a combination of many CEOs have figured out that this is an opportunity the two. Unfortunately, both have had only limited to develop the second line. Career and succession success in India. Our peak kept being pushed plans are being dusted and potential CEO successors back month after month, as cases kept increasing. being identified. If you are a leader at any level within The last I know, a TV channel which was proudly the organization, here is your opportunity to prove your advertising its superior analytics and claiming leadership mettle. that June 20th would be the date of the peak, has stopped updating its projection. My conclusions Do not lose sight of the future are not based on this nor is it based on many other The impact of every crisis is overestimated while you “scientific” studies. It is based on discussions with are in the midst of it. It is important to remember that around 250 organizations that we contacted. It will most things in the world did not change fundamentally be a big relief if I am proved wrong about some of after the Spanish Flu, or even the Black Death when them: we did not have the scientific knowledge that we have now. Pray for good rainfall and uptake in the rural Every decision is an opportunity to build trust – keep economy the organization’s core values at the centre of your decisions We had a bumper year in Rabi crops. Even though What you do now will impact your future relationships supply chains are disrupted, rural India has food. with all key stakeholders – customers, suppliers, and Monsoon is predicted to be normal. This augurs well employees. If your customer is not able to pay the EMI for the rural economy. The government must increase for his car loan, there is little to be gained by seizing its capital expenditure and invest in infrastructure his asset. Try and help him. Most customers are which will help create many rural jobs. honest. He will pay back in time. What is more, he will remember you for good reasons. Any social and economic distress in rural India has severe implications for the middle class in urban India, When your employee is taking a salary but not pulling not just the political class. his weight, find out what is happening with him or his family. Is he dealing with anxiety of some kind? Your employee might be finding it difficult to pay his EDI Key challenges in Education and Health will (yes, employees pay Estimated Daily Instalment every not be addressed day for the salary they receive once a month). The current crisis has exposed our public health Some may find it easy to squeeze a supplier or an infrastructure. Atma Nirbhar, like its previous avatar employee during a crisis; do so knowing that you are ‘Make in India’, will require radical reform in skills withdrawing from the trust account between you and training. the stakeholder, also known as Goodwill. Not happening. The current bureaucracy can give daily dictats on ever-changing instructions to 1.3 billion Indians but cannot transform education and health. This forces the political class to regularly manufacture various distractions.

Once the current crisis is reduced, the rich will go back to their exclusive private healthcare and foreign education. The middle class will have to pay far more for their medical insurance. Corporates will benefit

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 27 and masses will remain focussed on emotional protects more than 95 per cent of the people (which distractions. means fatalities will be 1 per cent of the remaining 5 per cent). India is not going to replace China as a manufacturing powerhouse Unless there is another virus! (This could be a political/ communal virus too.) Those talking about this are deluded and haven’t spoken in private to reputed manufacturers. The top reasons for India not being able to replace, or even come close to, China in manufacturing are: The New • Arbitrary or frequent policy changes Normal Infrastructure, including the availability of skilled • It is now a truism that we must live with the manpower Coronavirus. A lot of what seems to be significant • Robust and healthy supply chain of MSMEs changes will look less significant in the future. Here are some aspects that are going to be different in • Fair and simplified labour laws (as opposed to the future: arbitrary scrapping of labour laws en masse)

Developed economies are aware of macro-economic The ‘Physical versus Digital’ battle is over. Digital has and political risks. Investments of millions of dollars won. While the future is likely to be hybrid, digital will in manufacturing will not come without political and be the dominant medium. economic stability. Indian entrepreneurs are donating, but not investing. Unlike in the past, a globally Some new behaviours will stay. Wearing of masks dispersed supply chain will not be viewed as a sign of may stop in time, personal hygiene like hand washing sophistication. will not. Social distancing in public places will stay longer. As a result, routine infectious diseases like the India can be the global back office for the common flu might reduce. world Large cities will reduce in importance as centres Unlike manufacturing, where supply chain risks are of employment because remote working makes it tangible and real, this crisis has shown that India can possible for most employees to work from anywhere - come to the rescue where using technology to run preferably their hometowns. operations around the world is concerned. Our IT and IT services industry will rebound and thrive. India Customers will not demand physical contact for will be the global office. What is more, the bulk of the many products. Digital sales will take off. A new breed employees in this industry will no longer be in the large of sales and marketing professionals will emerge for metros. Bharat will be the back office for India, even as whom technology and customer analytics will be a key India becomes the back office for the world. tool.

Informalization of work and long-term Mindset change and differences in various prospects generations will be less of an issue in change management. The Post-COVID generation will be The 7 per cent of the workforce in the formal sector more open to change. They will move from passive (excluding the government sector or PSEs) will to active in building their marketable skills and not be shrink even more. However, the enterprise of Indian dependent on the employer. people will lead to a rebound next year. This will be led by a slew of young and new entrepreneurs who A very large percentage of employees who were used will extensively use digital platform models to bring to being told what to do will experience increased together millions of workers in the unorganised sector. levels of stress, anxiety and disengagement. This will be compounded by a lack of or dysfunctional The first upswing will come in six months when we personal relationships. Our surveys show financial announce a cure that will bring down the fatalities concerns, anxiety and work-life balance as the top to less than 1 per cent. The final upswing will be in 12 three concerns that employees are expressing just months when there will be a vaccine that, by definition, now. Organizations, on the other hand, will have

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. 28 All Rights Reserved. more intrusive and ubiquitous ways of measuring productivity. To ensure employee health and productivity, organizations will increase their focus on employee wellness manifold.

Organizations are not ready for all the risks associated with remote working. While technology is also mitigating such risks, it cannot eliminate human related risks. With family members overhearing and being privy to matters which would have otherwise been confined to offices, we could probably be prepared for a few major blow-ups.

Imagine you are addressing the students of all the Ivy League management colleges one year from now. They are listening with rapt attention as you talk about your journey during and post the COVID-19 pandemic.

What will you say?

The way we seamlessly transitioned to a remote work model in this crisis has set an example in the industry. Zero disruption in services while ensuring employee safety has fortified the bond we have with our customers. Their trust in us as partners in the pursuit of digitalization and transformation of business and operations has doubled. Raj Vattikuti, CEO and Founder, Altimetrik

Work & Life Mostly Demographic Classification Fixed Workforce Operating Mental & Psychological Set Pace of Work & Analogous of Workforce Out of Fixed Locations/ Wellbeing of Employees Business Cycles & • Conducting work and • Generational Workplaces Through Real-Time, In- Conventional Measures life mostly in person classification • Place of work was fixed Person Social Interactions for Cost Efficiency & • Physical workplace • Gender-based • Comprised mostly of at the Physical Workplace Productivity • Work From Home was classification permanent employees • Humans biologically • Effort/input as well as mostly an exception • Customized People on the rolls of the wired for social impact – both visible rather than a norm Practices tailored to company interaction as a • Cyclical/episodic • The talent market for cater to these different • Employment terms were means of mental and feedback from organizations was employee cohorts and fixed psychological wellness Employees and limited by geographical constituencies • People Practices and the quality of the Customers

In the Past and physical constraints related to the physical human experience at the • Business as usual • Accommodation workplaces were workplace ensured that meant most businesses concerns of employees therefore crucial to an extent operated with 15% to in the place of • Clear demarcation 33% inflated cost employment possible between work- life and personal life (what happened at home was personal)

Adn then COVID-19 HAPPENED

Work & Life Mostly Digital Demographic Classification Dispersed Workforce Mental & Psychological Need for Agility & • Conducting work and life of Workforce Rendered Operating Virtually Wellbeing of Employees Adaptability, Uncertain & through screens Irrelevant • Virtual workforce, remote Becomes a Key Employee Shorter Business Cycles • Mostly virtual workplaces • Due to accelerated digital working, not just WFH Benefit, a Necessary Part Leading to Unconventional • Work From Home migration, demographic (remote working could be of the Employee Value Measures for Cost Efficiency, becomes a legitimate classification based from any city) Proposition (EVP) Productivity employee expectation for on generation has lost • Gradually lesser fixed staff • Social distancing, need • Only impact visible with many roles relevance. It is now one and more temporary staff for temperature checks very limited control on etc. changes the purpose • The talent market is homogenous group – the • Short-term engagement / effort/input. Only remote of the office from physical now much larger for Post-COVID generation project-to-project contract monitoring (gig economy is slated to workplace to a place for • Continuous and real-time organizations and • Gender classification has occasional social interaction somewhat boundaryless. blurred significantly blossom) leading to less employee and customer control over workforce and community space feedback So Now Talent can be hired from • People Practices need • The demarcation between • People Managers who • Zero-based budgeting, anywhere regardless of to now be tailored to suit work-life and personal life manage small or large for example: minimum geography this homogenous, virtual are blurred. Hence, looking teams will become crucial • No accommodation workforce out for the mental and viable cost of and people management concerns of employees psychological wellbeing replacement as opposed skills will become premium. of employees will be the to compensation survey- People Managers pull far onus of the organization/ based salary fixation more weight in a Post- employer. (What happens at COVID world than HR home has a direct impact). practices

Participation by Invite Only

We want to partner For more than 3 decades, Great Place to Work® has partnered with organizations and business leaders across 60 countries you in writing this story, to build a work culture that is ‘Better for People, Better for as it happens. Business and Better for the World’. A work culture that stands the test of time and ensures long term sustenance and Business Continuity. Starting India’s Best Leaders in Times of Crisis is our initiative to identify Organizations and their Leaders, who have demonstrated exceptional ability in dealing with the COVID-19 induced crisis. Now!

Whether a crisis or an opportunity, one thing is clear - What you do or do not do as a leader will be remembered for a long time. Imagine, one year from now, you are addressing the management students of elite B-schools. They are listening with rapt attention to your story of business transformation. As a part of the study, your organization will At the heart of this story is how you and your colleagues used also leverage the opportunity of assessment by the current crisis to create a sustained High-Trust, Great Place to Work® and potential recognition High-Performance CultureTM. as a Best Workplace.

Steps to Participate

India’s Best Survive to Thrive Leaders in Crisis Capture History as strategy 4 In June 2021, we will Enrol it happens! 3 In April 2021, we will administer a announce India’s Best Register to the study 2 short survey on your employees Leaders in Times of Your team will update the of1 ‘Best Leaders in to understand their perception of Crisis with a actions and initiatives the success of the business Crisis’. month-on-month in a prestigious media transformation. partner. standard format.

Please write to [email protected] for more details.

With the COVID-19 Pandemic taking a toll on the Indian economy, the responsibility of kick-starting and re-building the economy will largely rest with the organized industry. The lion's share of that responsibility will be borne by select valiant organizations who are the true ‘Nation Builders’. This calls for honouring and recognizing such organizations.

Great Place to Work® Institute, India do or by virtue of their corporate is proud to announce the launch of social responsibility initiatives, a special category of recognition • Should be delivering an essential in the forthcoming cycle of its service, national study, under the auspices of ‘India’s Best Employers Among • Should be creators of Nation Builders’. Nation Builders infrastructure, not just be riding on by definition are companies that the pre-existing infrastructure, are characterized by some of the • Should have a significantly large following attributes: scale of customer or consumer base, • Should have national brand • Amongst the highest tax presence or impact, contributors to the government, • Should be large scale direct and • Should be promoting and indirect employment generators, positively impacting at least 3 of the • Should have a significant social 17 UN Global Goals. impact, either through the work they

To qualify for recognition in this category a company will have to satisfy a majority of the characteristics enumerated above. This will be one of the most prestigious recognitions offered by Great Place to Work® in India and it will be the Institute’s privilege to honour India’s Best Employers Among Nation Builders. A vital endeavour in the journey of Making India a Great Place to Work.

To participate in this study and know more, contact: Ms. Basuri Dutta | +91 981 994 6992 | [email protected]

We would like to offer you a Real-time Feedback tool that enables you to speak and listen to your employees on a daily basis. The tool comes with an in-built framework that measures ﬁve critical dimensions of your workplace culture from a CEO’s perspective – Leadership Effectiveness, Employee Engagement, Key Talent Retention, Customer Orientation and Operational Effectiveness. You can add your customized questions to take real-time feedback basis your unique challenges.

That's not all. Through the CEO Culture Dashboard, you don't run a lengthy survey – it is just one statement per employee, every day!

Our research shows that your employees are likely to be more stressed than usual with respect to job security, ﬁnancial security, psychological and emotional health (anxiety), collaboration and changing business strategies during these tough times. The need to communicate and listen has never been more urgent.

Copyright ©Please 2020 Great contact Place to Work® Balbir Institute, Singh, Inc. Practice Head, on [email protected] for details. All Rights Reserved. 33 As a Great Place to Work-CertifiedTM organization, you have Gtcognizede Re for the opportunity to feature among the most credible Best Workplaces lists in India and globally. Organizations are Your Great Work recognized across more than 20 industries, types, sizes and Culture. themes that matter to employees.

India’s Great Mid-size Workplaces 2020 J uLY 2020

India’s Best Workplaces for Women 2020 September 2020

India’s Best NGOs to Work For 2020 October 2020

World's Best Workplaces 2020 O cTOBER 2020

India’s Best Workplaces in IT & IT-BPM November 2020 2020

India’s Best Workplaces in January 2021 Manufacturing 2021

F eBRUARY 2021

India’s Best Workplaces in Health & February 2021 Wellness 2020

India’s Best Workplaces in Retail 2021 February 2021

India’s Best Workplaces in BFSI 2020 APRIL 2021

Asia's Best Workplaces 2020 Arilp 2021 Great Place to Work® Annual Calendar Work® to Place Great

India’s Best Companies J une 2021 to Work For 2021

REGISTRATIONS OPEN! Note: Since the lists are announced throughout the year, there are process BOOK YOUR SURVEY SLOT NOW! deadlines for each. Please reach out to Visit www.greatplacetowork.in/get-certified or write to us to know more. [email protected]

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. 34 All Rights Reserved. An integrated platform that enables leaders and people managers leverage actionable insights to craft impactful actions plans and measure employee pulse on the go.

In the journey to become a great workplace, listening to the employee voice is critical and many organizations have started doing it in a regular and structured manner. However, a major challenge comes later - how to interpret the employee voice and how to take action in a comprehensive manner.

Reporting Action Planning Platform to Launch Platform Tracker Micro Surveys

With a focus on Empowering People Managers!

This is where TrustImpact™ comes in. Trust Impact has been a great help for our managers to create Action Plans to focus on their • It allows Business Leaders, People Managers, improvement areas and reaffirm their strengths. HR to go beyond the feedback data and access actionable insights. The reference to best practices available on the tool that are helpful to design activities • It helps to prioritize what to action and supports customized to our needs. in the action planning process by providing best practices and suggestions from great workplaces. Sterlite Technologies Ltd. • It allows to take focused pulse checks to see if their action plans are working and course correct if required. Go beyond data. • Organizational Leaders and HR have an oversight on what actions are being taken across the organization and is the needle moving towards a Access actionable insights like comparison great employee experience! with benchmarks, areas of improvement and key drivers of engagement.

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 35 Dr Ram Charan (World’s Most Influential Consultant), Harsh Mariwala (Founder, Marico) & Dr. Santrupt Misra (CEO, Birla Carbon & Director- HR, ABG) in a discussion at the Best Employers’ Club Meet, June 2018.

• Should be a sounding board for the industry & B eST EmPLOyers' Club academia. 4. Create successful models of future work/ workplaces: • Member organizations will volunteer to incubate ideas discussed in the Club which have the potential to qualitatively change the experience of their people and significantly impact business.

The Best Employers’ Club is an elite group of CEOs, The members of the Best Employers’ Club CHROs and Business Heads of those organizations and Great Place to Work® Institute collaborate that have featured in ‘India’s Best Companies to to finalize the themes for the meetings. The Work For’ or ‘India’s Great Mid-Size Workplaces’ lists, meetings on pre-defined themes include published by the Great Place to Work® Institute, India. keynote sessions, study mission, case studies, research presentations & more. Some of the The member CXOs come together in a series of themes discussed last year by the members meetings throughout the year to learn and share covered a range of interesting topics like Moving about what they are doing differently to create a from Passive to Active Engagement, People great work culture at their organization – a culture that Challenges in Digital Transformation, The fuels performance. Harvard Business Publishing is Business Case for Employee Wellbeing, Design a learning partner of the club and provides relevant Thinking, Creating a Superior Service Culture to case studies and speakers for the chosen themes. name a few. The club aspires to be the “think tank” in the area Some of the speakers that have interacted with of creating Great Workplaces FOR ALL that deliver the club members are: sustained business results. • Dr. Marshal Goldsmith, World’s No. 1 The club has the following objectives: Leadership Coach World’s Most Influential 1. Learn From Each Other: • Dr Ram Charan, Consultant • Coming together and not competing. • Dr. Velumani, Founder and MD, Thyrocare • Networking, meeting new people, learning more perspectives. • Dr. Pawan Goenka, Managing Director – Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. 2. Learn from the Best in the World: • Ron Kaufman, World’s No. 1 Customer Service • Get one globally known expert for each meeting. Guru 3. Think Tank: To be a part of this Elite Club: Contact Adishva • Be a thought leader in its space – define the Doshi at +91-97692 58440 or Adishva.Doshi@ people agenda for the next decade. greatplacetowork.com

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. 36 All Rights Reserved. Nominate your organization for India’s Best Workplaces Study 2021, and leverage the opportunity to join the elite community of CEOs & CHROs of ‘India’s Best Companies to Work For’ and ‘India’s Great Mid-Size Workplaces’.

Great Place to Work-CertifiedTM is the ‘Gold Standard’ organizations It all starts with around the world aspire to achieve to showcase their great work culture getting Great Place and enhance their employer brand. Every year, more than 10,000 TM organizations across 58 countries apply to Great Place to Work® study to Work-Certified on Best Workplaces to get recognized and to obtain actionable insights into formulating a winning people strategy.

Through an objective, research-driven and globally adopted framework, your workplace culture will be assessed and on meeting the required criteria will be certified as a Great Place to Work. Once Certified, based on the scores obtained in the assessment, your organization has the opportunity to feature among ‘India’s Best Companies to Work For’, ‘India’s Great Mid-Size Workplaces’ and many other industry and category recognitions.

How to get Certified?

Select a 2-week Provide details about Obtain actionable Meet our benchmark period to launch the your company’s insights to formulate for Certification and Trust Index©, our programs and a winning People you’ll be eligible globally renowned practices on our Strategy for more than a research based Culture Audit©. dozen additional employee survey. recognition opportunities.

Visit www.greatplacetowork.in/getcertified or write to [email protected]

Copyright © 2020 Great Place to Work® Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 37 Take the first step towards creating an effective wellness program for your organization that fosters a healthy and high-performance workplace culture.

Why should you participate in this study?

• Become part of the Best Workplaces for Health and Wellness ecosystem to learn and share from each other and lead the conversation on workplace wellness

• Employee Wellbeing is at the centre of driving high performance. Understand your Workplace Wellness IndexTM and Health QuotientTM

• Benchmark yourself against the best in your industry.

• Get actionable insights for your leaders and organization to design an effective workplace wellness program that fosters high performance.

To apply for the study and know more: visit – www.workplacewellnessindex.com

To know more about the study, contact: Ms. Asfia Javed (+91) 937 25 43 167 [email protected]

Great Place to Work® Institute is the global research from the work done with organizations belonging and consulting authority on workplace culture, that to all industries and of all sizes. This is done to help helps organizations identify, create and sustain High- organizations become a Great Place to Work® by Trust, High-Performance Culture™ at their workplaces. recognising them through the Great Place to Work® The Institute has crafted its perspective by learning Certification and thorough research based annual from great leaders, surveying millions of employees, lists of Best Workplaces. The Institutes’ proprietary and examining thousands of best workplaces around and globally validated framework is considered the the globe. Great Place to Work® believes that all ‘Gold Standard’ in workplace culture assessment and organizations can become great workplaces and is endorsed by business leaders, academic scholars hence, highly productive organizations, by fostering and government organizations around the world. trust within the ethos of their culture – referred as High- They have also adopted the Institutes’ models and Trust, High-Performance Culture™. The Institute serves methodology as a valuable way to measure and create businesses, non-profits and government agencies in great workplaces. The Institute partners with leading more than 60 countries and has conducted pioneering media houses like Fortune in USA and The Economic research on the characteristics of great workplaces for Times in India to publish its findings. over three decades. The Institutes’ research shows that great workplaces are Every year, Great Place to Work® Institute partners characterised by great leadership, consistent employee with more than 10,000 organizations and analyses experience, and sustainable financial performance. perspectives representing the voice of over 12 million These organizations are able to deliver a consistent employees around the world. This helps organizations experience to all their employees irrespective of their create and sustain a High-Trust, High-Performance role, gender, tenure or level in the organization. Their Culture™. In India, the Institute partners with around leaders believe in the vision of creating and sustaining 1000 organizations annually to work towards the a Great Place to Work FOR ALL and role model being mission of 'Making India a Great Place to Work FOR ‘FOR ALL’ Leaders. ALL'. The Institute thrives on sharing insights gleaned

Better for People. Better for Business. Better for the World.

For Certification or Business enquiries:

India Ms. Srabani Dubey +91 931 316 6760 [email protected] Ms. Neha Sethi Great Place to Work® Institute (India) +91 981 905 2142 [email protected] @GreatPlaceToWorkInstituteIndia Mr. Akshat Shah @GPTW_India +91 970 263 8160 [email protected] @cultureinshorts

International To start your organization’s journey towards Ms. Basuri Dutta creating a great workplace register at +91 981 994 6992 https://survey.greatplacetoworkindia. [email protected] co.in/2021study

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