22 Careers: The Fast Track THE ECONOMIC TIMES | MUMBAI | TUESDAY | 31 JANUARY 2017 L’Oreal India Enhances Startups Seek to Create Entrepreneurs Maternity Leave to 26 Weeks employer,” said Mohit James, Founders begin to groom the next generation of employees to create innovation and ideation talent pools across hierarchies Rica.Bhattacharyya director, human resources, ve been tangible. @timesgroup.com L’Oréal India. Brinda.Dasgupta At Furlenco, employees were the To help new mothers ease @timesgroup.com New Kids on the Block driving force behind the recent Mumbai: L’Oreal India has back into work, they can also Airbnb partnership, as part of enhanced maternity leave to avail of reduced work hours Bengaluru: Startups aren’t loo- Urban Ladder co-founders Rajiv Srivatsa and Ashish Goel start which Airbnb hosts can choose 26 weeks from 14 weeks earlier for two continuous weeks im- king for worker bees waiting for di- programme called ‘UL Next’ to support & mentor about 20 from a set of customised packages to in an effort to retain high-po- mediately after resuming rections to flow from the top. Inste- people across fi ve projects on brand, distribution & design furnish their homes. tential employees. work, said James. ad, they are seeking innovative part- “We had key employees driving the The new parental benefits in- The policy also entitles fat- owners in their employees, who wo- At NoBroker, about 10 At Furlenco, employees At Jombay, co-found- initiative, right from the initial talks clude pre-commute assistan- hers to paid leave of two we- uld match the founders in their ap- senior employees work across teams volunteer to er Mohit Gundecha with Airbnb, to exploring the busi- ce for expecting women emp- eks. Additionally, the adop- petite for risk and results. with co-founder Amit take up projects related to focuses on fostering ness opportunity, creating a separa- loyees starting from the sixth tion leave has been increased “We want to create a pipeline of peo- Agarwal on projects company growth & expan- an entrepreneurial te website, and driving marketing month of pregnancy and child to 12 weeks for mothers and ple who can function almost as co-fo- related to maximising sion, with leadership team mindset, underpinned and branding. It was almost a new care allowance for two years one week for fathers. unders, and are actively grooming revenue, & driving opera- working closely with them by an enabling organi- business vertical for us, and is very from the date of delivery. L’Oréal India will also offer those with strong risk appetite, a vi- tional effi ciency to provide strategic vision sational structure demonstrative of what can happen “The business case of an en- flexible working options to sion to work independently, and an when employees get the freedom to hanced maternity leave policy each parent as well as pre- and ability to focus on long-term chal- think like entrepreneurs,” said Ash- and other parental benefits is post-natal support and emplo- lenges,” said Amit Agarwal, co-foun- being done toward innovation and RAJIV SRIVATSA ams volunteer to take up projects re- win Venkatraman, COO at Furlenco. to retain high potential talent, yee well-being sessions and der of home-rental startup NoBroker. risk-taking. It made us realise that Urban Ladder Co-founder lated to company growth and expan- At Jombay, too, a team of psycholo- enhance productivity and ma- dedicated HR and manage- Agarwal’s company is among an we needed to weave the culture of ent- sion, with the leadership team wor- gists and product managers inde- ke the company an attractive ment support. expanding list of startups such as repreneurship right into the fabric Attrition is always a risk king closely with them to provide pendently conceptualised a new as- customised furniture maker Urban of the company,” Srivatsa told ET. strategic vision. There are weekly sessment centre product and inked a Ladder and furniture rental compa- Srivatsa and Goel pass on their le- but... employees working ‘growth huddles’, where teams dis- partnership with Pearson Talent- ny Furlenco that have expunged the arnings as entrepreneurs to 20 emp- cuss their progress and share data. Lens. The new project now makes up job-description straitjacket to crea- loyees who are part of the projects on these projects have “Founders and CEOs need to be psy- for 30% of the company’s revenue. te innovation and ideation talent- related to brands and design. chologically ready and have support “Employees learn from us the risks, pools across hierarchies, harnes- At home rental startup NoBroker, been energised by the of investors to be able to give time to milestones and priorities of driving sing the creative-solutioning ability about ten senior employees work impart their learnings and skills,” their projects, and Ashish and I provi- of employees to hurdle the typical with Agarwal on projects related to exposure they’re getting said Jappreet Sethi, co-founder of de our own perspective so that in the barriers these companies face in maximising revenue, and driving YoStartups, which provides consul- long run, we develop people who can their current stage of evolution. operational efficiencies. They meet firm Jombay, co-founder Mohit tation services to new-age firms. start up something on their own,” sa- At the heart of the desired startup every three days to examine data Gundecha focuses on not only foste- Urban Ladder’s Srivatsa is unfazed id Srivatsa. Its five projects will be skill-sets, therefore, is entreprene- and finalise action points. ring an entrepreneurial mindset, by the possibility that grooming concluded at the end of February, af- urship, important attributes of “Colleagues sometimes use the lear- but also on having an enabling orga- employees to think entrepreneurial- ter which the company will begin the which are creativity and a sense of nings I gathered during my days in nisational structure: Both, he belie- ly might cause the flight of talent. second version of this programme. ownership. the consulting industry to further ves, are appropriate vehicles to fos- “Attrition is always a risk, but we ha- “Startups of the future will be built At Bengaluru-based home-decor their own entrepreneurial mindset,” ter ownership. “I don’t make judge- ve faith in the company we’ve built up of not employees but entreprene- company Urban Ladder, co-founders said Agarwal, who pulled out a few of ments or definite statements whet- and in our people. Employees wor- urs, so when CEOs and founders roll Rajiv Srivatsa and Ashish Goel set his old assignments during his days at her something will or will not work. king on these projects with us have up their sleeves and get directly in- up a live-projects mentoring pro- one of the Big Four consulting firms, Instead, I focus my energies on men- been energised by the exposure they- volved with employees on projects, gramme called ‘UL Next’ in Decem- and used them build a framework aro- toring employees with a minimum ’re getting and we are sure they will that’s a great way to drive entrepre- ber: “The idea came from an employ- und his teaching techniques. level of interference,” he told ET. stick with us for a long time,” he said. neurial thinking from the top ee’s suggestion that not enough was At talent assessment and analytics At Furlenco, employees across te- The results, startup leaders say, ha- down,” said Sethi of YoStartups. 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Rica Bhattacha- e-learning. ney and Fractal, we have collaborated ryya talks to HR experts to find out how organisations Our Bureau The faculty features prominent indust- with TimesPro to curate a robust curricu- should keep their employees motivated in tough times ry figures, including some from the digi- lum relevant to the current trends in the Mumbai: Dentsu Aegis Network, one of tal agencies of Dentsu Aegis Network. industry.” 1 Balanced Communication India’s leading fully integrated adverti- The course’s immersion programme will TCLL president Anish Srikrishna said, Bad times always seem interminable and can be tackled with sing agencies, and Times Centre for Lear- enable the students to achi- “Through this partnership, we will be ab- creative and innovative responses from managers and organi- ning Ltd’s TimesPro initiative are colla- eve mastery in a relevant le to provide a platform for aspiring stu- sations. “Organisations must emphasise, but not over empha- borating to offer a post graduate diploma topic or aspect of digital dents to make a successful career in one sise, that the times are bad and call for measures that ensure in digital marketing in Bengaluru, Mum- marketing. of the most lucrative career segments.” higher productivity and lower costs,” said Abhishek Kumar, as- bai and Delhi. It will allow students to TCLL is part of the Times of India Group, sistant professor at Bharathidasan Institute of Management, The three-month full-time programme, practically experience which publishes The Economic Times. Tiruchirapalli. An over-emphasis may lead to attrition of valued scheduled to begin on January 31, focuses The three- how digital marketing TimesPro is aimed at revolutionising talent and the organisation is left with mediocrity, he said. An on the strategic and practical aspects of month, campaigns are actually ex- professional education. under-emphasis would lead to higher and unreasonable expec- full-time digital marketing and will be open to gra- ecuted, in a bid to widen Students will become all-round experts tations of employees that are difficult to fulfil.