Mission: Happy employees
With the attrition rate escalating to an all-time high, ‘employee engagement’ has become the latest buzzword among most HR managers today, who have begun putting in place all the measures needed to ensure that their employees strike a good work-life balance and avoid job burnout. Initiatives like employee clubs, vacations, potluck and ‘6 pm days’ are the latest rage in India Inc.
Speaking about the initiatives offered by his company, Arul Rajkumar, HR director of TNT India, says, “We want employees to maintain a good-work life balance and also have a healthy social life, so that they bounce back to work, refreshed, full of enthusiasm and more ‘engaged.’ To keep them motivated, we have this initiative called ‘6 pm day’, twice a month, in which it is mandatory for all employees to leave the office by 6 pm. We also have elite clubs like the platinum club and gold club, which workers join, depending on their performance.” And the incentives are terrific. “For instance, a great performer who is in the platinum club gets a free holiday abroad with his family!”
Vacations are the most preferred and popular of all the schemes on offer. Sherley Singh, proprietor of Joshua Inc. and Kangabeats Edutainment says, “In all my companies, all employees go on a holiday twice a year. That’s the time we unwind and enjoy ourselves like one big happy family.”
For other organisations, nutritious, well-prepared home food is a key ingredient in ‘employee engagement’ strategy. Rajendra Babu, head, HR, of a leading healthcare company in Bengaluru says, “On the days we celebrate a festival, our anniversary, or the completion of a project, instead of having the predictable series of senior management speeches, we install a free ice-cream station for employees and hold potluck evenings where everyone can have fun.”
Explaining the need for such pampering, Anitha Bhaskaran, a corporate coach, spells out, “Unless companies reach out to dissatisfied workers, they will face an employee exodus as the strengthening economy offers more job opportunities. Especially in service industries, where discontent among the workforce could easily damage relations with customers. Some firms are moving beyond merely understanding the levels of their employees’ ‘engagement’, and are using surveys to understand the driving forces behind them.”
As for the employees, they are making the most of all that’s being offered. Sameer K., who works as a programmer analyst, is pleased with the new trend. “I’m glad companies have finally realised that it’s the employees who make the company. With the increasing attrition and job-hopping, these measures are the need of the hour.”
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