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India Inc. takes baby steps to recovery (View Comments)
Sheetal Srivastava
Posted On Friday, October 30, 2009 at 06:27:22 PM
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As corporates have started seeing some signs of economic recovery in the present slowdown; let’s take a look at what they are doing to revive their employee centric HR policies
Is it true that corporates are now seeing signs of economic recovery? Is the worst over? Such and many more questions are looming large in the minds of employees and job seekers alike in the present economic situation. Not only that, employers are also faced with a dilemma of choosing the right candidate for the right job. “Corporates are definitely seeing some positive signs of economic recovery; however, it’s too early to say that the recessionary phase is a thing of the past. Though things appear to have stabilised for now, it will take a while to bounce back. We should not expect a phoenix-like-rise in any way - the fall has taken a while, and so shall the rise. We need to keep our fingers crossed and act prudently so as to avoid making the same mistakes again. Also, strategy for a post recession period like this should be carefully differentiated from the strategy for the boom period,” expresses P Dwarakanath, Director – Group Human Capital, Max India.
Anita Venugopal, Vice President, HR, SAP Labs India confirms that globally there are signs of the economy taking the first tentative steps toward retrieval. “We see markets opening up with new opportunities, customers getting ready to invest and companies going on a hiring spree. The engines of economic growth seem to be sputtering back to life. A recent study conducted by IDC and Microsoft determined that the IT industry will create 5.8 million new jobs and more than 75,000 new businesses over the next four years," adds Venugopal.
So are companies reviving their employee centric HR policies in light of the expected economic recovery and upsurge? “Although not the same as it used to be, there is a definite upswing in employee welfare initiatives. With industries showing signs of recovery, there is bound to be a surge in employee centric HR policies. Salary hikes and variable component payouts, which were on hold in most companies, have already been revived,” adds Ravikumar Dondapati, Director - Global Staffing and Resourcing, Geometric Limited.
Adding further to this Dwarakanath says, “Regarding compensation, we have increased our focus on variable pay as against a mere fixed pay. We have also continued to reward performance and commitment through ESOPs. We strongly believe that investment in talent development even during tough times is one of the most effective ways for businesses to maintain their top talent’s loyalty and ability to continue delivering high-performance.”
Tesco HSC has focussed on areas like Performance & Development, internal job posting employee referrals as well as leave policy. “In the Performance & Development area, we have redefined the process in such a way that it has clear measurable objectives, goals, training needs, etc. Internal job posting is another process which has been fine tuned to provide opportunities for employees to move to a desired role within the organisation. This has helped us scale up and also encourage managers to build a strong second line team,” notes Sudheesh Venkatesh, HR Head, Tesco HSC.
“Our employee centric HR policies are not necessarily tied into the present economic scenario but are tied with the welfare of our employees. We have robust hiring, resource management and business requirement tools and therefore maintain a high employee utilisation. Further, unlike most of the companies, we have been hiring aggressively since April and plan to continue to do so over the next half of the fiscal year. Our hiring includes both freshers from colleges as well as laterals at a 55 per cent to 45 per cent ratio respectively,” confirms Anita Gupta, VP-HR and International Operations, Aricent.
SAP Labs India provides higher education assistance and various training programs to enhance employee skills and prepare them to remain more responsive to the market needs. “We are seeing a revival of employee centric benefits, especially related to employee development. We focus on understanding employee aptitudes and filling the gaps by providing training programs to suit their needs,” says Anita Venugopal, Vice President, HR, SAP Labs India.
Positive signs of economic recovery have surely led to the revival of employee centric policies in India Inc. especially those related to hiring and compensation. Unlike the situation earlier which was marked by knee-jerk reactions like salary cuts, downsizing and lay-offs, companies are back to resorting ways and means of securing their top talent through salary hikes, bonuses and promotions.
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