The tough macroeconomic environment has prompted companies to enhance their focus on people in an attempt to retain and engage top talent. Companies like Citi India, Infosys, Maruti Suzuki, Essar Group, RPG, and NIIT, among others, have focused increasingly on innovative rewards and recognition, talent development, workplace bonding initiatives and family connect programmes to tide over the uncertainty and boost employee morale.

Citi India has redesigned its performance management strategies, in addition to introducing new career planning interventions and employee assistance programmes. Besides assessments of regular training sessions and workshops for managers, Citi made their online training programmes more robust.

It also introduced initiatives like 'career week' and a 'leader-teach-leader' series whereby senior executives coach employees through experiential learning exercises.

"We continued to invest in our leadership curriculum and also have created a reward strategy based on long-term goal achievements," says Anuranjita Kumar, country human resources officer, Citi India.

Last year, Infosys introduced an initiative called Pathfinder Next, an internal internship programme. Employees work on internal assignments that enable them to have access to opportunities across technology, business domains, service lines and support functions, choose opportunities that suit their career interests and have a platform to innovate and build new skills.

"The focus was on enhancing resource efficiencies and bridging skill gaps," says Richard Lobo, AVP and head - employee relations at Infosys. The re-skilling of employees has enabled companies to reduce cost and dependency on external hiring. Companies have implemented most of these measures over the past one to two years, even though the strategising has taken place over aperiod of time to address needs emerging out of the prolonged slowdown that started in 2008.

"The rigour in framing these policies and managing people went up manifold during the period starting 2009, because the penalty of making a mistake was much higher compared with the gain in being successful," says Nischae Suri, head, people and change practice, KPMG India.

Companies like Essar have consciously started using mentoring and reverse mentoring to address the needs of a multi-generation workforce of the future. "Creating a burning desire in minds of the young where they believe they have something significant remaining to be achieved, really makes people go for their goals," says Adil Malia, group president (HR), Essar Group.

Maruti went in for a change in strategy and decentralised its HR function, with dedicated HR teams attached to individual verticals. "This speeds up decision making, helps in evolving customised solutions and ensures faster feedback," says SY Siddiqui, chief operating officer, administration. Last year, the company enhanced focus on a programme called 'Parivaar Milan' where family members of employees visit their factories in groups, mostly on a Saturday.

Employees are invited to accompany their families during the day, wherein they show off their workplaces. Later, the heads of manufacturing, HR and other areas talk to the families about the company's plans and achievements in an informal setting.

RPG looked at organisational structure and head count for some of their key businesses through an internal taskforce, and made changes that resulted in a better economy for the company.

In one of its engineering businesses which was not doing well, for instance, the company set up a task force that suggested a complete overhaul of strategy. This included a look at new business areas, customer segment to target, and even the entire structure of the organisation (the HR aspect), says Arvind Agrawal, president - corporate development & HR, RPG Enterprises. Accordingly, certain divisions were merged and people were moved to where they were required and the roles they suited best in the new structure besides training people in new areas of expertise and hiring people wherever required.

The implementation has taken place over the past four to five months, and yielded a 15% to 20% reduction in people cost.

NIIT brought in the concept of Learning Cliniques, which includes handholding participants to help them make positive change in behaviour based on classroom learnings. Greater focus on leadership development has also been brought in, and talent mobility within the organisation became an important area of focus. It took up internal job postings on a war footing.

"We leveraged the multi-business nature of NIIT and were able to show long-term career paths to most NIITians within the company itself," says Shampi Venkatesh, chief people officer. The company also facilitated senior leadership connect and conversations with teams.

Source : TOI