www.peopleandmanagement.com
This year, in the 100 Best
Companies to Work for listed by
Great Place to Work® in India, only
19 companies are new entrants
(those that have not previously
featured in the list). Since the best
are better in almost every respect
compared to the rest, mere statistical
differences will not suffi ce. I am,
therefore, taking the liberty of
noting some of my observations that
set the best apart from the rest.
1. Getting your business model
right
About 82 percent of the
employees of the top 100
best workplaces feel that the
Management knows where the
organisation is going and how to
get there. Organisations which are
struggling with their business model
are unlikely to be in the top of the
best workplaces lists. Startups,
without a strong business model fi nd
it diffi cult to be among the best, as
do many legacy organisations who
have not invested in challenging
their own legacy business models.
One thing is for sure, employees
know in advance of the outside
world whether a business is being
run well or not. You will fi nd more
CEOs using Culture Dashboards
where continuous feedback from
employees is used to predict
business performance.
2. Mindset that Employee =
Customer
If talent is the key to your
business, there is only one mindset.
Where previously, an employee
was seen as a cost (and customer
as revenue), today leaders know
that employees are the biggest
customers. For example, if the
revenue per employee is 10 million
and the cost per employee is 1
million, we are talking about net
9 million in revenue. What about
internal support functions? They are
If talent is the key to your business, there
is only one mindset. Where previously, an
employee was seen as a cost (and customer
as revenue), today leaders know that
employees are the biggest customers.
revenue, as long as they are needed
to run your business. If you divide
all your employees into teams of
net revenue, you will fi nd that you
have both individuals and teams
who might bring you a net revenue
higher than that of your biggest
external customer!
The best workplaces know that
managing employee expectations
and delivering employee experience
is as important as doing the same
with customers.
3. Transparency & Feedback
SAP Labs is at the moment No.
1 Best Place to Work in India. They
have a great practice called ‘Speed
Mentoring’. An employee can spend
up to 15 minutes with a mentor and
with up to four mentors during
speed mentoring sessions. While this
practice may be interesting, what
makes SAP Labs different is that they
publish the net promoter score or the
Advocacy percentage for each mentor
i.e. something that says “I would
recommend this mentor to a friend”.
The best workplaces are obsessed
with feedback, and feedback is
visible to everyone. The average
workplace, on the other hand,
tries to protect their leaders from
negative feedback.
4. Leadership is about role
modelling
In a recent case, a global MNC
sought our help to work with their
line managers to help them deliver
a consistent employee experience.
After a few months, the leadership
team met us and said that they had
received feedback that the senior
management too needed to deliver a
consistent employee experience, not
just the line managers. Hence, they
expanded the scope of the project to
include senior leaders. In one year’s
time, the overall employee perception
went up by 13 percent! Today, it is a
certifi ed great place to work.
For leaders in the best
workplaces, there is very little gap
between saying, doing and living
what they believe in. It is not about
a onetime promise that is kept; it
is about living up to your role all
the time. It is not just about being
yourself; it is about being the
best of you. If you are leading an
organisation, ask yourself if you are
a great person to work with, before
you think how to create a great place
to work.
5. Create a compelling purpose
to change the world for the
better
As more millennials come into
the workforce, they seek to make
a meaningful difference to the
world. Salesforce with their ‘Ohana
culture’ is attempting to do just that.
Their vision is to create an equal
world: equal opportunity, equal
rights, equal pay, and equal access
to education. This is not just about
equality inside the organisation,
it is about creating a world where
technology can lead to more equality,
rather than the other way around.
What is unique about Salesforce is
that their commitment to equality
goes far and beyond their company
and extends to active participation
in the society they operate in. P & M
Vol. 9 Issue 6 • Sep-Oct 2018, Noida / Pre-Event Edition |
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