Work Culture

Focus on employee competency

As an organisation, Birlasoft believes in conjoining an employee’s aspirations with the growth of the company, writes Kusum Makhija.

Birlasoft is the global technology services division of the C K Birla Group. The company has 2,700 employees and a large number of clients among Fortune 1000 companies. In keeping with the overall outlook that the organisation always had of being employee centric, there are several interesting policies and practices that have contributed to its energised work environment. The company provides application development and support services in e-commerce, data warehousing, legacy systems, QA, CRM, RIMS (Rem-ote Infrastructure Manage-ment Service) and ERP.

Within a year, the company’s headcount has gone up from 1,500 to 2,800 plus, globally. The number of employees in India is 2,270 and the male to female ratio here is 75:25. Last year, Birlasoft set up a facility in Noida. A 600-seat facility has been opened in Bangalore this September. Another equal capacity centre will be up in Hyderabad by February 2006. This will be followed by another facility in Noida by May-June 2006.

Birlasoft has adopted the PCMM framework. It has targeted to achieve level three certification by the first quarter of the next financial year. “On this framework we are emerging as a capability focussed organisation. This is being brought about by identifying the requisite competencies at the organisation level for the present and future; doing the same at unit levels and then combining individual aspirations to the organisation’s growth framework,” explains Narendra Puppala, Vice-president, HR (Global), Birlasoft. This has resulted in the employees seeing long-term careers and has helped control attrition significantly for the company.

“A key process that we have recently introduced is the ‘Round-the-Clock’ induction programme, which is split into modules and runs for 21 days. Employees can join the programme anytime but can exit only after the completion,” states Puppala.

Four career streams have been defined and competency profiling for them is underway. Role-based training is on, and e-learning programmes have been initiated for both technical and behavioural training. HR systems like performance management and compensation are being tailored around competencies.

“Birlasoft is progressing on its journey of being ‘an employer of choice’. The voice of employees is heard via the half-yearly employee engagement surveys. It matches the scores of the big five of the Indian software services industry,” says Puppala.

One of the key aspects of this change effort is that the company has been able to attract good talent in the top management team. New members of this team have come from excellent educational and work experience pedigree. “Most of our employees are engineers and MCAs, with over 60 percent holding a masters degree. We also recruit MBAs from the better B-schools. In fact, we have inducted 10 MBAs from ISB, Hyderabad, this year. They will be posted in our offices abroad, after having completed their training,” explains Puppala.

Competency development

Employees are placed in four tracks—technology, people management, domain and client interaction. Some employees are placed in combination roles. They are graded according to five levels, which are: Individual Contributor, Supervisory Manager, Seasoned Leader, Strategic Leader and Change Leader. Based on this categorisation, competency development is offered, which enhances the ability of employees to deliver in the current job and prepares them for their future roles. Mobility between these tracks is also possible.

Besides this, development needs of every individual are identified through the performance management process and manager feedback. Employees are then identified for specific interventions that could include job rotation, training, mentoring, etc. e-Learning as a mode of knowledge enhancement and self-development is also being offered, and focusses more on employees in remote locations.

Performance management

“To ensure that we use appropriate methods to capture performance data at various levels in the organisation, three methods are used. For senior and top management we use balanced scorecards, at middle and early management levels we use Management Based on Objectives (MBO) with completely individual goals, and at the entry and individual contributor levels we use quantified activity clusters goal-based method,” explains Puppala.

Goal-setting is done at the beginning of the year and reviews are held once in six months or on completion of a project. The performance management cycle commences with organisation-wide business planning process for the following year. The system is completely digitised and this is driving process compliance. “While we have some way to go in getting it perfect, the present system works well in setting performance goals, evaluating, identification of different levels of performance, succession planning, career development and in identifying the people who are not able to meet performance standards,” adds Puppala.

Internal communication

Birlasoft believes that a robust internal communication process goes a long way to build bonds within the company and generate an atmosphere of trust. The processes that have been implemented range from a vibrant in-house monthly magazine called Softalk (in print format) and a Forum called KWiK (Koffee with Kamal, their CEO, where about 20 employees from across our centres interact with the CEO for about 60 days identifying improvement opportunities in the workplace as well as giving direct feedback to him). Open Houses are held every month where major highlights and unit performances for the month are presented and employee feedback taken. Skip-level meetings focus on developing the middle managers through the senior leadership getting feedback from all managers’ teams.

Popular practices

Some of the policies are related to flexible work timings offered to women employees post maternity that extend to 12 months. The other is the higher education policy, which gives an opportunity to the employees who meet certain criteria to go for the best courses of the country to enhance their professional qualifications, and there are policies governing late work, offshore US/Europe support, etc.

An important event is the annual celebration called Spandan. This comprises two-month long activities and contests and culminates in an annual Spandan day where employees participate in cultural events and annual rewards and recognitions are conferred on them.

kusum@expresscomputeronline.com