Work Culture

Nurturing young talent

Hexaware Technologies is a company that believes in tapping fresh talent. They also like to ensure that their employees feel motivated and happy with their work, writes Rishiraj Verma.

Hexaware Technologies is an organisation which gets a large number of its people through campus placements. The company has its college network spread around India and tries to absorb a number of students from the Engineering, MBA, MCA and BSC streams. It is a young company and the average age of employees is 26 years. At Hexaware, 75 percent of the employees are MCA or BE graduates.

According to Deependra Chumble, Chief People Officer, Hexaware Technologies, recruiting from colleges is a year-long process. He says that the entire process takes this much time because, “We have to establish a relationship with the institution before we can start taking in their students.”

Another means by which Hexaware recruits personnel is through job fairs. Says Chumble, “We ensure that our HR personnel visit job fairs organised by various agencies such as Nasscom.” Chumble is of the opinion that a large number of candidates can be recruited from these fairs as these events are focussed and do not bring in candidates who are not suitable for certain posts.

Hexaware also has an internal referral programme whereby existing employees can refer a candidate. The company allows for referrals of relatives and friends as long as they are suitable to the company’s needs. It can therefore be seen that though there is a relaxed manner of recruitment through internal referrals, it cannot be equated with being unprofessional.

Chumble says that the recruitment procedures “are good, but not there yet.” He says that Hexaware is currently trying to align its recruitment processes to be more client-centric rather than technology-centric. Another attempt that aims at improving the recruitment processes at Hexaware is that of centralisation of recruitment. The company feels that this will be of great help as far as overseas and on-site applications are concerned. By 2007, Chumble hopes to achieve complete automation of the process, which will help them track and save CVs to a database that can be used later.

Testing the candidate

The kind of tests that a company gives to its potential employees easily reflects its attitude—not just towards its own development, but also towards its employees’. And if Hexaware were to be evaluated on this parameter, the attitude seems positive, for themselves and the people who join them in the course of time.

Hexaware takes the help of external agencies that provide standardised technical tests. The results for these tests are declared in a matter of two hours. However, what Hexaware does differently is to make candidates understand as to why they have or have not been chosen to take the HR interview. “We’d rather not give them just a pass or fail result,” says Chumble, with an opinion that candidates need to understand their abilities and shortcomings.

The next level of testing is the HR interview. Here, the candidate’s technical skills are personally tested. Those applying for customer facing jobs also undergo tests on communication skills test. Thus, the company tries to ensure that the same kinds of testing methods are not applied to candidates looking at different positions in the organisation.

Chumble says that more psychometric testing techniques will soon be added to the company’s testing procedures to ensure that there is utmost accuracy in hiring employees.

Training ground

When a fresher from college joins a company, he may or may not know the intricacies of the job he is going to undertake. It becomes the unwritten responsibility of the employer then, to ensure that adequate knowledge—and not just theoretical, is imparted to new joinees.

The company has a separate training programme for freshers. This is called the Freshers’ Training Program (FTP). This programme includes a two-month classroom training and orientation on hardware and specific technologies.

The employees’ soft skills are also honed in FTP. A number of management training programmes form a part of the broader training process. Says Chumble, “On most occasions a client interacts with fresh employees in training sessions.” According to him, this is important because a large chunk of the employees do interact with clients during their tenure. So, a client talking to them early on in their career becomes helpful.

On-the-job training plays a major part of a fresher’s early days at Hexaware. Here, the main thing that a fresher does is called “shadowing seniors” on a project. This process helps freshers understand intricate details of the work, some of which may have been impossible to theoretically explain during the classroom sessions. The duration of the shadow projects may last from one to six months, and is determined by the fresher’s abilities and the complexity of the project in picture.

The money part

The evaluation and compensation processes at Hexaware aim to review all facets of an employee’s work. The process begins with a self-evaluation stage. These evaluations are then sent to the particular employee’s appraiser. After this, a meeting is arranged between the appraiser and the appraisee. Here, detailed information and feedback is given to the employee.

According to the results of the meeting, further projects or training necessities are decided. Along with this, the compensation is also determined. It is after this meeting that the employee’s future KRAs are also decided.

For members of the senior management, a 360-degree approach towards appraisals is looked at. These employees follow self-evaluation, along with evaluation by an appraiser, peers and juniors. And the process of appraising senior management members begins a little earlier than the fresher or medium level appraisals. This is because of the complexity involved.

Chumble says that the appraisals and bonuses depend on various factors apart from the employee’s potential. “There are factors such as the competition’s pay-scales and the overall market condition,” he says.

Saying farewell

At Hexaware, an attempt is made to understand the reasons behind an employee’s resignation so as to remedy them immediately or keep a watch on similar problems in the future.

The employee talks to his supervisor about the reason for resigning. A formal resignation letter is then handed to the supervisor. The HR department then comes into picture and tries to talk to the employee about rethinking his decision. If the employee’s decision does not change, an exit interview is conducted.

The company identifies another person to carry out the responsibilities of the resigning employee in case he has quit while a project is in progress. The client is duly informed about the employee’s exit from the organisation so that there is no confusion when it comes to co-ordination about the project.

Chumble reveals that these processes may not be possible for an onsite or overseas resignation and the formalities are then carried out either over the phone or on e-mail. Chumble says honestly, “Not all pieces of this process are working as desired and we are working towards making it better.”

Talking about attrition rates in relation with Hexaware, Chumble points out that it is an industry-wide problem and is not specific to any organisation. The company tries to rotate jobs so that employees do not get bored of doing the same thing over and over again. Also, opportunities are provided for employees to choose the location of their work. Hexaware reviews its compensation scales twice a year so that employees do not stay discontent with their pay cheques.

Transparent culture

An open door policy is one of the major ones followed at Hexaware. Employees can meet the HR personnel or even the top management of the company in case they have grievances to be looked at.

An official open house is also part of the company’s constant effort to keep its employees happy at all times and make them feel part of the company. There are leadership development programmes to enhance employees’ skills.

Says Chumble, “Apart from these formal processes, there are other things that we do to ensure that there are no lines drawn between different sections of the organisation.” He explains that there are various committees such as the food committee, stress management committee etc.

Employees also have the options to choose flexible timings and work from home if need be. The individual is respected and hierarchy stays on paper. This results in a relaxed work environment, where employees are allowed to talk. And this further helps in nipping problems in their buds and keeping the workplace a happy one—for the employer and the employee alike. According to Chumble, “We have various events such as the annual Tech Summit. We haven’t seen any hierarchy in them.”

Social welfare initiatives

Hexaware employees are proactive in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. H3O is the company’s CSR group that tries to look at what problems the society is having and help the underprivileged. An apt example would be the help provided to victims, including the children hit by the tsunami destruction in India. That was H3O’s first attempt at helping the society. The total amount donated for the tsunami victims came up to about Rs one crore.

Today, many dilapidated schools for tribal children have been rebuilt and health camps constructed for the poor. Recently, they held a Valentine’s Day celebration for the children at the Helen Keller Institute for the Deaf & Deafblind.