Work Culture

Employees are valued customers

As an organisation, Financial Technologies believes in developing employees at various levels in line with its business, writes Vinita Gupta.

At Financial Technologies (India) Ltd (FTIL) the HR practices are aligned with the company’s business strategy and plans and every employee is treated as its growth and business partner.

Not surprisingly, the HR team of Financial Technologies Group has recently received “The Employer Branding Award 2007”, in the category Best HR Strategy in Line with Business.

HR for the employees

HR policies at FTIL are framed keeping in mind the philosophy of building trust and loyalty, training and development for the growth of the individual while encouraging team-work and a competitive spirit.

“Employees today seek instant solutions to their problems and grievances. Hence we have an online tool named HR4U, where they can write to the HRD chief regarding any issue in terms of job, culture or anything that is hampering productivity. They need not have to wait for any specific event to express views or raise concerns,” says Paras Ajmera, Director of FTIL. The tool does not reveal the identity of the person raising the issue, which is encouraging to employees as there is no fear of reprimand, and no chance that someone will know about it.

In order to ascertain the wellbeing of the employees and their families, the company extend numerous benefits to them such as med claim (extended coverage to family); accident insurance, term-life insurance, etc. Also, free health check-up for employees, and emergency medical assistance is provided to take care of any emergencies. Some of the HR initiatives of the company include organising free eye check-up camps for employees, frequent gatherings, family picnics, etc. There is also a subsidised bus facility for the employees from various locations in Mumbai. FTIL has an Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) scheme in place, wherein ESOPs are extended to all employees based on certain parameters like loyalty, performance, etc. In order to foster the spirit of continuous learning, the company also sponsors its employees for higher studies. According to Ajmera, such measures have gone a long way in arresting attrition and impelling employees to look at long-term fruitful careers with the company.

Vision of the company

The FTIL vision statement is to “Build a technology company focus-sed on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) creation in the financial securities industry by harvesting intellectual capital.” The HR policies are focussed on creating and retaining the best intellectual capital in the world. The recruitment process starts from manpower planning—quarterly, bi-annual and annual targets are set.

They source the people through consultants, employee referrals and also receive a huge response from their websites. In order to cater to the organisation’s needs of fresh talent, they visit and recruit from premier management and technical institutes across India. Walk-in interviews are also organised from time to time for various job openings in the group.

As an employee enters the organisation, he is attached to a mentor. The job profile is clearly communicated to the employee to avoid confusion later. All these steps help employees transition into their new role with minimum hassle. “The main vision of the HR function at FTIL is to treat every employee as a valued customer as the only KRA of the HR team is a smile on their face,” says Ajmera.

Developing skills

The all-round development of the individual is the core focus of all HR policies related to training at FTIL. Training starts on the first day after induction where the employee is given orientation about the new role. This is followed by technical or soft skills training, feedback sessions, and re-training if required.

“We strongly believe in developing skills of the employees on various technologies in line with the business of the company. A series of training programmes are organised in functional, domain and leadership areas by well-known trainers,” says Ajmera.

He further adds, “The individual has opportunities for discovering his latent talents and polishing his skills through a string of in-house and external training programmes imparted from time to time.” The programmes range from communication skills, leadership training to various functional or technical trainings. There are some internal trainers appointed for training, outside experts are also invited for giving specialised training.

The company sponsors employees for various seminars/conferences organised by CII, FICCI, Nasscom and many such professional organisations. The training process ensures that a certain minimum number of days’ training is provided to each employee across levels and functions.

Leadership building

With a view of encouraging continuous learning, the organisation conducts Management Development Programme (MDPs) and other leadership development programmes from time to time for its middle and senior management.

Ajmera points out, “We also have a qualified counsellor who helps to solve queries of the employees and also counsels them. There is an open door policy from HR to all employees to walk in at any time with any sort of queries, and we try our best to resolve them.”

He further adds, “It is very important to feel appreciated, especially when someone has solved a complex problem or contributed significantly to achieving a milestone. Hence we reward our employees, this may sound basic, but often this is what makes employees go the extra mile and put in extra hours at work.”

At FTIL the KRAs and KPIs for each role has been listed. This ensures the efforts are put in the right direction and also that there is a clarity of purpose for both the employee and the organisation. There is a hierarchical structure, which is made known to all employees. However, it is also made known that performance is the major tool required to go to the higher levels. An employee’s immediate superior is more of a developmental coach at FT, who guides and mentors the individual to perform his best.

“We have a right blend of processes and creativity. Processes do not come in the way of adopting any new idea, which can help reduce cycle time of an activity or process. Employees are encouraged to constantly innovate and bring in new ideas and implement them in their daily activities,” says Ajmera.

The human touch

Emotional bonding and team spirit are core values at FT. According to Ajmera, to gain loyalty of employees it is essential for them to feel that the organisation cares about them and their family. Small acts of concern, which may not make a big difference to the organisation financially, can be initiated. For example, a paid holiday on an occasion such as a birthday or an anniversary, dinner coupons, movie tickets, etc.

FTIL has a lot of family events, gatherings, etc, organised from time to time in order to have a support system in place for all family members of the employees. Picnics, the annual party, and other such celebrations help bring everybody together and interact with families of their colleagues, as well brings the families together to share common concerns and points of view.

“With employee strength of close to 1,200, we still manage to remain a large, close-knit family. By maintaining the concept of HR as group-level function, we ensure that policies, processes, systems, and benefits are equally applicable to all employees,” adds Ajmera.

To further foster the feeling of oneness, the company organises at least two functions every year, where the entire employee population gets together at one venue, many of them turning up with their families too. In addition, all the important regional festivals are celebrated as ‘Traditional Days’ with appropriate attire, décor and food adding to the feeling of togetherness of celebrations. Getting together for dance, events, sports, festivals, etc., are a routine feature of life at the company.

Ajmera says, “We have found that all these, along with the other employee- friendly HR policies, play a great role in cultivating a deep sense of belonging in every one of our employees.”

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

FTIL has taken up various initiatives in education, such as training regarding commodities, educational tie-ups with management institutes for commodity-related courses, etc.

The company has numerous tie-ups with premier educational institutes for educating students. They have sponsored two chairs in Mumbai University for research leading to PhD. Sponsorship of various management events in B-schools such as IIMA, IIMB, IIT Kharagpur, JBIMS, et al, is also carried out. They are also conducting a course on commodities at Welingkar’s Institute of Management Development & Research, Mumbai.

The company aims to use technology to bring global markets to the villagers, so as to eliminate middle men and offer the best means of price discovery to the Indian farmers.

Education of all employees connected to the Commodity EcoSystem is one huge step in this direction. FTIL has also set up Gramin Suvidha Kendras in association with the Indian Post. This alliance establishes a rural information access window for information support and services to farmers and agriculture markets.