Work Culture

Novell initiatives

Patent programs, hack weeks and tech fests, Novell has it all that makes its employees want to be with the company. Novell India through the writings of Renuka Vembu

“As a performance driven organization with progressive HR practices, Novell India helps creative talents to blossom by providing the right work culture and world-class infrastructure and facilities. It ensures that professionals achieve high levels of creativity in their work as well as life. The work environment is such that it focuses a lot on the importance of work-life balance. Its employees work on exciting product road maps and get end-to-end exposure in developing world-class products. They help to retain and propel Novell’s market leadership,” said Venkat R, Senior Manager, Human Resources, Novell India, as the conversation started off.

With a sharp focus on teamwork, innovation, leadership and customer-centric initiatives, Novellites imbibe and sprinkle these values all across the organization. Flexible timings, free transportation to the workplace, sick leaves granted on actuals, etc., are some of the additional benefits furnished to employees. Though they fall beyond the work purview, it is essential to concentrate on these details which have become imperative for the success of the business, and its people. Latest technologies with full product ownerships, from product management to testing and delivery, helping easing out the tedious jobs, as also improving productivity, and harnessing the maximum out of employee skill sets is what is practiced in the organization.

Values espoused

A well defined and robust performance management framework, tightly coupled with individual competencies and objectives form the core of the company’s set-up and guide every employee joining them. They diligently abide by the below mentioned enduring values that stand at the foundation of their business:

• Customer focus
• Integrity and holding oneself to the highest ethical standards
• Honesty in sharing and working on feedbacks
• Teamwork with due respect to individual viewpoint
• Innovation
• Leadership
• Shareholder value

HR undertakings

• Induction program: A robust and detailed induction program covering all the aspects of the organization is imparted in the formative days when an employee enters the company. This ensures their smooth transition into the company, and a clear understanding of and abiding by its culture.
• Annual employee engagement survey: It is a comprehensive survey that covers all the processes followed at Novell, dwelling and providing an insight into the satisfaction levels of the employees. Action items are drawn based on the gaps identified and the progress on the same is communicated back to the employees.
• Skip level meetings: These are held regularly to ensure that employees can voice their opinions, without any inhibition.
• Online 360 degree feedback: This mechanism allows employees to receive feedback on how they are perceived at work by their managers and peers, and thereby improve on those lines.
• Employee aseessment in two review cycles: One is based on the tasks assigned to them and the other determined by the competencies they demonstrate while executing the defined tasks.

Getting in and starting up

A strong HR practice has to be followed to build up a team of worthy employees. A streamlined recruitment and selection process will help in tracking the number of open positions and conduct interviews for the same.

Giving a broad overview on the company’s initiatives to promote training and developmental activities, Venkat said, “Novell is committed to providing employees with learning resources for professional growth. Our learning and development programs align individual learning with business focus or function needs. We support employees in pursuing and participating in conferences and seminars as well as training them through recognized institutions and universities. The various training options include training on software development methodologies and processes, management development and behavioral programs.” Competency-based training programs, internal management programs that stand mandatory for managers to attend, and on-the job- trainings are the basic pillars around which the entire training modules are structured.

Leadership and mentoring

Averse to the common perception that new joinees need time to mingle with people in the team and get to know the organization as a whole, Novell often entrusts them with surprising amounts of responsibility and they are encouraged to collaborate with other team members to help them bond better as a group. They can foster personal mentoring relationships with senior team members and openly explore new ideas. They get exposure on the product requirements and development, specifically with respect to what to build that would sell in the market and then to all the phases of a product—past (support), current (development) and future (research). They are presented with opportunities for patents and papers and to participate in Standards Bodies with an exposure to a worldwide platform. They closely work with the corporate L&D function to provide management development programs for the managers.

Structuring a career path

When it comes to developing an intrinsic bond that goes far beyond the employee’s and the organization’s professional interests, it is indispensable for any organization to lay emphasis on employee growth and development. It is rightly said that employee and company progress both go hand-in-hand, and one wouldn’t work out well without the other. Venkat explained, “Career development is valued by Novell as an essential and important activity of a high-performing company. As employees continuously grow and develop, the company’s capability increases and ensures that the organization remains competitive and is able to meet the demands of the industry.” Career development can be defined as the expansion of an individual’s knowledge, skills, experience, competencies, network, and visibility which results in the ability to contribute greater value in a wider range of circumstances.” This can be corroborated by the fact that employees are empowered to define their own career path. They can even make a lateral shift from engineering to technical support staff or project management.

Recognition for the innovators

Venkat stated, “To be recognized for hard work towards innovation is very critical to the innovative initiatives. There are a lot of great recognition, celebration and reward activities taking place at Novell to acknowledge and encourage innovation amongst the employees. The acronym RACE stands for Recognize And Celebrate Employees. It is a framework that encourages and rewards informed risk taking. The RACE framework addresses employee recognition, celebration and rewards through a number of channels. It could be as simple as Spontaneous Breakaway Award for an individual’s daily activities or a more formal quarterly award for an individual’s contribution in a particular project.”

CSR focus

Novell Bangalore Community Service Group is guided by Novell’s holistic approach to CSR, through its commitment to operate ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.

These programs are planned and implemented through direct support from the senior management along with the involvement of numerous volunteers from the employees. Some of the initiatives being pursued by them are:

• Annual blood donation camps at the office campus, conducted in association with the institutions
• Periodical or annual, old clothes and toys collection drives for distribution to the inmates of old age homes and orphanages
• Working with local schools
• Environment conservation drive within the organization

Other areas

Some of the initiatives that Novell drives and which involves its employees are listed down:

Patent program—They have been aggressively building up their patent portfolio. Currently it exceeds 320 patents, and continues to grow every month with help from dedicated Novell inventors. Novell IDC alone has contributed close to 14 patents to this existing patent pool.

NOSIP (Novell Open Source Internship Program)—NOSIP is an initiative embarked upon to build the open source initiatives among the student community in India. They started this program in December 2003 and have got large number of patches submitted by a lot of student contributors.

Hack Week—Open Platform Solutions team celebrate Hack Week, a week dedicated to innovation. The participating teams are encouraged to dedicate themselves to innovation; a pet project that they have long wanted to get around to, a curious new area to explore, an idea suggested by a mentor, a launch of what could become a major new initiative. Such an event periodically places a huge spotlight on innovation and refocuses on the core Novell value. Prizes such as Best Project, Funniest Project, Performance Improvement, etc., are given away.

Annual technology conclaves such as Novell Tech Fests are also held at departmental level where employees are encouraged to present technical white paper presentations and demonstrations.

Have fun while working

Venkat aptly summarized the fun quotient at work and how Novellites balanced their family commitments and work pressures with the entertainment factor squeezed in, “Novell employees have the freedom to balance energy in the workplace with passion for all of their interests away from work. There is a fortnightly informal employee meet arranged where the employees get together to organize events such as Sudoku, quiz sessions, antakshari, etc. Active hobby clubs such as dance, music and sports provide a vent to their creative energies. We also have avid participation in inter-corporate sports competitions like cricket and badminton as well, thus inculcating the spirit of teamwork. There is a dedicated team, christened as TGWIN (Thank God We’re in Novell) team, a bunch of energetic individuals who organize these varied recreational and fun-filled activities.”

renuka.vembu@expressindia.com