What’s the ultimate reward one can get from a job? Meeting challenges everyday, a fat pay cheque, opportunity to travel the world, innovate globally successful ideas, being a leader... the list is probably endless. But the most vital and commonly concluded reason, for an employee to be loyal to the organisation and most importantly the work, is only if he/she is, to a large extent, happy with the workplace.
And being happy with a job is not just about an individual’s interest in the profession he has chosen. According to Sunita Budhiraja, Senior Director, Corporate Communications and Branding — Perot Systems, Bangalore, “It is instead, more importantly the organisation’s capacity to keep alive the motivation as well as recognise and optimise the individual’s strengths,” she says.
And this, at Perot Systems, is done through WOW, their people care initiative set up to look into overall employee welfare. WOW refers to ‘We will Overcome (weaknesses, challenges), Overtake (competition, inhibitions), Overachieve (existing goals) and Win’. “It is an initiative that involves employee participation in not just the job but in setting up extra curricular activities. They come up with ideas, we (the corporate communications team) accept it and allow them to implement it which is why we term it as an organisational initiative rather than a departmental one. This, through office circulars, culminates into activities such as dance, music or sport along with social cause initiatives such as awareness campaigns and drives,” says Sunita.
Attrition levels are a key cause of concern for several organisations. At Perot Systems, the idea for their initiative, started over a year-and-a-half ago, stemmed out from a survey conducted by the company. “We did see a need to retain employees but WOW is not just to tackle attrition. It’s mostly for employee motivation and we have seen over 10 per cent drop in the attrition levels since we set the initiative going,” claims Sunita.
The company organised a Wellness Month in August where this initiative was taken further with several cultural and sporting activities involving family members of employees as well. Through WOW, the organisation’s aim is to recognise employees who have done well on the job front as well as those who are achievers outside the workplace.
“Every quarter we recognise people for their contribution to work. Star performers are announced in front of the entire office, their pictures put up on our Wall of Fame apart from uploading them as screensavers on all our computers. The MD takes the achievers out on breakfast too. This helps boost employee morale and a sense of belonging sets in,” shares Sunita who adds that 754 employees are rewarded every year.
Along with such initiatives , Sunita says communication between management and employees is vital. “Management must be accessible to employees, at all levels, as it makes the employee feel part of the company especially since the current breed of professionals find it hard to be loyal to one organisation. Regular interactions and feedback on an individual’s performance is something that should be part of the working schedule.”
