Indeed, the employment relationship is constantly changing. First, there was the wave of resignations, which was followed by quiet quitting. In fact, three in five organisations that were part of the survey admitted to being concerned that quiet quitting will impact their business over the next year.

While more workers are seeking the hybrid model of work, employers are increasingly pressurising their employees to return to office. Why? Employers seem to be ill prepared to handle the issues related to hybrid working, which they are afraid will affect their businesses. With Millennials making up a significant portion of the workforce today, the tolerance of the workforce as well as expectations from the employment relationship have changed drastically. The youngsters in the workforce place a lot of emphasis on their employer’s duty of care. Not surprisingly, most of the employers agreed their employees expected them to shoulder duties towards them, which were once considered the responsibility of governments. Little wonder then that more employees today turn to their employers for reliable information than public services. That is why two-thirds of organisations that participated in the survey admitted that they are expected to look after their employees’ families and dependents in emergency situations or crises.

With many businesses and their employees caught in conflict zones, and other facing inflation and rising cost of living, employers need to now consider it part of their care duty to protect employees on these fronts too.

Employees expecting their employers to offer them support in terms of mental health and wellbeing is not something new. Given the volatile situations that prevail worldwide, these expectations have just gone up and become more urgent.

Clearly, it is not enough to simply offer occupational health services focused on the workplace and related environment. Employees, worldwide, need to be protected and nurtured, and they expect their employers to do it. If employers fail in this regard, they will see their best talent quitting and moving on to employers who can offer them the nurturing and protection they seek.

This will affect the productivity of organisations and result in increasing costs incurred to hire and train replacements for those who quit.

Seven per cent of the respondents of the International SOS survey—comprising risk decision makers responsible for employees, contractors, students, faculty and others within an organisation—were from Australia and New Zealand, 27 per cent from Asia, 24 per cent from Europe, 11 per cent from Africa, seven per cent from the Middle East and 23 per cent from the Americas.

The message is quite clear. The truly ‘great’ workplaces across the globe are the ones that will fulfil the expectations of the newer generations in the workforce, especially in terms of health and wellbeing. These are the employers that will grow their businesses and also care for their employees, and manage to come out triumphant in the ongoing talent war.

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“We actively assess evolving skill requirements and tailor our programmes to address them effectively,” explains Ruhie Pande, G-CHRO at Sterlite Power.

“We don’t wait for training requirements to arise; we pre-emptively curate programmes, ensuring our workforce is equipped with the necessary skills.”

Ruhie Pande, G-CHRO, Sterlite Power

 

This proactive approach manifests in initiatives such as Project PD Next, PM Next, and ‘Stakeholder Management Excellence’. These programmes bring industry experts on board to curate specific training, ensuring employees receive comprehensive preparation for their roles and responsibilities. For leadership positions, the company offers sessions focused on emotional intelligence and team leadership, forming part of a broader framework that encompasses both functional capability and leadership development. This allows them to cultivate future leaders from within, fostering a sense of ownership and commitment to the organisation’s success.

Pande highlights the company’s commitment to internal mobility, stating, “We achieve a 25 per cent internal mobility rate, one of the best in the industry.” She further added, “This demonstrates Sterlite Power’s dedication to providing employees with opportunities for growth within the organisation. Newcomers benefit from the ‘Powerpath’ programme, which facilitates smooth assimilation and results in a low early-attrition rate of just 10 per cent. This also reflects Sterlite Power’s commitment to investing in its employees and ensuring they feel valued and supported from day one.”

Beyond its core focus, the ‘Serentica’ upskilling programme facilitates workforce movement within the company by 20 percent. This fosters a culture of shared knowledge, experience and growth within the company, empowering employees to explore new opportunities and fuelling the Group’s overall success.  High-potential talent identified through the ‘nine-boxer framework’ is retained through a combination of incentives, including rewards, ESOPs, and dedicated development support. “Impressively, 96 percent of our Top L talent remains with us,” reveals Pande. These individuals are then strategically placed across various organisational domains, ensuring their skills are utilised to their full potential and contributing to the company’s overall success.

Identifying these potential candidates happen through internal ‘Learning Advisory Councils’, ensuring a proactive approach to training needs. By actively seeking inputs from business units, the company identifies key areas of focus and tailors programmes accordingly. For instance, if the ‘Learning Advisory Council’ in the manufacturing facility identifies a need for TQM and TPM training, along with a notable demand for Six Sigma expertise, the organisation proactively engages with stakeholders to identify individuals who require training and nominates them to participate in relevant programmes.

Acknowledging the distinct needs of different groups within the workforce, Sterlite Power has developed programmes like ‘Empower Her’, which caters specifically to women aspiring for leadership roles. This initiative demonstrates their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, creating a level playing field for all employees to thrive.

Pande emphasises Sterlite Power’s proactive approach to training, stating, “We don’t wait for training requirements to arise; we pre-emptively curate programmes, ensuring our workforce is equipped with the necessary skills.” These programmes typically take six months to a year to complete, with quarterly progress monitoring in place to track their effectiveness. Partnerships with premium B schools such as IIMs and project management institutes ensure that these programmes are executed effectively and deliver tangible benefits to the participants.

Safety is a top priority at Sterlite Power, with mandated training programmes, such as sexual harassment prevention. This commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment further contributes to employee satisfaction and retention. Additionally, annual engagement surveys are conducted to gather valuable feedback and identify areas for improvement. Regular communication channels, including connections with the CHRO, skip sessions with line managers, and frequent town halls by the CEOs, also play a crucial role in fostering transparency and building trust within the organization.

“Looking ahead, our focus is on physical and mental health as a unified initiative,” reveals Pande, indicating a holistic approach to employee well-being. This commitment to employee well-being extends beyond just physical health and encompasses mental health initiatives as well.

Combating monotony is another key focus, with job rotation implemented for select teams to provide diverse experiences and keep employees engaged. Long-term rewards and recognition mechanisms are also offered to select teams, further motivating and incentivising employees. Leaders actively engage with employees at all levels, fostering a sense of connection and purpose while emphasising broader organisational goals.

Finally, Sterlite Power partners with external consultants to gain deeper insights into factors contributing to employee satisfaction and longevity. “We value constant innovation in people practices, strong leadership, and HR partner engagement,” concludes Pande. “This ensures that our employees not only join us but also choose to stay with us for the long term, creating a positive work environment that fosters excellence and fuels our success.”

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Quest Global brings deep industry knowledge and digital expertise to deliver E2E global product engineering services. It brings together technologies and industries alongside the contributions of diverse individuals and their areas of expertise to solve problems better and faster. This multi-dimensional approach enables it to solve the most critical and large-scale challenges across various industries, including aerospace & defense, automotive, energy, hi-tech, healthcare medical devices, rail and semiconductor industries.

TL:DR Attracting & Retaining high-quality talent in a Competitive Market

As product engineering service companies such as Quest Global continue to expand and evolve, they face several challenges. One of the biggest challenges is hiring and retaining expert talent. The need for more highly skilled and experienced engineers combined with the intense competition not only drives up salary but also causes revenue drain. This situation compels them to actively seek passive talent.

The leadership at Quest Global took the challenge head on. They married their vision of building high-quality talent pipelines with systematic data-driven execution to drive the desired outcomes.

Here’s the story of how Quest Global leveraged technology to fuel its strategic goals and enhanced its employee-referrals programme. This story got them a Silver award for excellence in talent acquisition from the prestigious Brandon Hall Group.

Challenges in building a strong talent pipeline

A strong talent pipeline is a must in order to solve tough engineering problems. Realising this, the leadership at Quest Global took a close look at the process followed at the company to attract new and right talent. Their evaluation led to interesting discoveries, challenges and limitations.

Discoveries

Changing workforce: Millennial and Gen Z candidates who form a substantial talent pool prioritise social and digital engagement. They prefer companies with strong online presence and a positive reputation.

Traditional methods: Job fairs and conventional referral techniques fall short when it comes to attracting the desired quantity and quality of candidates. This can stem from increased competition and evolving candidate preferences.

Diversity and inclusion: Quest aims to enhance workforce diversity. This requires a fresh recruitment approach and concerted efforts to connect with underrepresented groups.

The biggest challenge faced by Quest Global was attracting top talent, especially passive candidates. The traditional methods were clearly not enough to attract top notch talent. That is when the talent-acquisition (TA) function started drilling down on their employee referral channel.  While this programme had proven effective in the past, it came with its own limitations.

Limitations with previous referral process

Technology & user-friendliness: Lack of a central tool for promoting, tracking and gamifying the referral programme. The manual process was time consuming.

Transparency & engagement: Communication delays, tracking errors and limited visibility dampen employee enthusiasm. Identifying duplicate referrals was complex.

Reward system: The entire referral process was reactive. Employees tend to refer candidates only when a new opportunity arises or when someone in their network reaches out to them for a job opportunity. Moreover, determining the incentives (monetary or non-monetary) for employees remained a bigger challenge.

Referral quality: Quest Global used to receive applications in huge volumes. However, the lack of data and actionable insights made it difficult for the TA team to handle this process efficiently. Identifying suitable candidates took longer, extending hiring cycles and costs.

Visibility: Employees lacked clear details about available positions. Even in cases where they managed to find out about vacancies, they lacked visibility on the status of referrals. All of this was leading to uncertainty within the organisation and reduced interest in the referral process. Inadequate guidance and confusion regarding whom to contact or how to submit referrals also contributed to the problem.

Reach: Choosing between a targeted referral approach for specific roles or opening every position for referral presents a dilemma. Selective referrals attract top talent for crucial roles but can narrow the programme’s reach. Conversely, opening all positions to referrals can create a broad pool of potential candidates, yet it may also result in more lower-quality referrals and a less focused hiring process.

Referral database: The talent acquisition or TA team was exploring ways to utilise their current employee-referral database for staffing various roles.

Referral definition: What qualifies as a valuable referral? How to ensure employees understand the programme clearly?

Quest Global recognised that solving this complex challenge, involving multiple stakeholders, required adopting smart and adaptable talent-acquisition technology.

Transforming talent acquisition by leveraging technology

To address these challenges, Quest Global planned to create a centralised and structured referral programme. The goal was  to tap into its vast employees’ network and attract high-quality candidates efficiently, leading to better retention rates and increased employee engagement. The company believed that involving employees in the recruitment process would foster a culture of collaboration and teamwork, driving the organisation’s overall success.

Quest Global partnered with RippleHire, a market leader in talent-acquisition technology to drive innovative campaigns and reward employees who referred potential candidates, thereby also boosting the referral culture within the organisation. By using RippleHire’s user-friendly interface, employees could participate in fun contests, easily share job openings through social media platforms such as WhatsApp, and refer candidates effortlessly. The referral engine provided the TA team with the ability to run special campaigns and reward employees for referring talent to niche job openings.

Building a dynamic employee-referral programme

The TA team initiated a comprehensive approach to build a dynamic employee-referral programme. They launched an employee survey to gather feedback. Employees voiced their displeasure over the complicated referral process on the ATS, the struggle to identify right roles and lack of regular updates on referred applications.

Here are a few steps they followed to ensure the programme was as effective as planned:

1. Launching the programme on the RippleHire platform, Quest Global introduced an intuitive dashboard with essential elements such as referral status updates, contests and gamification features to ensure a smooth user experience.

2. The TA team fostered active participation through engaging emails, and innovative referral contests. The team also promoted top referrers both on social media and internal channels.

3. Attractive incentives, including cash bonuses and paid weekend getaways motivated employees to participate.

4. The programme’s integration into employee induction and the appointment of a dedicated programme manager further enhanced engagement.

5. Targeted efforts in specific locations and the use of a business-intelligence dashboard allowed data-driven decision-making and optimisation.

6. Lastly, seamless integration with the larger talent-management strategy and Single-Sign-On (SSO) functionality improved the employee experience. Additionally, critical process improvements and leadership involvement, along with recognition for top recruiters, strengthened the programme’s impact and encouraged ongoing participation.

Goals achieved

Evolution into a reliable ally for the world’s toughest engineering problems

Quest Global’s employee-referral programme has surpassed all expectations. It has established itself as a resounding success by contributing to an impressive 23 per cent of the hiring, exceeding the initial goals set by the company. By leveraging the company’s strong culture and employer brand, coupled with its positive turn on investment (RoI), the employee-referral programme continues to play a pivotal role in shaping Quest Global’s talent acquisition and retention strategies.

The programme’s remarkable achievements align seamlessly with the organisation’s core objectives of building a high-quality talent pool, which helps them solve the world’s toughest engineering problems. Looking ahead, the programme has set its sights on an even more ambitious target of achieving 40 per cent of all hiring. To accomplish this feat, Quest Global is prepared to expand its reach to new talent pools in different regions, while remaining acutely mindful of cultural nuances.

The author, Sudarsan Ravi is the Founder and CEO of RippleHire and is known as a pioneer and category creator in recruitment technology.

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However, there’s one more great benefit of having good talent and that is to attract more good talent to the organisation.

“A company that attracts top talent is often seen as a desirable place to work, and this can help attract even more high-quality employees,” says Ravi Chopra, senior HR leader & former group CHRO, Hero Motors Company.

“Having a team of high-performing employees creates a virtuous cycle, where one good hire attracts another and so on. This results in a company with a strong culture, high morale and a positive reputation.”

Ravi Chopra, senior HR leader & former group CHRO, Hero Motors Company

“Having a team of high-performing employees creates a virtuous cycle, where one good hire attracts another and so on. This results in a company with a strong culture, high morale and a positive reputation,” points out Chopra. High performers generate a sense of positivity and create good vibes within the workplace. These high-potential employees tend to infect others, who have latent energy, with their positive energy and disposition. The snowball effect thus created grows into a high-performing culture within the organisation.

High-performing employees spread the good word about the organisation’s culture beyond the workplace. They end up unknowingly doing their bit to help create an attractive employee value proposition or EVP for the organisation. This further helps the company attract and retain good talent.

Chopra opines, “High-quality talent also act as brand ambassadors for the company, always speaking highly about the culture during their interactions with customers and friends.”

“Another reason why quality talent attracts similar high-potential workers is because the perception created is that these organisations (that have good talent) respect great talent and that is why they’ve hired such people,” says Pallavi Poddar, CHRO, Fenesta Windows. The kind of processes that exist, and the kind of work that great talent do in an organisation motivate the existing ones to leverage and learn from them. Therefore, people really aspire to work in such organisations because they get opportunities to learn from the good talent.

“Another reason why quality talent attracts similar high-potential workers is because the perception created is that these organisations (that have good talent) respect great talent and that is why they’ve hired such people.”

Pallavi Poddar, CHRO, Fenesta Windows

The ace talent know why they are high potential. Hence, they assess people with a similar perspective as they are more evolved and mature. Therefore, they bring in more ownership, more competence and more knowledge. “Their understanding of business is much more, and their understanding of the raw function is better from the external perspective. Therefore, the  good talent also assess them the right way,” points out Poddar.

If the existing employees are happy with the company culture, benefits and growth opportunities, they may recommend the company to their friends and colleagues. “High-performing employees are often connected to other top performers in their network and may refer them to the company,” adds Ashish Pinto, CHRO, Nesco. This creates a positive cycle, where one good hire attracts another, leading to a company with a strong culture, high morale and a positive reputation.

Poddar believes that referrals are more like schemes that help in terms of getting more number of people. However, the good employees who are also engaged are the best combination as they are the big brand ambassadors of the organisation. They contribute even more when they talk very highly of the organisation and refer the organisation to their peers and to the industry.

“High-performing employees are often connected to other top performers in their network and may refer them to the company.”

Ashish Pinto, CHRO, Nesco

Poddar opines, “Good talent obviously possess the skills, required competencies and values that set them apart from the rest of the world. They will not recommend anyone who will adversely impact their image and value. They will only recommend quality talent with similar values that will help them grow the organisation or contribute significantly to organisational growth.”

Companies’ role in nurturing good talent

A company that offers opportunities for career advancement and professional development along with a supportive and motivating work environment, is more likely to attract and retain top talent. “Top talent not only need growth opportunities, but challenging opportunities, so that they can aspire to work in the right direction,” says Poddar.

“The HR department needs to create systems and opportunities around knowledge sharing, and provide learning platforms where high performers can share their success stories with others,” points out Chopra. The performance-management system (PMS) must also be aligned to motivate the high performers and take care of their recognition and growth within the organisation.

A team of high performers can create a positive cycle, where one good hire attracts another, leading to a strong company culture, high morale and a positive reputation. Together, these elements contribute to making the company a more attractive place to work. This, in turn, attracts even better talent.

Poddar also points out, “We have to start educating organisations on the importance of hiring the right talent. Great talent always comes at a premium. They may be expensive and they may have their own perceptions. Hence, managing them is not easy.” Organisations will have to work extra to manage the good talent. Such talent have more aspirations because they know that if they are in the market they can easily find opportunities or be lured.

It’s important for companies to value their ace-quality talent, by assigning them the right tasks and challenges. Organisations should also have the right philosophy and the right rewarding structure so that their star performers remain motivated and charged, and continue to aspire to do better.

“Good talent, when sufficiently motivated, acts as a role model within the organization and inspires other colleagues. They generate a sense of positivity and good vibe inside the workplace. Every company has talented employees inside. One can see them buzzing with energy and positive spirit and always standing tall above the rest. It is the primary role of a leader to identify this talent at an early stage and invest in them,” concludes Chopra.

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So how does HR decide whether talent acquisition is more important or retention? For some businesses, acquiring big teams is not a priority. For instance, according to a white paper, companies such as Raytheon, a defence contractor firm in the US, are able to create value with a relatively small team of engineers. On the other hand, companies working in the retail or pharmaceutical sectors, need a huge sales force, and therefore, it is common for them to maintain large sales teams, depending upon the scale of work.

“Aligning the company culture with the purpose of the individual can take care of the retention factor”

Jayant Kumar, president – HR, Adani Ports & SEZ

We are aware that the attrition rate is relatively high in the IT sector in India, where people are the most valuable assets. In such sectors, employee retention becomes critical. Recently, it was reported that Infosys faced an increase in attrition rate from 10 per cent to 15.2 per cent in the January -March quarter. In the last quarter of FY 21, TCS and HCL were the only companies that managed to keep their attrition rate below 10 per cent. So, what should be the focus — talent acquisition or talent retention? Does it vary from company to company or industry to industry?

Either way – part of the same coin

According to Rajorshi Ganguli, president & global HR head, Alkem Laboratories, both talent acquisition and talent retention are part of the talent-management strategy in a company. Therefore, it is difficult to conclude which is more important or more relevant.

In fact, Ganguli believes that both are quite related at times. If the talent-acquisition strategy is good — which also includes getting people on board properly, giving them a good onboarding experience — it has a positive impact on the tenure of the talent in the company. Although there are other tools and techniques for better retention, this also makes a difference.

“One cannot really separate talent acquisition from talent retention, because both these functions form an integral part of the whole talent-management strategy”

Rajorshi Ganguli, president & global HR head, Alkem Laboratories

“One cannot really separate talent acquisition from talent retention, because both these functions form an integral part of the whole talent-management strategy,” says Ganguli.

Retention is always a challenge

On the other hand, Chandrasekhar Mukherjee, CHRO, Bhilosa Group, believes that talent retention is relatively more important than talent acquisition. He feels it is comparatively easier to acquire or recruit talent by giving attractive benefits and compensation, than retaining them, which is a much more difficult job.

Another factor is that the cost of replacing talent is very high as compared to acquiring new talent across levels. Also, if the attrition rate of the company is high, it tends to raise questions on the employer brand of the company. “For me, retention is more important because it directly impacts the employer brand of the company, and building a brand takes a fairly long time,” explains Mukherjee.

For acquiring talent, the HR team does not require too many skills, but the retention of talent depends on several factors. “Developing a good culture, transparency, equity, creating opportunities to grow within the organisation and ensuring engagement, requires a lot of skill and is a part of a number sub-functions within HR,” adds Mukherjee.

“For me, retention is more important because it directly impacts the employer brand of the company, and building a brand takes a fairly long time”

Chandrasekhar Mukherjee, CHRO, Bhilosa Group

Reetu Raina, CHRO, Quick Heal also feels talent retention is more important for multiple reasons. First, people who stay on for long do not only add value to the company, but also the employer brand, which further helps attract good talent. Second, if a company focuses on retaining talent it reduces the pressure on the talent-acquisition team. Third, the internally- groomed talent, which stays for longer periods of time, also emerge as future leaders for the company. That means, the company will not have buy talent for leadership roles in the future.

Quick Heal works in a segment where it is difficult to find ready-made talent. Still, the company acquires people who are quite ready for the role they are taking on. “I get 80 per cent ready talent from the talent market. We focus on retaining our talent and investing in upskilling them,” shares Raina.

Does the focus on talent acquisition or retention depend on the nature of the companies, or the industry they operate in? Mukherjee is sure that retention will anyway be more important for any company, even if it requires to hire in huge numbers in certain functions. “Even in the pharma sector, where the sales force is quite big, no company would want people to leave as it can result in loosing intellectual business knowledge to other companies,” points out Mukherjee.

Ganguli thinks that acquisition and retention are both equally important, but at the same time, he does agree that retention becomes more important in companies or industries where the attrition level is very high. “I believe a low attrition rate is healthy as it can help weed out non-performers, but yes, if the attrition rate is high, such as in the IT sector, retention will gain importance in the affected companies,” says Ganguli.

“I get 80 per cent ready talent from the talent market. We focus on retaining our talent and investing in upskilling them”

Reetu Raina, CHRO, Quick Heal

Talent acquisition is complex; needs focussed approach

For some HR leaders, talent retention is more important and for some both are vital to the talent- management strategy. However, Jayant Kumar, president – HR, Adani Ports & SEZ, is of the opinion that talent acquisition is more important than talent retention. Kumar believes that talent acquisition involves a lot of complex processes. First, one needs to see the fitment factor of the candidate.

Simply sourcing talent is not enough, but sourcing it from the right platform and making it available to the hiring managers is important. Also, at times, it is essential to train the hiring managers too.

Additionally, as recruiters, it is very important to understand the organisational culture and what type of people can thrive in that culture. Giving an example, Kumar shares that there are two kinds of people — ones who oppose innovation and ones who are all for it. The former like to work in a more structured and organised environment, where rules are strictly followed with less scope for changes and innovation, while the latter want to be empowered and bring innovation to the table. Understanding the internal culture is necessary to attract the right people who can survive and thrive in the company’s culture. This, in turn, ensures retention.

“Aligning the company culture with the purpose of the individual can take care of the retention factor,” opines Kumar.

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Organisations are working hard to improve their workplace culture, so as to create a great employee experience, to attract the best talent and also retain them. Attracting and retaining talent has become a big challenge today. Companies are investing huge resources to improve their workplace culture. They have introduced wellness programmes, leave policies for new parents, bereavement leave, and so on to attract talent. But do they know for sure that their investment is actually improving the culture?

They first need to know the fundamental building blocks for a successful workplace culture and then act upon them.

A survey by OC Tanner, has identified six aspects of great workplace culture, which every employee looks for in an organisation. These key features are—purpose, opportunity, success, appreciation, wellbeing and leadership.

Purpose: Purpose means connecting employees to the organisation’s reason for existence or the difference it makes in the world. People long to connect to something bigger and more important than themselves. Organisations need to connect the ‘why’ of their organisation to the goals, longing for meaning, and desire to have an impact that live inside every employee, which is where most organisations fail.

Of the employees surveyed, 71 per cent said that their organisation has a clear purpose and 62 per cent think their organisation positively affects the lives of others. 63 per cent believe that their organisation makes a social impact. Surprisingly, 40 per cent think their organisation only cares about its profit and only 54 per cent of the respondents say their organisation’s purpose motivates them.

Opportunity: Opportunity means providing employees the ability to learn new skills, develop, and contribute. Most of the organisations equate opportunity with only promotion and career path, but this is not the true meaning of opportunity for an employee. There are other aspects, besides promotion.

The survey found that, 59 per cent of the employees surveyed believe there is a ceiling of advancement for them within their current organisation. Only 55 per cent of the employees agree that they regularly learn new, valuable things in their current role, whereas 44 per cent feel stagnant or stuck. Around 50 per cent admit their skills are underutilised in their present capacity. Also, only 55 percent of employees have seen personal growth in their organisation.

Success: Success means giving employees the opportunity to innovate, do meaningful work, and be on winning teams. Employees fell most successful when an they expand the influence of their job, go beyond what is expected, and purposefully create improvements that benefit others.

The survey found that only 46 per cent of the employees say that working for their organisation is like playing for a winning team. Around 42 percent of the employees believe when they reach a goal, it goes unnoticed. Also, 22 per cent of the employees say their organisation rarely sets goals.

Appreciation: Appreciation means acknowledging and recognising employees’ outstanding work, talent and unique contributions. Employees can be formally and informally recognised. Peers and leaders can verbally praise employees’ achievements and celebrate.

The survey found that 50 per cent of the employees believe their organisation takes them and other employees for granted. Only 43 per cent of the employees think their organisation rewards high- performing employees. Also, one in three employees think they don’t receive enough acknowledgement from their team members. 36 per cent of employees rarely recognise each other when great work is done. Surprisingly, only 51 per cent say the recognition they receive is authentic and sincere.

Wellbeing: Wellbeing means paying attention to and constantly working to improve employees’ physical, social, emotional, and financial health. We know that work creates negative stress in an employee’s life. So, taking care of employees is very important to make them productive. Employees want to be treated as people not just as means for the organisation to make profit.

The survey found that only 50 per cent of the employees think wellbeing is a strong part of their organisation’s culture. Further, only 58 per cent of the employees say their job allow them to balance their work and personal life. Around, 36 percent believe their situation at work is hurting their ability to be happy in other aspects of their life. Besides, more than one in three employees say their job has a negative effect on their physical health.

Leadership: Leadership means connecting employees to purpose, empowering them to excel, and creating a sense of camaraderie. The survey has found that a large number of employees do not trust their direct managers and senior leaders. Also, many leaders are not successful in motivating employees, sharing responsibilities, advocating their employees, deriving passion and commitment.
More than one in four employees do not trust their direct manager and 35 per cent do not trust senior leaders at their organisation. One in three employees say their direct managers do not know the people on their teams as individuals, and that they are all seen as just workers. Around 31 per cent of employees do not trust their direct managers to stand up for them or have their back.

Employees surveyed used a common term ‘stress’ to describe their organisation’s culture. A lot of employees were not satisfied with their current workplace culture. On an average, employees rate their current workplace culture at 65 on a 100-point scale. This means, there is still great scope for organisations to improve their culture.

Organisations that marginally improve in each of these six areas see dramatic developments in recruiting, engagement, tenure, satisfaction, and other business metrics, such as revenue growth and expansion.

The survey was done among 10,000 full-time employees working for mid-to large-sized companies, between the ages of 25 and 50 years. The study covered India, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, UK, Germany, South Africa, China, Japan, Singapore, Australia and the US.

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Snapdeal, that has been wading through some turbulent times in the past few months, amid business losses and consequent layoffs, recently reportedly said it will offer an average pay hike of 12–15 per cent.

Speculations are rife that the e-commerce major is looking to assure employees of their positions, as it looks for a potential buyer. The pay revision will apparently be effective from April 1 and will see salaries of employees at the mid- and junior-levels go up by an average 12–15 per cent.

Interestingly, only a few months back, the founders wrote in an official message to the employees that owing to their past mistakes, they will take a ‘100 per cent pay cut’. Now, the company is offering the senior management a hike of 9–12 per cent. The company may also reportedly offer 20–25 per cent raise to exceptional performers.

If some reports are to be believed, the organisation plans to distribute nearly 1 per cent of its stock to about 150 employees.

The decision to dole out such lucrative incentives comes at a time when Snapdeal’s largest investor, SoftBank, is apparently working towards the sale of the e-commerce platform and a final decision is likely to be made in the next few weeks.

In addition, the company currently has about 3,000 people in its e-commerce operations. It is reported that almost all of these present and ex-employees hold five to six per cent of the company’s stocks in the form of employee stock options (ESOPs).

It is being speculated that Alibaba-backed Paytm is also in the fray as a potential buyer apart from Flipkart. Alibaba is also a shareholder in Snapdeal. Although there has been no official statement from Snapdeal and SoftBank on the speculations of sale so far, co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, in a recent letter to the employees, had indicated that the company’s investors are “driving the discussions around the way forward”.

If Snapdeal does get sold to Flipkart, the deal will mark the biggest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce space and change the landscape of the sector, which is witnessing intense competition among players.

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