Seven hundred companies signed up for India’s Best Companies to Work for 2015. Over 1.8 lakh employees across 20 sectors were surveyed, making this the most comprehensive survey of workplace culture in India. Let’s take a look at the top 10 Best companies to work for in 2015.
RMSI, Rank: 1
RMSI is an IT services company based in the National Capital Region offering GIS (geographic information system), modeling & analytics and software services. The company edged past Google India, which has consistently topped the survey for five consecutive years. RMSI had topped the rankings in 2009. For almost a year now, RMSI has been busy communicating its core values, mission, culture and vision across to all its employees. The company focuses on simple employee engagement practices like holding timely workshops to help employees develop life skills.
Google India, Rank: 2
At Google, an HR activity that translates into employee satisfaction is that they can play a role in managing how their careers are shaped. Every employee takes ownership of their career. They manage their own career and are supported by their managers in the process. This process helps employees feel a sense of empowerment to take critical decisions about what they want to do as a next step to build their career. They are also working on building a more transparent HR system where there isn’t just an annual performance appraisal by managers and peers but also a system by which employees can evaluate their colleagues to give real time feedback. Google has also put its weight behind preventive health checkups for spouses of employees (unique to India) as well as educating employees against unconscious biases.
Marriott Hotels, Rank: 3
Every person who works for Marriott is called an ‘associate,’ not an employee. Many of the employees have worked for more than 10 years, even as Marriott in India is just 15 years old. Marriott’s culture is simple – ‘Take care of the associates’. The company has retained this policy for almost 86 years. They believe that this makes the employees take care of their customers and which in turn helps in customers coming back to their properties.
American Express, Rank: 4
To help its young employees find a personal – professional balance, Amex introduced a ‘Smart Savings’ programme in July last year that enhances overall financial wellness of employees. With access to an online portal and an onsite helpdesk, employees are educated and updated on their earnings and long term savings. The company has an active Women’s Interest Network that helps enable relevant forums and benefits such as Mothers’ nursing rooms in major offices.
SAP Labs India, Rank: 5
Toast, eggs, dosas and juice – it’s all on the breakfast menu at the SAP Labs cafeteria. While the menu may seem fairly standard, the breakfast itself is not – it’s prepared by none other than senior management.
Women employees, in particular, have much to cheer about, as in the last year, SAP Labs India has upped its paid maternity leave to 20 weeks from the legally mandated 12. Paid adoption leave is also available for 20 weeks.
Godrej Consumer Products, Rank : 6
It is the culture of empowerment, recognition, engagement and happy work environment that makes GCPL a great place to work. “For us the critical things are (spread on) three dimensions– of being able to provide our employees with great careers, great rewards and great engagement and also a fourth dimension of a great environment. the company’s approach to recruitment, when it rolled out an innovative campus initiative called LOUD (Live Out Ur Dream), to identify some of the most passionate and creative individuals and the kind that would be the next generation of Godrej employees.
Intuit Technology Services, Rank: 7
At Intuit, diversity isn’t only about gender. LGBT issues are at the forefront, with the company initiating dialogue through the Pride Network, launched in October last year. Also, employees are encouraged to innovate on new projects outside their own, as part of “unstructured time” or about 10% of their working hours. These solutions can be turned into products during innovation jams and incubation weeks, and later tested on customers.
Accor Hotels, Rank: 8
Accor Hotels has introduced a suite of in-house training academies to train and polish their talent further. Academie Accor India is a self-sustaining virtual training headed by a dedicated India campus manager and supported by 27 multibrand certified trainers to ensure access to training, learning and development opportunities for all Accor employees.
Forbes Marshall, Rank: 9
Diversity is something Forbes has actively pursued. At 22%, it has among the highest proportion of women employees, especially for a manufacturing company, but Forbes feels that this can be bettered. The company was among the first to recruit interns from Kashmir a few years ago and it tries to ensure adequate geographic and community representation across all its business units and teams. There is an all women group called ‘Apna Adda’ which provides a platform for the women to get together and discuss all kinds of issues, whether related to their professional or personal lives.
Lifestyle International, Rank: 10
The company believes in work-life balance, and introduced flexible working hours (with a two hour window in the morning and evenings), for employees. Corporate Theatre is an innovative and informal learning technique based on the street play methodology that is being used to educate, enlighten, entertain and engage Landmark employees. Their trainers have been certified on Corporate Theatre by professional theatre artists through a 4 day certification program, who in turn enact policies of the company to employees.
