Article: INDUSTRY AWARDS: Banking / Credit Services

Employee Engagement

INDUSTRY AWARDS: Banking / Credit Services

#1 American Express American Express prides itself in being one of the best known brands in the world and attributes this reputation to its consistent ranking as a great employer to work with. A personalized integration plan is created for new employees to suit their particular roles. Customer facing roles interact with the Communications Council to keep their communication timely, relevant and accurate. Leaders are also oriented on effective communication to employees to manage change. Employee Focus Groups gauge employee perception on topical issues which in turn guides policy design. Various development and mentoring plans are instituted to ensure a high quality of service by employees and continual learning by them. Employees feel greatly bonded with the brand ‘Blue Box’ and accord to it utmost credit in their personal development.
 

Employees have felt bonded with the employer's brand after experiencing respect and recognition by leadership for personal excellence

 

We are an egalitarian organization and this functional difference makes us different from the rest

 

#1 American Express

American Express prides itself in being one of the best known brands in the world and attributes this reputation to its consistent ranking as a great employer to work with. A personalized integration plan is created for new employees to suit their particular roles. Customer facing roles interact with the Communications Council to keep their communication timely, relevant and accurate. Leaders are also oriented on effective communication to employees to manage change. Employee Focus Groups gauge employee perception on topical issues which in turn guides policy design. Various development and mentoring plans are instituted to ensure a high quality of service by employees and continual learning by them. Employees feel greatly bonded with the brand ‘Blue Box’ and accord to it utmost credit in their personal development.

#2. Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.

The company seeks and nurtures entrepreneurship in its employees. Its highly structured induction programs orient new employees on the company work culture, products, policies and ways to interact with the leadership so that individuals feel equipped to work independently. Additionally, achievement oriented recognition and ‘storming workshops’ ensure a high level of motivation among employees. Feedback from employees has been congratulatory of the company’s culture of according freedom to innovate as that has enhanced productivity and learning even among freshers. Employees have felt bonded with the employer’s brand after experiencing respect and recognition by leadership for personal excellence.

#3. IFCL Limited

IFCI Ltd. is a remarkable example of an organization which beyond doubts inspires the most genuine pride in its employees and blends employee development along with nurturing their personal side of life by activities such as hobby clubs. Ranked #3 in the Industry Category of the Banking / Credit Services sector in the Great Place to Work® Institute’s Study, IFCI offers immense growth opportunities to its employees. One of the oldest financial institutions of the country, IFCI faced severe financial crisis during the round of the new millennium. However, the turnaround of the organization from the financial crisis has inspired a lasting motivation in the hearts of its employees. In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Mr. Atul Kumar Rai, CEO & Managing Director, IFCI talks about how the company managed this feat.

IFCI has been recognized as the third best company in the Banking/Credit Services Industry in terms of having a great workplace by the Great Place to Work® Institute’s Study. What does this recognition mean to you?
This recognition from the Great Place to Work® Institute is a validation of our claim that we at IFCI endeavor to provide to our employees the best workplace ethics and practices. Without this recognition, it would have been just a claim.

So, how did you go about becoming a great workplace for your employees?
In terms of the HR practices being followed at IFCI, in some sense we’re still evolving. We did not set out with the objective of becoming a great workplace.Initially, what concerned us the most was the work culture in our organization primarily because of the fact that we came from a Public Sector background and were not aligned to the changed business paradigm. From having a workforce of around 1,200, we have come down to 250. So there has been a drastic reduction of the workforce at IFCI. A few years ago, we were in a state of operational hibernation. But when we decided to turnaround the company’s performance, we looked at having new skill sets. Then we also looked at cutting down the levels of hierarchy prevalent in our organization. Processes such as the distribution model had to be changed. We had to devise such processes so that our people also could easily take work-related decisions. IFCI as an organization wanted to relate to people in a large scale format. And since our workforce had reduced tremendously, it became easier for us to communicate with our people in a more personalized manner and on a person-to-person basis. So, there was a change in the communication mode from being indirect to direct. This change in the communication helped us to understand what we can do better in terms of infrastructure, and in terms of life cycle expectation of our employees in a broader sense than compensation.

Talking of compensation, how do you structure the pay of your employees given the stiff competition in the Banking Industry and that head hunters are always on the look out to poach good talent?
As far as compensation is concerned, we believe in giving freedom in variable pay. Our compensation levels are at the mode and median point of the industry standards. Coming onto talent poaching by head hunters, our small size made it possible for us to devise a career graph of our employees. We inculcate a sense of purpose within our employees and we reassure them that IFCI will always be an entity that is driven by the sense of public purpose. Our employees take pride in the fact that IFCI as an organization is exceptionally important for the growth of the economy. Certainly, we can’t hold on to our employees if they are offered better package, but we strive to hold on to our promise of making the work exciting and relevant for them. We have younger people working for us as well. In the last two years only we hired 40 young professionals, of which only 3 left us. At IFCI, we give immense importance to discussion with our employees and take their opinion in varied matters. We allow our workforce to experiment and entrust them with responsibilities at a very early stage of their career, which not only makes them more accountable, but also makes them realize that the organization trusts their decisions and judgments. This makes them confident and launches them into a different orbit. We are an egalitarian organization and this functional difference makes us different from the rest.
 

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Topics: Employee Engagement, Culture, #BestPractices

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