Microfinance institutions are playing their part in reaching out to the unbanked population. Amidst such a milieu, educating the employees of the true essence of the business, its mission and vision can help keep the employee morale high. S Muralidharan, Head-HR, Equitas Micro Finance India Pvt. Ltd., shares, “We invest a lot of time in ensuring our people understand the vision and mission of the organization and this helps them to comprehend the real meaning of the work that they are doing.” Equitas sees its employees as its assets, who take great pride in their job as it means touching the lives of the poor and thereby helping them lead a better and respected life. The philosophy of employee care at Equitas is oriented towards improvement of quality of life (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual).

In fact, Equitas defied the prevailing perception of scaling down the employee count during the crisis time and stood by its employees. As the number of defaulters increased, collection became a much tougher job; being an employee-friendly organization, Equitas decided that there would be no retrenchment and thus ensured that the employees were not left to bear the brunt of the crisis alone. They initiated two business lines to redeploy surplus employees after providing them adequate training, which in turn increased employee commitment. Be it in providing the field staff a special ‘snack allowance,’ or a raincoat, or facilitating them get a two-wheeler, their efforts directed towards the well-being of their employees.

The senior management, including the Group President-Operations (Mr. K P Venkatesh), are involved in attracting & retaining the right talent and building a leadership pipeline. Initiatives like, ‘a day in the life of’ provides a platform for sales/relationship officers to directly interact with the MD, and also helps fine tune the existing HR policies (a recent example being that of the inclusion of the employees’ parents in health insurance offered by the organization). It is their concern for people as reflected in their initiatives that make Equitas as a great workplace.