Transparency, flexibility and work-life balance, offered at the workplace, provide a unique experience to Agilent employees. Agilent Technologies makes calculated efforts in directing all its deliberation towards emerging as a winning workplace, where people can continue to innovate, deliver and perform. In India, Agilent takes advantage of all that India has to offer, being an emerging economy by providing electronic and bio-analytical measurement solution to companies across industries. The other entity is the team that operates out of their new facility in Manesar, which supports Agilent’s global operation including financial services, IT & business centres and R&D.

They continuously keep a check on their culture through the ‘Leadership Audit Survey’. The survey has questions which are sent to all Agilent employees worldwide every 6 months where they are asked to rate their manager, and this exercise culminates into the manager’s Leadership Audit Score. It is important for the score to meet the target; else HR intervenes to help the manager identify his/her improvement areas. The ‘Leadership Audit Score’ of a manager holds great relevance during promotions or career movements. Parmeet S. Ahuja, President & Country GM, and Zacharias Cherian, Country HR Manager, share more on what makes Agilent Technologies a great workplace:

What are the initiatives that make Agilent Technologies a great workplace?
Zacharias Cherian: The concept of MAPS (My Accountability & Performance Standards) is the foundation of our culture and that is something that is very unique. We operate on the mantra of managing people by objective. In Agilent, we do not believe in telling a person how to do a job, but believe in telling people what needs to be done, providing them with the required tools and resources, and empowering them to get the job done.

Please tell us about the unique approach to learning & development?
Parmeet S. Ahuja: The senior management invests both time and money to facilitate employees to develop on their skills for current and future roles. Identified potential leaders go through development roadmaps which have several components viz. on-the-job, action-learning projects, Leaders teaching Leaders through real-life case studies, face-to-face classroom training and a quarterly Leadership Organizational Readiness process. As you can see, classroom training is only a small component of how we approach Learning and Development. Training at Agilent is more than just ticking off a box that says ‘training completed’. The senior management invests time and money to facilitate employees to develop on their skills for current and future roles. So, it is not about investing money alone; we also invest time to take direct and honest feedback from the managers.
Another example of innovation in learning is learning by observing critical business meetings; for example in the ‘Enterprise Financial Services Organization’, we regularly allow silent listeners in meetings. Routinely, leaders are part of calls that are sensitive in nature. Allowing employees on the team to access those conversations ‘in silent mode’ gives them experience and insight into how to handle situations like these. And additionally, it also helps strengthen the bond between the employee and the manager.