Article: Build an organization where the employee feels important: Mukul Chopra, Club Factory

Employee Engagement

Build an organization where the employee feels important: Mukul Chopra, Club Factory

In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Mukul Chopra, Head HR, Club Factory shares his views on what organizations can do to create a superlative employee experience.
Build an organization where the employee feels important: Mukul Chopra, Club Factory

The experience that employees derive from their organization is largely based on how companies make them feel; people may work for a salary or economic realities but ultimately, people should feel great about their association with an organization.

As the world of work undergoes disruption, embraces digital and faces a fierce war for talent and skills, creating an employee experience (EX) that differentiates employers and actually retains talent is going to be critical in all aspects. 

In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Mukul Chopra, Head HR, Club Factory shares his views on what organizations can do to create a superlative employee experience.

Creating an employee experience (EX) that differentiates employers and actually retains talent is going to be critical in all aspects. What are some of the critical things organizations can do to build a differentiated employee experience?

We believe in being the employer of choice and thus a lot of effort has been made keeping employee experience at topmost priority. At Club Factory, we have chartered out our priorities. Right from hiring, the focus is on getting the right candidate. With the emphasis on competency-based hiring, attention is paid to cultural fit of the candidate 

Employee engagement is being done at three basic steps: 

o Right from selection till the employee joins the organization, the TA team is in constant touch with the candidate and is there to support with any query related to joining, documentation or relocation support

o The joining experience plays an important part in creating an impression with the employee and helping him/her settle down in the organization. A proper introduction with the stakeholders, welcome kit, buddy assignment and then introduction with the team are some of the steps taken.

o Engagement with the employee even after he/she leaves the organization creates a long-lasting impact and helps in spreading positive word-of-mouth. It also keeps the ex-employee engaged with the organization. Documentation and/or any other support required and F&F is done as per the timelines and the communication channel with the employee is always open

Engagement is not limited to an occasional celebration and other such initiatives. It is deep-rooted in building a career path for the employee and thus training, horizontal growth with respect to the role is always important to help the employee expand his/her horizon.

The best engagement is when an employee feels that his/her contribution is valued in the organization and thus lining up the R&R accordingly is an important aspect. An organization with the goals aligned to the last role will always have an engaged workforce. Also, leadership plays an important role in driving the culture of the organization and leading by example in all the tasks we take is a norm. This has helped us in building an organization with a performance-driven culture

How do you build a business case for EX such that it translates in every decision in the talent strategy to maximize business success. How can you design your EX vision to align it with your business metric?

Talent Strategy becomes the core when it comes to business success. An organization performs as well as the single most employees’ performance. Thus, planning in terms of Talent Requirement, Talent Sourcing and the selection process speaks volumes about the success an organization attains. Competency-based hiring helps us to get the right candidate for the role, but deep diving into getting the right cultural fit helps us in getting a highly engaged employee. This is the culture the leaders have harped upon. The goals are top to bottom driven and it helps in aligning every employee of the organization with the bigger organizational goal and each employee contributes towards the organization’s success story.

There are many factors that can make or break Employee Experience, and one of the most critical ones is – the leadership. A leader’s role starts from first understanding what constitutes a great employee experience, the steps to make it happen, leading by example, and making EX a business priority for everyone. What are some of the things leaders can do to set such an example?

Leadership becomes the core and the most important aspect, especially in a startup scenario and in the highly competitive market scenario with respect to the industry we are in. The basics of leadership remain the same, but the application - by having an understanding of the situation and the employees is something that has made us grow as an organization. The trust factor on the team, the independence and the sense of responsibility with which the team operates, the acceptance of failure and handholding the team to rise again to succeed, recognizing the situational leaders and helping them grow and leading by example in all aspects makes this team a force to reckon with.

How do you institute recognition programs that enable physical, mental, social and/or emotional wellness with high employee coverage, deliver a great employee experience and build a culture that performs?

Recognition plays an important role in driving performance and we have always harped upon building a performance-driven organization. 

Nothing succeeds better than a spot recognition of the effort and even a small announcement and a round of applause make the employee feel important. The Performance Management System too follows a quarterly appraisal process to help the employee reflect on his/her performance and align better for the next quarter. This builds up to the yearly performance and thus helps in negating the regency effect which normally happens with the yearly appraisal process.

In our organization, a well-set reward and recognition process is on board which helps in recognition of the efforts of the employees at the organizational level. We celebrate each other’s success as a team and it leads to a cumulative success of the team

What are some of the things in your organization’s culture that contribute to building a superior employee experience which in turn translates into better customer experience?

We are focussed on building an organization where the employee feels important and has a sense of responsibility towards the organization’s success.

The hiring and selection process, the engagement with the candidate, the employee career enhancement path, the employee support system - providing him/her with the best support to perform duties, a fair and open PMS system, making employees contribute towards building employee engagement efforts, creating an atmosphere of an open culture where an employee feels free to approach anyone in the organization with a suggestion and/or do not feel afraid to report any wrongdoing. The leadership leads by example and they are part of the teams and thus drive the high-performance culture. Most of all, we learn from failures and build on the success we achieve.

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Topics: Employee Engagement, #CXtoEX

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