Acclaris Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

High attrition and its increasing trend in the current IT/ITeS sector prompted Acclaris Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd. to think about a long-term and continuous strategy to combat this ever increasing challenge. While pondering on the issue of attrition, the company wanted to ensure that the solution which they finalize should not only be in line with its business strategy, but also be innovative, longstanding, futuristic and should have a meaningful CSR focus. In line with its current business strategy of ‘bringing work to people rather than people to work’, Acclaris set up satellite service centers. To ensure steady supply of qualified and trained manpower, it started scouting for Universities / Institutions with whom they could partner to start a customized learning initiative. While choosing its stakeholders, Acclaris focused on three main aspects. Firstly, the quality and standard of the Institution should not be compromised; secondly, they should be able to work out a win-win situation for both the parties to ensure continuity; and lastly, long-term sustenance of the program and the initiative should impact socially to benefit all on a long-term basis. The innovative strategy was to create a permanent source of good manpower ensuring low cost, high readiness, and long-term retention bundled with scalable standardization to ensure active reciprocity thereby reducing the risks of attrition. The initiative contributed to the company’s existing CSR as it promoted training and learning to the community at large through the ‘Finishing School’ concept, apart from generating a steady supply of customized trained manpower for the business requirement.

American Express India

Healthy Living’ as an American Express India internal brand was created to generate employee awareness and recall. It was a preventive care program designed by Amex for the well being of all employees and their dependents. The program had three main tenets namely ‘Know Your Numbers’ (free health screening and assessment), ‘Pay Attention To Prevention’ (Free Condition Management Program for diabetes and On-site Gymnasium) and ‘Rally Your Resources’ (Free Employee Assistance Program, Free Smoking Cessation Program, Free Pregnancy Care Program, Healthier Options at Amex Cafeteria). Initiatives undertaken included a 24x7 Employee Assistance Helpline for telephonic and face-to-face counseling; on-line health assessment to assess health risks, and providing recommendations on current health status and any future concerns, etc. The program was designed in a way that it reflected employee needs and feedback and catered to a multitude of areas like nutrition, fitness, screenings, preventive programs, health resources, counseling, health information, etc. The program was offered to employees free-of-cost and was extended to employees’ dependants as well. Locations such as café, gym, staircase, etc., were rebranded as ‘Healthy Living’ zones and there was rigorous evaluation of program partners and significant technology investment to ensure complete confidentiality of employees’ personal and medical information with premium quality user experience. The program launch had one of the highest employee attendance. Sports Icon, Kapil Dev spoke to all employees and also bowled to 11 lucky winners of ‘Healthy Living’ challenge. Progress till date: 1,200 employees have shared their health stories, 500 have completed onsite biometrics, 1,200 employees and dependents have enrolled for health assessment, 300 completed medical check-up, fully subscribed smoking cessation program, fitness and yoga session subscribed twice over.

HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd.

In 2006, HDFC Standard Life Insurance initiated a self-learning tool for its employees, ‘Mission In Genius’. A knowledge enhancement initiative, it kept employees engaged continuously and enhanced their knowledge about the life insurance industry besides creating an atmosphere of self learning. An innovative way of knowledge sharing was devised by adding fun and involvement. The initiative focused on recognizing and rewarding knowledge on a national platform, building team spirit at the zonal / regional / branch and corporate level, inculcating an ongoing process of learning with fun and recognition, and enhancing knowledge about the company and the industry at all levels. This initiative was an effort of cross functional teams that wove a beautiful canvas and served as a strong tool for learning. The event provided a platform on a regular basis to enhance knowledge base of employees, helped in building skills and capabilities, created a culture of knowledge within the organization, brought cross-functional synergies together and encouraged learning with fun. It also encouraged team spirit among them. The communication of the initiative was made through teasers, mailers, posters, danglers and screen savers thereby creating awareness and hype among the employees.
The company also organized ‘Spell Bee – India Spells 2010’ in collaboration with the Times of India Group. The event aimed to help students improve their spelling skills, vocabulary, learning concepts and pronunciation. The key thought was to expose students to a different competition route of testing their knowledge of spellings and thereby engaging them in the different practices of usage of the English language. The winner, along with one of the parents, got an opportunity to attend the Scripps National Spelling Bee at Washington DC in May 2010 and was able to experience the magnitude and standard of Scripps National Spelling Bee as a learning process.

PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd.

To live up to its values, there are six defined Guiding Principles which every PepsiCo associate (employees, temporary workforce including third party contractor) lives and breathes. The challenge faced by PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd. was to communicate ‘PEPSICO Values’ and Guiding Principles in a manner that was exciting, easy to understand and above all ‘fun’ to ensure that all employees imbibe the values in both letter and spirit. Therefore, an innovative communication package was developed comprising of movies, online and board games as well as engaging posters. The campaign was designed with the objective to get employees to respect the values, identify with them and live them on an everyday basis. PepsiCo India rolled out the Values initiative for the first time in 2006 ensuring 100% coverage through an innovative format and has since then sustained this journey year on year through innovative communication packages.
A Value Cascade was devised with a three-pronged approach. The first phase involved understanding of the values concept through a poster/ email campaign and an innovative ‘snakes and ladder’ floor game. The second phase was to internalize values through the ‘Movietone’ concept. The ‘Movietone’ was presented to the audience in a Cinema Hall like ambience. The third phase was to reinforce and refresh the values through an online game called ‘Pepvin’ based on Monopoly. Successful completion of the game ensured online certification. Additionally, as constant reminders, an attempt was made to refresh values as an integral part of every employee’s daily activities like printing on visiting cards, pin-up boards, office walls, I-cards, etc. The Values Cascade has been done for over 5,000 employees, franchise partners, third party consultants and vendors across India.

Cleartrip Travel Services Pvt. Ltd.

Employee events are a serious and well thought of affair at Cleartrip Travel Services Pvt. Ltd. and the company is high on celebrating such events. In line with the culture of openness, transparency and innovative spirit, the employee events are planned by an events team which consists of employees across the company. Each of the events planned is unique and offers ample opportunities to interact with employees across functions and levels. The events in the company bring about participation from across the organization right from the Management team to office boys. Cleartrip Travel Services also extensively uses the social media and this is evident with social media tools the company uses such as the Cleartrip Blog, Customer Forum, presence on Twitter page and the existence of a Facebook page. New to the travel space, these channels- / touch-points have been used to announce product launches, share interesting information / statistics related to the travel industry, educate the customer about this segment, and share opinions on happenings in the online travel segment.
The events team members in Cleartrip Travel Services are the ambassadors of the company’s open culture. They help the management to understand the pulse of the organization. The team members proactively give feedback on all aspects that affect Cleartrippers right from the food in the cafeteria to the policies and systems. With the amazing range of merchandize like T-shirts, mugs available to the team members, employees vie to become a member of the events team, called ‘Eventzz’ for which they need to display creative thinking, ability to take onuses, good planning and organizing skills and most importantly, should be able to balance their work profiles with the event’s profile.