Article: Top 25 Best Workplaces in Asia: Godrej Consumer Products Ltd

Life @ Work

Top 25 Best Workplaces in Asia: Godrej Consumer Products Ltd

The company launched a ‘100 Leaders Program’, which focused on 100 key employees who could be potential leaders
Top 25 Best Workplaces in Asia: Godrej Consumer Products Ltd
 

Rank: 14

 

Headquarters: Mumbai, Managing Director: Vivek Gambhir, No. of employees: Over 2,000

 

Godrej Consumer Products Limited is the largest home-grown home and personal care company in India. The company pays a lot of importance to grooming its talent and has not shied away from tweaking processes or policies to keep the workforce happy.

So what is a great place to work according to GCPL? Vivek Gambhir, Managing Director of GCPL, says, “There are four dimensions we look at when we think of a Great Place To Work. It is a company that provides great careers, great rewards, a great work environment and great engagement. What companies need to do is try to balance all these four variables to optimize them. There is no one size fits all approach. The relative importance of the variable will change by gender or age. The combination of these is what makes a great place to work. The award is a good validation of the progress we have made. I think we learnt a lot from it. A process like this shows us what we do well and also opens our eyes to all the things we have to do to continue this journey.”

When it comes to managing careers and leaders, the company launched a ‘100 Leaders Program’, which focused on 100 key employees who have the potential to be future leaders in the organization.

Rahul Gama, Executive Vice President– HR at GCPL, says, “It starts with identification, differentiation, training and tracking their careers at the leadership level/management committee level on a regular basis. It is a mutual relationship where you look at what you gain out of the individual and what the organization gains out of the individual.”

The approach to policies, processes etc in the last few years have undergone a sea change to keep pace with the changing needs of the current workforce. “Policies are not present to control. They are the enablers. On the one hand there is high emphasis on merit and excellence, there is also a legacy, which is based on trust,” Gama said. The company also offers work from home and part-time options to employees. GCPL is one of the few companies that offers up to two weeks of paternity leave. GCPL also has one of the best hospitalization policies in the country. There have been cases when the company has gone beyond its purview and helped out employees, especially those who have serious illnesses.

One of the relatively new things that the company did in conjunction with the campuses was the LOUD program. Apart from the traditional approach to campuses, the company invited people to come forward to talk about their unfulfilled dreams. The idea behind LOUD was to sponsor those unfulfilled dreams and also take care of the pre-placement summer internships as well. It has been a great hit across campuses. Eventually, the program was moved inside. “The idea was if we could do it in campuses, then we could it do it for the employees as well,” Gama added.

They did not leave behind the young guns either. In order to have a focused approach, the company developed the Godrej Fellows Program where they picked 12-16 young people under the age of 30 each year who have unconventional ideas and are willing to bring those to the table to change and improve Godrej. Through this, the company was looking at providing learning opportunities, financial resources and management exposure and mentorship to them to become change makers within and outside the organization.

Another philosophy that Godrej is working on is Bedhadak Bolo, which salutes the spirit of expression and innovation in the company. It encourages people to speak and express openly and fearlessly. The company believes that with Bedhadak Bolo “like you, others begin to think out of the box, and the company shines with pride”. It has resulted in employees coming forward and speaking, translating into numerous changes and innovations within the organization. It has also resulted in better team dynamics and a more open work environment.

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Topics: Life @ Work, #AsiasBestWorkplaces2015, #BestPractices

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