Aon Hewitt, the global talent, retirement and health solutions business of Aon plc, announced its list of Best Employers – India 2016. The Aon Best Employers study was first conducted in Asia in 2001. The purpose of the program is to gain insights into companies that are creating real competitive advantage through their people, to explore what makes a workplace of choice and to identify the Best Employers in the region.

The Aon Best Employers program is the most comprehensive study of its kind in Asia Pacific. It is run in 12 markets: Australia & New Zealand China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand as well as in the Middle East. 

A total of 113 organizations representing 12 key industries, cumulatively employing approximately 950,000 employees, participated in the 2016 Aon Best Employers India study.

A rigorous analysis is run to measure the alignment between "Intent-Design-Experience", assessed through CEO survey and interview, People practices survey and Employee opinion survey for all participating organizations. A shortlisted set is taken through an intense on-site audit to validate the details provided. Client names are masked during this process, and revealed to the jury only post final selection. An external panel of unbiased jury comprising corporate and academic community evaluated the participants and arrived at the final list of India’s 25 Best Employers of 2016. The jury for the 2016 edition comprised eminent business leaders and academicians including: Prof Rajan Gupta, Professor at MDI, Raman Roy, BPO industry pioneer and Chairman and Chief, Quattro, Renu Sud Karnad Managing Director, HDFC Limited, Dr Santrupt Misra, CEO, Carbon Black Business and Director, Group HR, Aditya Birla Group and Shiv Shivakumar, CEO, Pepscio India. The process takes about 9 months.

The following organisations were recognised as the 2016 Aon Best Employers in India: (in alphabetical order)

• Accor Hotels India
• AGS Health
• Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Limited
• Bajaj Finance Limited
• Becton Dickinson India Private Limited
• Bharti Infratel
• Blue Dart Express Limited
• DHL Express (India) Pvt. Ltd
• Godrej Consumer Products Ltd
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise, India
• IndiGo
• Lupin Ltd
• METRO Cash and Carry India
• Reliance Capital Asset Management Limited
• Saint-Gobain India Private Limited – Gyproc Business
• SKS Microfinance Limited
• Starwood Hotels & Resorts India Private Limited
• Tata AutoComp Systems Limited
• TATA AIA Life Insurance Company Limited
• Tata Chemicals Ltd.
• Tata Communications
• The Oberoi Group
• Whirlpool India Limited
• WNS Global Services Private Limited
• YASH Technologies Pvt Ltd

Tarandeep Singh, Partner Aon Hewitt Consulting in India said, "We congratulate the Aon Best Employers India 2016! It is encouraging to see that Best Employer organisations are focusing on not only creating a winning workplace today but futureproofing their organisations against the possible talent risks of tomorrow. This year’s research indicated Rising salaries, Inadequate leadership pipeline, Inability to retain employees and Critical skills shortage as the top emerging talent risks, as quoted by the CEOs of participant organizations. We witnessed some unique practices across Best Employers on their intent and ways to address these challenges thereby continuing to indicate their commanding position as an employer of choice."

Ajay Tandon, MD & CEO Tata AutoComp Systems Limited said: "At Tata AutoComp, we have been investing in building a performance driven culture driven by our Vision and Mission, ensuring our leaders demonstrate our Values and are accessible, empowering our employees through learning and development opportunities, encouraging them with rewards and recognition, simplifying our work processes, and actively engaging them through empowerment & communication. This award is a culmination of the hard work and commitment of our people. I humbly accept this award on behalf of the employees of Tata AutoComp. I thank each of our employees and their families for their contribution."

Yamini Maheshwari Sapra, Senior Consultant Aon Hewitt Consulting India and Project Manager Aon Best Employers India Study said, "The 2016 Aon Best Employer India Study threw some sharp insights around Best Employers getting ready for what’s to come by preempting and solving team conundrum: Best Employers are creating networked structures through unprecedented focus on collaboration, creating nimble teams through providing differentiated career opportunities to the deserving and leveraging from collaboration of the multifaceted by building a diverse and inclusive work environment; Creating a work culture to deliver 10X impact: Best Employers are enabling quicker actions by having fixed the basics around providing the right enabling infrastructure, talent and resources; while creating a culture that empowering and autonomous to drive the high performance culture as well as creating a user-anchored organisation through a well-integrated work environment; and Managing the young, the old and the connected: Best Employers are doing this through simple ways of brining in transparency in thought and action through raising the bar on the Employee promise and delivering on the same; through the leaders who inspire and connect and taking the Employee promise beyond just getting the right people towards pushing the pedal on rewarding and recognising the well deserving."

Your organization could be on this list next year! Participate in the 2017 Aon Best Employer India Study, register here.