The Hindu Business Line : ‘We seek self-achievers’

“Inducing transformation in people management may have caused some short-term unrest and disruption, but the gains we began reaping have masked this and continue to give us a competitive edge,” says Srinivas Kandula, Global Head-HR, iGATE Global Solutions, commenting on the price the company had to pay while ascending to the 3rd rank, from the previous year’s 29th position, in the ‘DQ-IDC 20 Best IT Employers Survey 2007’.

For the dramatic improvement in the ranking, Kandula gives credit to HR (human resource) policy changes, employee friendly initiatives and the adoption of a ‘German’ model in the company.

“The good practices of the past and the integrated people management model in the last one year led us to the third spot,” he adds, during the course of an e-mail interaction with The New Manager. Excerpts from the interview:

Could you tell us about your HR model?

Our integrated people management model is designed to touch the motivational behaviour of employees. For example, the compensation structure is positioned to take care of the quality of living, while our innovative stock ownership programme, covering a significant chunk of our employees, is aimed at meeting their long-term wealth creation aspirations. Similarly, our relationship building initiatives promote socialisation within the organisation while the competency matrix initiative is aimed at building innovative capabilities.

Our leadership initiative, developed in-house, is spearheaded by CEO Phaneesh Murthy along with his colleagues Mohan Sekhar, CDO; Ramachandran, CFO; and Sumit Ganguli, CSO. We are one of the few organisations with employee- and business-aligned performance and career planning systems.

What is the yardstick for the award of stock options?

Performance ratings. The better employees perform, the more stock options they get. In the financial year 2006-07, 40 per cent of our employees who underwent an appraisal cycle were offered ‘restricted stock units’ at a face value of Rs 4 per share.

How does the company ‘promote socialisation’?

At iGATE, socialisation is built at three levels. At level one, it is through work — the coming together of groups and ‘tribes’ having similar knowledge, technology skills and work challenges. At level two, bonding happens through our Fun@Work activities such as music groups, inter-departmental sports events and gender groups like ‘women camps’ and so on. At level three, participating in voluntary social development work (such as blood-donation camps, helping the underprivileged and the physically challenged) brings together like-minded employees.

What is competency matrix?

The iGATE competency matrix has three components:

Technical – Competencies in technology like PeopleSoft, J2E, .Net, Data Warehousing and IMS.

Behavioural – Competencies that include communication, conflict management, customer orientation and self-awareness.

Leadership – Competencies such as citizenship, execution excellence and appreciation of business realities.

What do you look for in an employee?

While a good academic record is a primary need, we seek people with self-achievement orientation and an attitude to challenge the status quo. We look for those seeking to realise their professional aspirations using iGATE as a platform rather than people who merely look at their careers as a means of earning their livelihood. A focused approach and clarity of career choices are some of the traits we look for in an employee.

How is self-achievement orientation assessed?

Self-achievement orientation is assessed through a psychometric tool which presents data on dimensions such as independence, thriving in a hostile environment, self-actualisation, initiative and results focus.

In what ways is risk-taking encouraged?

We have both formal and informal processes to encourage risk-taking and experimentation behaviour.

These include inviting suggestions from employees, working on incubation projects and so on. We encourage employees to challenge the status quo; those who do are rewarded monetarily or through career upgradations.

What is the German model? And why not something home-grown?

‘Co-determination’ is a German model of employee engagement that was practised in the early 1960s in German manufacturing organisations, wherein employees performed operational and strategic roles and influenced the course of organisational growth and shared the outcomes as well.

iGATE’s philosophy of the ‘Adult to Adult Employee Engagement Model’ has many similarities with co-determination. Instead of touting it as our own home-grown model, we have acknowledged that it has been inspired by the German model.

Why not an Indian model considering that cultural nuances should be factored into any HR policy?

Often, cultural nuances occur not in the idea but in its application. The German model of co-determination is just an inspiration and not an adoption nor replication. I do not think that drawing inspiration from a particular model is tantamount to our inability to generate an in-house robust system.

There is no point of reinventing the wheel. Further, robustness lies in execution and I think we have mastered it.

How long a rope are you willing to give an employee or a group of employees?

It is unlimited as long as there is synergy between employee-customer-shareholder-societal values. The iGATE culture promotes risk-taking, initiative and taking the untrodden path. This can cause some short or mid-term loss but pays rich dividends in the long run.

We believe in an enduring relationship and an engagement model rather than a transaction model where there is no place for a control and command structure.

What are the metrics by which the HR function is assessed?

The three metrics by which the HR function is assessed are: human capital index, work culture and employee affective commitment.

The ‘human capital index’ predicts the value of human capital through education, background, productivity levels, skills maturity and efficiency levels. The ‘work culture’ measure assesses employee performance on parameters such as working environment, dignity for people, non-hierarchy and entrepreneurial culture. And, ‘employee affective commitment’ measures the affective commitment of employees through various benefits like, in the case of iGATE, measuring affectivity through restricted stock units and longevity related awards.

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