PERKING UP THE WORKPLACE
Harsh Goenka's
group has recently adopted ‘happiness’ as its tagline, and even aligned its
policies to this new outlook. Here's why, and how it works
If there is one thing RPG Enterprises chairman Harsh
Goenka would want to tell employees, it’s to get a good night’s sleep every
evening. But that, he says, can only happen if you work at a place that is
stress-free, fun and keeps you happy. “I value happiness in life, and I want
our employees, our customers, our suppliers and our shareholders to be happy,”
says Goenka. “When you come to work on Monday, you should look forward to it.”
This is the main idea behind the group recently adopting, (and earlier this
month, rolling out) its new corporate mantra Hello Happiness. This tagline will
now apply to RPG as well as all its subsidiaries like CEAT, KEC International,
Zensar Technologies and others. And it isn’t just a branding initiative: The
group is now aligning all its HR and people policies, as well as its office
best practices, to this idea.
While companies are falling over themselves to adopt
clever taglines — which often turn out to be obtuse and jargonistic — Goenka
wants to keep it simple. He said as much in a Town Hall two years ago, when he
stated that he wanted RPG to become, not necessarily the largest organisation,
but certainly the happiest. “When you see the corporate taglines of
manufacturing companies, you see certain kinds of words, like ‘growth’,
‘quality’ and ‘technology’, being used,” says Goenka. “This is typical
corporate-speak. I believe each company should have a tagline that best
captures its aspirations and capabilities. And that’s what Hello Happiness
reflects. It’s about what we stand for — authenticity and a workplace that is
fair and treats people well.” The new mantra is usually accompanied by (an
arguably cheesy) ‘square’ smiley, and will be reiterated through the launch of
various branding exercises like ad films and appropriate literature.
“Happiness is not a one-day exercise. It is built
over a series of events and experiences,” says S Venkatesh, President, Group
HR. “The particle of happiness keeps growing when you are able to deliver a
joyous moment or a positive experience to employees – such as, say, when a
staff member sees that a policy is employeefriendly, or has an exchange with a
manager that is career-enhancing. You can’t deliver happiness in one day. It
has to be built up over time.”
The group — which is known for its employee
engagement — has sharpened its policies with this in mind. “The employee is at
the heart of the company and all its policies,” Goenka insists. When it impacts
more than 14,000 employees, one has to tread with caution.
Encouragement begins at home
To begin with, the group takes retention very
seriously by offering in-house career-pathing and growth opportunities for its
young talent. Rather than hire people from the outside, youngsters who have
been in the company for a while, are given the first right of refusal for a
next-level role. Mentoring is an open, two-way street: Anyone can walk into her
line manager’s room to discuss and resolve issues.
Better work hours = greater
productivity
The group has done away with its attendance muster;
employees no longer need to swipe in and out. In fact, with their seniors’
support, they can construct their own working hours around the core office
hours of 11am to 4 pm. Like many other companies, staff gets the option of
working from home or availing of flexible working hours, and if they’ve been in
the organisation for at least four years, they can even take a two-month
sabbatical. “We trust our staff to have a conscience and take responsibility
for their work,” says Goenka. “If you police people, they’ll find ways to beat
the system. But if you trust them and let them be, they will deliver.”
No honorifics, please
The biggest challenge, for any traditional,
family-run business, is to try and transform itself by changing its
well-entrenched work ethos and culture. Alongside an openness at all levels,
the group has also decided to adopt honorific-free modes of address. Some weeks
ago, Goenka shot off a mail to staff saying he would henceforth be addressed
only by his first name. He even put out a piggybank seeking fines from anyone
who did otherwise, and collected some amount to donate to charity. “We also
strive to provide an apolitical atmosphere, and that creates a lot of
happiness,” adds Venkatesh. “People want to fight business issues, not
organisational issues. You want to devote all your energy to bringing in
business, not battling internal politics, bipartisanism and nepotism, which is
the bane of most companies today. The arbitrariness of such practices makes
your feel stressed out and sapped of energy.”
Happiness has been a key consideration in RPG’s
workplace philosophy for a while now. Two years ago, when the group had
launched its vision, it was ‘Unleash Talent. Touch Lives. Outperform. Be
Happy’. Now, however, happiness and the emoticon adorn all the company’s vision
and mission statements. “The emoji gave our vision statement a distinct
character,” says Goenka. “Everybody remembers it.” It was also clearly time for
a new look. RPG’s previous mantra, from four years ago, was ‘going for growth’.
Reflecting on it, Goenka says that could’ve been a tagline for just about any
company. “Besides, we achieved that,” he says.The group’s revenue growth has
been at 26.8 per cent CAGR in the last three years, while its profit growth in
the corresponding period has been 42.8 per cent. Its market cap has also grown
at 44 per cent in the last three years, and Goenka adds, the way things are
going, the group will finish the year at over Rs 25,000 crore. The group has
also made several overseas acquisitions in the last few years.
Accommodating changing
priorities
Part of widening its appeal and making itself a
satisfying workplace for a younger generation — more specifically Millennials —
is the group’s recent thrust to participate in more future-facing ventures. It
has funded start-ups, a pharma distribution company, e-commerce, cybersecurity
ventures and is even looking at investing in artificial intelligence. It is
also encouraging its young managers to turn entrepreneurs by promising them
funds. “Millennials think very differently about the workplace from the way we
did,” says Goenka. “They have no attachment to assets, and want to work for
socially-responsible companies.” If that’s what makes them happy, Goenka
certainly doesn’t want to miss out.
To mainstream something like happiness, an internal
team of senior managers spent many months with all levels of employees, trying
to understand the policies that would — simply put — make them happy.
Brainstorming over several months yielded over 100 taglines, many of which were
so forbiddingly corporate that they had to be rejected. “It’s important for any
company to stand the test of time and be unpretentious,” says Goenka. “Your
brand promise should not be so aspirational that your employees can’t relate to
it. The most important constituent is your (work) family. If they think it’s
not what the company stands for, it just won’t work.” Now that’s an idea that
will make RPG staff very ha
Labonita.Ghosh@timesgroup.com
MM 10MAR18
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