Page 317 - Fundamentals of Management Myths Debunked (2017)_Flat

316 Part 4 • Leading
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Employees First

mployees first.” That’s the most important and cru- transparency. Employees were encouraged to communicate
cial cultural value that HCL Technologies’ former directly with Nayar. Through a forum called U&I (You and I),
“ECEO Vineet Nayar believed would help his company Nayar fielded more than a hundred questions from employees
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succeed and take it into the future. Although most managers every week. “I threw open the door and invited criticism,” he
think that customers should come first, Nayar’s philosophy was said. However, the signature piece of the company’s cultural
that employee satisfaction needed to be the top priority. mission is probably what HCL called “trust pay.” In contrast to
As one of the largest the industry standard in which
companies in India, HCL sells the average employee’s pay is
various information technol- What would an EMPLOYEES- 30 percent variable, HCL de-
ogy consulting services, such FIRST culture look like? cided to pay higher fixed sala-
as infrastructure consulting, ries and reduce the variable
product engineering, custom component.
software development, and application and enterprise consult- Does the unique “employees first” culture at HCL
ing. Luring and keeping top talent is one of the challenges Technologies attract unique employees? Rajeev Sawhney,
HCL faces. And at its size, it doesn’t have the atmosphere of a HCL’s European president, would say yes. He uses Slumdog
fun and quirky startup. Millionaire, the movie that won an Academy Award for Best
Part of that “employee first” philosophy is a no-layoff Picture, as a parallel. “It (the movie) is a reflection of the
policy, which was difficult to uphold during the pressures of Indian race. It shows the adversity that creates the desire in
the economic downturn. Like its competitors, HCL had excess people to reach out and create. . . . With each adversity they
employees and had suspended raises. But HCL kept its prom- face, there is a greater desire to reach out and do something
ise and didn’t lay off any HCLites (Nayar’s name for HCL more.” Sawhney says that entrepreneurialism is a key value
employees). As business has picked up, however, employees of the HCL culture. “You can still tell an HCL person from a
begin looking at competitors’ job offers. During the first quar- mile off. I think there is a particular DNA for an HCL person. It
ter alone of 2010, HCL lost 22 percent of its workforce. Maybe includes a very high need for achievement and very persuasive
it’s time to monitor and track employee satisfaction. skills. HCL people are very energetic; they want to do lots of
HCL Technologies is headquartered in the world’s largest things and to take risks on behalf of the company.”
democracy, so it’s quite fitting that the New Delhi–based com-
pany is attempting a radical experiment in workplace democ- Discussion Questions
racy. Nayar was committed to creating a company where the
job of company leaders was to enable people to find their own 9-22 What is your impression of an “employees first” culture? Would
this work in other organizations? Why or why not? What would
destiny by gravitating to their strengths. One thing that Nayar it take to make it work?
did was to pioneer a culture in which employees were first. 9-23 How might an understanding of organizational behavior help
What has he done to put employees first? Part of the cultural CEO Vineet Nayar lead his company? Be specific. How about
initiative dealt with the organization’s structure. HCL inverted first-line company supervisors? Again, be specific.
its organizational structure and placed more power in the hands 9-24 What aspects of personality do you see in this story about HCL?
of frontline employees, especially those in direct contact with How have the personality traits of HCL employees contributed
customers and clients. It increased its investment in employee to make HCL what it is?
development and improved communication through greater 9-25 Design an employee attitude survey for HCL’s employees.