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phenomenon can be seen in Prof. Wipro and TCS. The direct correlation workforce (a notion that HR teams
Wayne Cascio’s detailed comparison of between higher wages and higher should be championing), which is why
Costco with Walmart’s Sam’s Club. productivity is quite evident. In labour paying more can pay off.
Costco pays higher wages and offers markets, as in many other markets,
more generous benefits than Sam’s you get what you pay for, it appears. To be fair, high pay is only relative
Club, making its labour costs higher. (compared to what competitors are
But turnover at Sam’s Club was 44 per Spending a lot of time trying to reduce offering), which is why if every
cent, while it was only 17 per cent at costs of something that accounts for a company tried to put this advice into
Costco, saving literally several millions small proportion of total costs is practice, it wouldn’t work. But given
of dollars. Costco generated $21,805 misplaced emphasis. Companies are the overwhelming tendency to think
profit per employee, compared to much more interested in maximising that simply reducing labour costs will
$11,615 at Sam’s Club. their profits. Profits come from product increase profits, this is not a concern
and service innovation, productivity we would worry about. After all, few
While similar detailed studies could not and outstanding levels of customer auto companies followed Ford’s lead,
be found in India, a quick study of service that generate customer loyalty and we don’t see lots of payment
private sector banks revealed some — all things produced by a workforce processing companies emulating
interesting aspects unique to India. that is engaged. Gravity Payments.
HDFC has the highest per employee
revenue amongst all banks and its What HR can do HR can also examine the HDFC model
critical job families driving the business HR should take the lead in driving of identifying strategic job families and
have higher wages than the industry higher wage arguments, and the paying them higher than industry
average. ICICI Bank, a comparable associated evidence, to the CEO so average to attract and retain the best
private sector bank, has higher overall that companies can make more talent that will drive higher revenue.
wage bill but has been less productive, sensible decisions concerning pay Since the strategy of every company is
perhaps because it didn’t look at the levels.
concept of strategic job families, different, the concept will hold well for
typically 10 per cent of all employees, most, if done right.
who are most essential to driving It’s also worth noting that the
arguments about holding down wages As economic research has reported
strategy.
somehow never apply to the C-suite, for decades, paying people more is
An analysis of top 5 IT industry players where the ratio of CEO to average good for them and also for business.
in India revealed that Infosys paid employee pay has soared over the past That’s why some of the companies that
highest to employees and led the per few years. However, the importance of pay — and treat — their employees
employee revenue as compared to the recruiting and retaining talent extends well have the best financial results.
next two high productivity firms — beyond executives to the entire (Source: BL)

PIO appointed 1st CEO of WHO foundation
Indian-origin global health expert Anil Soni has been appointed as the first CEO of the newly-launched The WHO
Foundation, which works alongside the World Health Organization to address most pressing health challenges. Soni
will assume his role on January 1 and will accelerate the foundation's "work to invest in innovative, evidence-based
initiatives that support the WHO in delivering on its mission", the foundation said.

Soni joins the Foundation from Viatris, a global healthcare company, where he served as head of global infectious
diseases. WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus described Soni as a "proven innovator" who has spent two decades in service
of communities affected by HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.

"Lust is mortal, but love is divine."

82 PR COMMUNICATION AGE July - December 2020