For the past 5 years Google India had been constantly rated as the Number 1 company to work at according to the Great Places To Work survey.
Not this year.
A fairly unheard of company – RMSI – an IT services player offering GIS, modeling & analytics and software services, has stripped Google of the Number One Employer tag. Interestingly, RMSI had bagged the number 1 spot on the same survey even in 2009 and 2007.
Source: Economic Times
Over 700 organizations participated in the survey. The survey adopts a 3-pronged approach to arrive at the rating: Employee survey and a culture audit which includes information like employee demographics (e.g. number of employees, voluntary turnover, ethnic breakdowns, tenure, etc.), general information about the organization (e.g. year founded, revenues); as well as benefits and perks offered to employees (e.g. percentage insurance premium paid by company for employee, number of holidays) and B) open ended questions about company’s philosophy and vision.
So what made this 850-strong company from NCR win this hallowed title?
The company’s culture page talks about an honest and open working culture, flexible work schedules and leading employee benefits. Its Facebook page with humble 250 likes was last updated in February.
(Company Website)
We spoke to an employee, Kumar Raj, an asst. Manager to know what made this small 850-employee strong Indian company beat a giant like Google whose employee perks and work policies are known the world over?
“Simplicity and transparency” are two key pillars of the RMSI workplace. Employees are encouraged to keep e-mail communication and formal meetings at bare minimal. Direct communication is an important part of our DNA. Top management do not have cubicles and share the open space like all employees. They don’t have secretaries either”, says Kumar.”The company focuses on simple employee engagement practices like holding timely workshops to help employees develop life skills. We have no fancy budgets for employee engagement like other companies where employee engagement budgets run out of the roof benefitting only a handful,” adds Kumar. A few of the recent ones include workshops on “how to quit smoking” and handling relationships as a parent and a spouse. The company also has organised sessions on stress management through jazz and yoga. The firm has an in-house music band and a photography club.
The employees in the sales, marketing and business development teams, who travel a lot, have been given wine and tea appreciation sessions to hone their corporate etiquette.
Apart from internal efforts, RMSI regularly holds wellness camps. Through these camps, doctors and experts from the medical fraternity sit individually with the employees and understand their psychological, medical and emotional needs. Including the families of the employees has been another focus of the company around its people practices. In the past, it has sent notes of gratitude and appreciation to the families of star performers. “These notes have helped us seal a personal bond with their families. The families’ response to these notes has been overwhelming,” says Rajiv Kapoor, chairman and Managing director.”We do not have fancy budgets for running people initiatives, however, we have always had fun and meaningful engagement sessions for our employees as and when needed,” Kapoor adds.
