In 2015, public sector undertaking (PSU) and energy major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) set up ‘The Facilitation Center’, which acted as a single platform for employee-to-employee services like carpooling, renting or selling flats and houses, and even matrimonial alliances.
The feature was developed for all employees, irrespective of their work locations.
As of February 2023, more than 10,000 employees have availed various services.
The marriage service helps employees to find a suitable match within the ONGC community. The portal provides a platform for employees to upload their profiles and search for potential matches based on their preferences.
“The intention of including the marriage service within the company or among relatives and friends was to provide a platform for the employees to connect and to promote a sense of community within the organisation,” AP Singh, Executive Director of HR, ONGC India, told Moneycontrol.
With around 27,000 employees, Singh said ONGC is a large organisation with a vast workforce spread across various locations, and it can be challenging for employees to find suitable matches outside the company's community.
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All data relating to the marriageable population reside in this single database.
While the exact number of employees who have benefited from this service is not available, more than 3,400 employees and their family members have used ONGC's management portal to seek partners for them or their sons and daughters.
What about retention?
Another service on the management portal is carpooling. Carpooling is an environment-friendly initiative to encourage employees to share their ride to work. The portal provides a platform for employees to connect with other employees who live nearby and share the same route to work.
“This not only reduces the number of cars on the road but also helps employees to save money on fuel,” Singh said.
Apart from these services, the management portal offers online training, health services, and employee welfare services. The portal has been designed to be scalable, and ONGC plans to add more in the future.
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“The management portal could potentially provide services related to mental health and well-being, such as access to counsellors or mindfulness programmes. The portal could also potentially provide services related to career development and upskilling, such as access to online courses and training programmes,” Singh said.
In addition to expanding the services, he said ONGC may also consider improving the existing services to better meet the needs of the employees. For example, the marriage service offered by the management portal could potentially be improved by providing more options for employees to filter and search for suitable matches based on their preferences.
While specific data on the usage of services provided by ONGC's management portal is not available, Singh said it is reasonable to assume that the availability of these services has helped to create a more employee-friendly work environment and has had a positive impact on talent retention.
“....the management portal helps to create a sense of belongingness and fosters a more supportive work environment, which can lead to higher employee satisfaction and retention,” he added.
As of 2021-22, attrition at ONGC remains less than 1 percent.
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