HR managers find more power in employee feedback

According to an expert, there are three major policies that are driving workplace dynamics: total & flexible rewards, employee well-being and learning & development (L&D).

The days of HR policies being discussed and implemented with inputs from a few CXOs are gone. Now is the era of personalised and employee-led initiatives where even minute changes are taken care of through active feedback.

Experts say the focus is purely on on-demand solutions, and the pull is coming from the infusion of tech in all phases of employee life cycle, which fits the ideology of 'My Time - My Choice'.

Hence, collecting fair and on-time feedback to offer competitive solutions is essential, said an expert in employee engagement.

“In the past, HR policies were determined by compulsion, whereas today, they are decided by design. Listening to employees and empowering them to share their ideas are important,” said Smiti Deorah, Co-Founder & COO of global employee engagement platform Advantage Club.

According to her, there are three major policies that are driving workplace dynamics: total & flexible rewards, employee well-being and learning & development (L&D).

Major companies, such as Mashreq, Grant Thornton Bharat and Amdocs, are implementing interventions ranging from flexible work culture to recruitment of spouses, siblings, etc.

Recruitment of spouses

The policies and process of Mashreq Global Network (MGN), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mashreq Bank, have undergone many incremental changes through 2021 and 2022 in India because of the massive change in work style due to the distributed workforce where 70 percent of its employees are working from home on a regular basis.

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The company started taking feedback from employees, managers, division heads, and even new employees. This was done by tracking the general market trends at the same time.

After feedback, one major policy change was allowing the employment of close relatives, siblings and spouses without any conflict of interest, which was not a part of the policy until now.

“Our rewards team is agile and open to feedback and the proposed policy changes, as long as we know this will help the employees and the organisation,” Jayanthi Gopal, Head of HR, Mashreq Global Network India, told Moneycontrol.

The bank currently allows remote working only within the country, so that it is in line with cross-border tax regulations. However, based on employee feedback, employees are allowed to work remotely, from outside the country, twice a year, for a maximum of 15 calendar days each time.

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“This is not a common policy in the industry today and is solely based on employee feedback. This allows more flexibility to our employees to be close to a spouse who is working in another country or to take care of an ailing parent while still continuing to work,” Gopal said.

Boosting employee engagement level

Professional services firm Grant Thornton Bharat gathers continuous feedback to focus on improving employee well-being. Based on the response, the leadership works to create a holistic HR plan for employee satisfaction, physical and mental health, and emotional well-being.

In order to improve work-life balance, the firm has implemented #WFA (Work From Anywhere) and hybrid working that allows people to work with comfort and without incurring any cost of living while shifting locations.
Besides, #UltraFlexDress code enables comfort dressing and to go beyond business suits.

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“Improving work-life balance, ensuring enhanced mental and psychological well-being, providing financial security and support to work from home are some of the focus areas that stood out, based on the feedback we received from our colleagues,” said Satya Jha, Chief Business Officer of Grant Thornton Bharat.

After the implementation of various feedback-led initiatives, Grant Thornton Bharat’s Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), a metric used to measure employee engagement, increased to 74 percent in FY22 from 44 percent in FY21.

When tech-based supply chain firm 3SC Solutions restarted its office operations after the pandemic, many of the employees were hesitant to return to office. The company ran a survey to understand what the contentious points were and implemented two policies: remote work and enhanced paternity leave.

“Despite remote working being a challenge, especially in the supply chain sector, we managed to pull it off,” said Sarita Das, Co-Founder and CHRO, 3SC Solutions.

These policies have been well-received and have led to a notable improvement in the work-life balance of the employees, Das said, adding, “the organisation, too, has become more productive.”

Increase in motivation

Software development firm Amdocs embraced the difficulties and requirements of this “new normal” era, realising the necessity of updating and, in some cases, redefining its social contract with the stakeholders.

With the launch of an Organisational Health Index (OHI) survey by McKinsey, new Webcasts and educational kits, emotional and well-being support groups etc, the firm began to review and upgrade its internal and external communication channels to make it easier for the employees to be reached and heard.

OHI helps in analysing the impact of company practices and culture on performance and creating an implementation road map to improve it.

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“We hear our people are very clear from the OHI conducted by McKinsey. We came in the top decile of this survey, placing us in the top 10 percent of the companies in McKinsey's benchmark,” said Reetu Raina, VP and Global Head of Talent Management of Amdocs.

She added that ‘Vacation Without Limits’ has empowered employees to switch off and rejuvenate and the same was evident from the scores of motivation in the OHI survey. It increased from 66 percent in 2020 to 75 percent in 2022.