This Diwali, organisations want to invest in healthy, charitable employees
ART OF GIVING Companies are handing out gifts that promote health and work-life balance and encouraging their people to donate to charities
Diwali is turning out to be the season of giving in the true sense as organisations are encouraging employees to donate gifts in cash and kind to select NGOs. Gifts to employees are also being carefully thought out with many organisations handing out products they make, (such as cellphones, speaker systems) or fitness trackers and luggage – indicating they care about employee health and work-life balance.
Performance incentives, often made to coincide with the festive season, are also being given now, something that some HR experts call a ‘happy coincidence.’ Most companies these days have quarterly or half-yearly reviews and the incentives are often given out to employees during Diwali.
These gestures go a long way to motivate employees to improve their performance. Helping employees engage in volunteering activities with NGOs is aimed at improving their satisfaction levels too.
Captain Partha Samai, senior vice president and group head – HR, AGS Transact Technologies Limited, says that festivals offer an opportunity for HR to bring employees together. “We organise diya decoration and rangoli competitions and also cultivate the habit of giving away and sharing joy among employees. For this, we have identified a few old age homes and NGOs,” he says.
The company has about 9,000 employees across 718 locations. All of them will get gifts, “which include both the cash and non-cash component. What this means is that part of the performance incentive is given. Employees are also encouraged to send voluntary nominations to help NGOs or send out clothes, food items and even grains to people who need them the most. We do have a separate budget for the festive season that varies from year to year,” he says.
Panasonic India is giving bonuses to both sales and support staff and paying salaries in advance. “We are also offering our products to all our employees across 34 locations. A contest has been launched to bring employees together to showcase Indian heritage,” says A darsh Mishra, CHRO, Panasonic India.
GlobalLogic is engaging employees by holding a jashne (festive) Diwali party. “Besides giving them personal gifts, we are organising initiatives and celebrations like Diwali mela, garba night, ramp walk and decorating the workplace – the idea is to engage them beyond remuneration and be part of their celebration. We are also running a special social media photo contest. Diwali is also the time when our employees visit schools we sponsor, distributing gifts and spending time with kids,” says Neeru Mehta, vice president, human resources, GlobalLogic India.
Among gifts that Qualcomm is planning to give to employees are power banks, speakers, radios, luggage or perhaps FitBits. “The celebrations continue until December and we put up a ‘giving tree’ during Thanksgiving. We talk to our NGO partners to get us a list of what people who are not so lucky wish for and this wish list is distributed among employees. So, someone may get an envelope from a child who perhaps wants a football or a pair of shoes. The idea is to share the good cheer across society,” says Archana Nirwan, head, HR, Qualcomm India Pvt Ltd.
The entire exercise is to engage employees in the best way possible. “When we decided to gift our employees a fitness tracker, we also organised a contest around it. So there were prizes for people who took the maximum number of steps in a day etc. It was an effort on our part to inculcate a good habit, create an opportunity for our employees to stay healthy,” she says.
Pallavi Jha, chairperson and managing director of Dale Carnegie Training India, says employee engagement continues to be an overriding factor behind activities undertaken during the festive season.
“Since budgets are limited this time, volunteering has become an important engagement tool,” she says.
At Dale Carnegie, “we have launched a gift the future campaign for which we have tied up with NGOs and are getting employees to volunteer to encourage the spirit of giving,” says Jha.
In some companies, the midyear appraisal cycle coincides with the festive season and that is a happy coincidence. It is more to do with the way the company has structured the appraisal payouts PALLAVI JHA, chairperson and managing director of Dale Carnegie Training India