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| To address the oft debated issue of Total Rewards, we caught up with two HR gurus, Mr. Pratik Kumar, VP Human Resources from India’s own veritable IT empire, Wipro Limited, and Mr. Hemant Sharma, Head HR from a truly Global IT giant, Sun Microsystems. Here’s a transcript of what followed in our rendezvous. |
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Total Rewards Philosophy at Wipro……. |
| Total Rewards is fair recognition given to one’s contribution to the organization. At Wipro, we look at Total Rewards as an enabler to build a strong Rewards mechanism focusing on: |
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Attracting the right talent. |
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Compensation that is positioned competitively. |
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Driving higher performance that is recognized and appreciated. |
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| From Compensation to Total Rewards… |
| Today differentiation driven by performance forms the basis of our compensation. We’ve realized that annual salary increases do not have a significant impact in retaining critical talent. A good mix of offerings including the right kind of roles, career opportunities, investment in employees’ development and a good brand is the global demand. We’ve stayed on course with respect to equity based Long Term Incentives where we use a restricted stock plan. We’ve believed in the significance of these instruments and have extended it to significant contributors and employees with a long term stake in the organization.
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| More than just Compensation for future employees … |
| The spectrum of work at Wipro is very appealing to young engineers. While compensation is competitive, a key highlight of our offer for youth is our education initiatives like tie ups with universities abroad and in India. Wipro places a high premium on merit and so have stayed away from age based promotions. Growth is in the hand of an individual. Developmental needs of employees are important and senior leadership including Mr. Azim Premji conduct training sessions during the year. |
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| Total Rewards in High Performers Management… |
| At Wipro, we begin with a thorough talent review and planning exercise wherein Mr Azim Premji, Business Unit Heads and HR spend up to 10 working days. Once high performers and critical role holders are identified, suitable actions taken may include role enhancement, allocation to different leaders for differentiated compensation. We also have Global leadership alliances in collaboration with global corporations where we nominate future leaders. For us, recognizing and rewarding high performers is not by making poster boys of them, but by investing in their growth. |
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| Total Recognition at Wipro! |
| To foster a feeling of oneness in the company, the organization has heavy emphasis on group initiatives and these are captured as team photos. One of our innovative recognition programs is the ‘Dear Boss’ award. Contrary to the norm, team members give an award to the boss, through a pre-defined process. To reinforce and appreciate an employee’s continued stay, cash awards seem insufficient. In these cases, we have Club 10 and Club 15 programs where we sponsor holidays for employees and their families for achieving these milestones. |
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Global Leadership Alliance Program at Wipro |
| Wipro has teamed up with four large multinationals - Nissan, L’Oreal, Schneider Electric and Alcan, as part of a Global Leadership Alliance. The idea is to expose business heads to strategic issues related to globalization from different industries and geographies. Each of these sends six of its senior managers for the programme. It is anchored by Professor John Stopford of London Business School, and over 2 weeks covers 2 modules, addressing common and company specific issues related to globalization. |
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| Total Rewards at Sun… |
| Compensation is an important component of Sun's employee lifecycle engagement strategy. Total rewards plays an important part in driving execution of business strategy and aims to: |
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Drive performance. |
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Attract and retain talent. |
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Encourage teamwork. |
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| Through the years… |
| At Sun globally, the key change has been the focus on performance driven pay through the incorporation of variable component even at lower levels in the organization. We have a higher variable component; sometimes as much as 50% for senior levels and functions where performance is directly measurable, while it is lower for the others. In India, compensation is heavily cash focused; we follow a la carte approach, which gives employees adequate choice. We are shifting our focus gradually away from benefits (as was traditionally defined) with the objective of greater transparency in our compensation structure. |
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| Managing High Performers |
| Our performance management system identifies High Performers at the global level in the organization. We adopt a differentiated compensation strategy; top performers could get upto twice the increments of average performers. Managers are encouraged to reward innovation and teamwork and they too are rewarded for developing leaders in their teams. For High Performers we also focus on their accelerated development. We have a worldwide mentoring program, SEED, where employees are mentored by the best thought leaders in the organization. Every year, there are 25 - 30 employees from India who benefit from this initiative. |
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| Recognition at Sun |
| We recognize our talent through both monetary and non-monetary initiatives. We have spot bonuses where managers reward subordinates for their contributions to specific initiatives. These could range from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 1 Lakh. We have monthly and annual awards for contributions, which are more long term. At our R&D center, nomination for these awards can also be through peers. Our other interesting developmental and recognition programme recognizes young thought leaders by |
| nominating them to represent Sun at external forums like technical conferences. Apart from this we have several recognition programmes for employees on a global level. We also have a patent bonus award, which provides monetary recognition each time an idea is accepted by the Sun patent office. This reinforces our belief in encouraging innovation. |
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| Total Rewards and Retention? |
| Total Rewards is only an enabler to retain talent, and not the decisive factors in promoting change. Attrition is a function of a multitude of factors, and at Sun less than 10% of exiting employees have cited compensation as the reason for quitting. |
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