Employees first, customers second

Employees First, Customers Second: Turning Conventional Management Upside Down
It is assumed I might think about the above lines during my MBA. The funny thing is I have been
thinking of the above for much of the last three years. I worked in the IT sector all this time in a
company where customer is king. Of course I entered the IT sector at a time when my company was
rapidly maturing. The growth that was possible earlier was gone earlier such as moving to onsite
within 18 months was gone.


And in the midst of the recession employees were vulnerable. The recession at one time in my
company turned what would earlier be an earlier apology letter incident into a firing reason incident.
At one moment when large number of employees were on bench project managers started patrolling
the bench area cubicles to ensure no one was surfing the internet, playing games or watching videos.
Employees stopped sending forwards to each other.


This was perhaps the biggest disillusionment with the company I worked with. There is a quote I love
to say that reminds me of the same “Company kisi ki nahin hoti(A company never gets attached to
anyone)”. Employees who get too attached to their companies, too proud of where they are ultimately
very likely to be left broken hearted.


In the IT sector especially an employee is just a resource and in case of a 100,000 plus employees
company all employees in a band are equal. I had great learnings in my former company but we ended
up in a divorce because of mutually irreconcilable differences. I wanted positions of leadership
opportunities and personal growth in a short time and the company wanted me to work for 10 years or
so before I would reach a position of satisfaction for me.


All this long I have had great discussion with managers and coworkers on such issues which rankle
everyone. The only conclusion I have come to is that a job is only satisfying when there is both the
companies and the employees growth and satisfaction. When either fails, the employee must look for
options or else not grumble about the situation.


So , I view HCL’s employee first credo with great interest. After all how can it be about the employee?
Is not it about sales growth, profit margins and customer satisfaction? Having spoken to multiple
people both connected and not connected to HCL about the same. Pardon me for the cynicism but I
believe unless it can be independently validated HCLs tagline is a great public relations exercise and
nothing more. I just don’t see the results. HCL is not showing lower attrition or greater employee
satisfaction in the social networking sphere.


Of course , employee satisfaction is a very difficult task. Especially the IT sector as we all think we are
God’s blessing to heaven as there are so many recruiters. You just say Java with no resume on
Naukri.com and 4 companies are setting up interviews. I still get spammed but recruiting consulatants.
What is needed is a balance between money, quality of work and the work environment. Lack of any
can cause issues. To end I quote a Harvard Business School article, “Improved recognition cannot
replace better pay, money cannot substitute for taking pride in a job well done, and pride alone will not
pay the mortgage”.


References http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/5289.html