Posts Tagged ‘Employees’

See, I told ya!

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

Hello from the HR desk. Hope you missed us. This month we are so excited to share with you an interesting research conducted by the Stanford University on management practices. We definitely have a reason to brag now. But before that, lets find out what it was.
The said research has measured an increased productivity rate in a company if it adopted good management practices. The research found out that the core set of practices increases the profit and productivity in an organization. During the study, the researchers compared textile industries which adopted few ‘best’ practices to those which didn’t adopt the same. There was an improvement in productivity by 10 percent within a few months of adoption.

And what were these practices? Yeap, almost the same as we do at AnyLinuxWork. Things like incentives based on the performance, clear job assignments and preventive maintenance were also encouraged in an organization. The research even suggested little things like observing, recording and meeting. Ofcourse there can never be a comparison between a textile company and a software company, yet, the principles of good management are quite cosmopolitan and pretty much the same. The practices adopted by the ALW management are well thought-out and properly implemented.

First of all, our team really understands and truly values time. We have encouraged them to smartly work their way up to their targets instead of sitting for late hours or taking work at home. We follow the five-day work module so that everyone gets to have a good time with family and friends. And so an average ALW employee is excited to come back to work on Mondays and that too with a fresh mind and loads of energy.

Secondly, we believe in encouraging our team members to improve quality of their life. We conduct personal grooming sessions from time to time, invite their family members to attend office functions and parties and encourage them towards cultural or creative activities.
Thirdly, our monthly ‘Meri Fitness’ adventures evoke the sports side of our team. We go for trekking, picnics, swing resorts etc so as to make our team keep fit and healthy. In addition, there are desk top exercises being practiced right at the work place apart from educating them on Yoga Asans and other health tips.

And the latest in the list is our Hi5 initiative that deliberately and consciously ensures that our employees are stress-free and they enjoy their work. The Hi5 team keeps organizing fun events at work place to create a friendly and warm environment.

Only last year, we shared with you our several management practices. And now the research seems to only ‘authenticate’ them. Yet, we were the first to know. Yay!

The ‘personal’ power factor!

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

For most people, many facts related to several things don’t make sense unless the facts have something extremely personal for them. The reason why the thought of associating with a great cause almost never crosses our minds is because the cause doesn’t have a direct personal effect on us. We are humans and we are selfish. However, if every human being thought that way, we wouldn’t have had initiatives like Green Peace or Earth Hour. This time under CSR, lets explore some such impersonal facts that make sense only when we view them closely and more personally

Take for example the facts about what inspired Earth Hour in 2008. When 2.2 million homes and 2100 businesses in Sydney turned off their lights for one hour on March 31, 2008, it reduced the city’s energy consumption by 10.2% for one hour.
Now how does it affect me? You would say. What if someone told you that this 10.2% energy consumption means taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year! Suddenly the thought of your favourite car dawns on you.

You would find it difficult in comprehending the fact that ceiling fans instead of air conditioners whenever possible can cut a lot of electricity cost. Lets look at another perspective of it. The difference in operating cost is approximately 30 paise per hour for fans as opposed to Rs 10 for air conditioning. Replacing the metal blades of a fan with fiber blades can save 20% energy overall. Makes sense?
However, if air conditioning is all that you have, each degree set above 22° Celsius will use 3-5% less energy. The recommended temperature to set the thermostat at is 25° Celsius, which is both comfortable and cost efficient.

Another effective way of using power wisely is going for multi-coated glazing windows that help in restraining cool air escape. It is also advisable to install weather-strips under doors, windows, and ducts to avoid air leakage. Getting multiple coated glazes on glass windows also reduces air conditioning energy usage by about 40 percent.
In a country like India and a city like Indore that gets a real long summer (including September and October), we can install green meshes on west facing windows and doors, so that it blocks direct sunlight heat and reduces the load on the air conditioners. This can be uninstalled in winters to let sunlight come in and reduce the need of heaters. Many businesses also have a large number of plants with drip irrigation, which helps to reduce the heat as it increases moisture in the air.

For more tips and interesting ways to use electricity wisely, watch this space.

School of Leadership

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

Leaders, some say, are born and not made. However, yet another school of thought keeps fighting off this idea and so we have some real good B-Schools across the country. Most good leaders won’t be able to teach you leadership. That’s simply because more than flaunting leadership, they have practiced it.

Leaders at AnyLinuxWork have one thing in common- they are accessible to everyone. You can walk in to them with ideas, thoughts, doubts, complaints and clues anytime. IO leadership believes in encouraging people to discover their individual goals for their lives. This, in turn, widens the landscape of work at IO adding ever newer dimensions to work culture and work quality.

At Office Space today, lets explore some very interesting qualities of the leaders at AnyLinuxWork. And yes many of these, you will realize, are cultivable.

Effervescence: Leaders at AnyLinuxWork are full of life and have a knack for infusing their energy into others. They are people who have the ability to light up the environment around. All they need is a good joke to start a meeting or just entering a board room with a real good ‘Hello everyone!’.

Amour-propre: This is French for ‘self-love’. IO leaders, however, love work ethics and stick to them. They love the brand IO that they have created and developed over the years.  This love translates into their efficiency in traveling any distance to making the brand successful.

Integrity: Jack Welch- the man behind initiatives like Six Sigma quality, e-business and former CEO of General Electric- has more than once proved that you cannot lead unless you have integrity. In his autobiography, Welch shares: “I stuck to some pretty basic ideas that worked for me, integrity being the biggest one.”

At AnyLinuxWork, integrity is almost synonymous to leadership. Our employees get inspired to work with integrity because they have seen our leaders do the same. Our leaders have always been people of strong values and honesty. It is thus no surprise that we see the same values being transferred down to the other levels of leadership. .

Organized life: Infosys Founder Narayan Murthy cautions- ‘workoholism’ must not be aped. A few months ago, IO leaders had shared affinity with this idea and had inspired the rest of the team. As a result, most employees have now cultivated a habit of working smart instead of working more. Our leaders lead a life that emphasizes the importance of inter-personal relationships. They are equally committed to their personal lives.  Thus they encourage their subordinates in their personal achievements as well. They have successfully created such an environment at our office that each individual focuses on having a good life and not just professional success. In addition, it is our policy to be mindful of the health and personal life of the employees. Joint celebrations, fitness initiatives, recreation facilities etc are some of the most practical things we do at IO to ensure that each one leads a healthy and happy life.

Complimenting: How easy and handy it comes to point out mistakes. A heart of appreciation, ironically, doesn’t come so easy. However, the art of complimenting is something that is an integral part of the IO work culture. Nothing tastes better than a compliment right out of the horse’s mouth. Apart from an organized system of encouragement through ‘Employee of the Month Award’, IO leaders never miss out on showering words of appreciation to team members even in the smallest of achievements.

Self-domain: Most people keep waiting for ‘the big opportunity’ for exercising their leadership skills. This is definitely a mistake. A good leader leads a team of two as energetically as he does a team of 20. What really matters in leadership is not the size but the spirit of leading. Effective leaders love their domain of work and transmit this feeling in others around them.

We have tried to inculcate this habit of leadership in each employee by making him or her accountable for the work assigned. IO leaders give each member enough freedom to logically take decisions on their respective assignments. As a result, each team member never feels insufficient to deliver his or her best.

These are a few more visible qualities of our leaders apart from many personal qualities that they have like a good character, sportsman’s spirit and a generous heart. The good news is IO provides ample opportunities for cultivating these qualities and practice leadership right from where one is placed. If this can happen at IO, it can happen anywhere. There may be a great leader sleeping inside you. It’s time to wake him up.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Use Electricity Wisely contd…3

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Proud to be ‘power smart’

A very interesting research conducted recently has found its way into our blog space of CSR this time. This study comes as a fitting support to our cause of Using Electricity Wisely. While in the last blog, we shared about how leaders at AnyLinuxWork were setting good examples, this time lets explore how has this cause influenced our employees.

The aforesaid study by Kenexa Research Institute (KRI), a provider of business solutions for human resources, reveals that three out of every five employees in India want to work for socially responsible organizations. It has suggested that an organization’s participation in corporate responsibility and environmentally friendly business practices has a significant influence on employee engagement and business outcomes.

The research has outlined a few key points on the impact of CSR on employees: 1. Employees feel a sense of pride in their organization. 2. Having a CSR adds to their overall satisfaction and possibility of recommending it as a good work place. 3. Employees stay longer in such organizations. 4. CSR plays a key role in attracting employees to an organization.

AnyLinuxWork is proud to share that our employees’ attitude is no less different from the results of the above research. The way they have emulated IO leaders is evident from little things that they practice everyday at the workplace. One of the major reasons why our employees have happily embraced the CSR is because of the IO philosophy of practicing before preaching. Two, IO always takes into account the views of the employees before implementing CSR policies. IO employees share how they have adopted certain habits that contribute into the cause of Using Electricity Wisely. Says an executive – “Using electricity wisely is not just a company obligation to me, it has become my habit. I always turn off the charging switch as soon as the mobile shows full battery.” This is simple yet effective. Many Nokia and Motorola users would have noticed that the phone auto-generates a message when the battery is full.

The habit of using electricity wisely has already traveled to the homes of many of the employees. Another employee shares, “I have started using CFL bulbs at home that save up to 30% of electricity.” Many others testify that they feel extremely delighted to be part of such an initiative and it has added to their ‘pride’ factor in AnyLinuxWork. While Earth Hour is being observed periodically, at AnyLinuxWork using electricity has become a part of life. Please do share your own ‘power smart’ ideas with us.