Pic: IMAGESBAZAAR

India Inc has stepped into 2012! and one of the mantras this year to keep employees engaged, say experts, is to raise their Fun Quotient (FQ). 

‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' and this adage holds true for employees today as well. Happy people make for a happy company, right? While compensation and rewards do matter, HR managers are beginning to realise that employees need to be kept happy on a daily basis to enhance productivity. That's where companies need to display and enhance their Fun Quotient (FQ).

So is having fun on-the-job the new cool thing? Atul Saxena, head HR, CHD Developers Ltd says, "The management has to ensure that employees get what they want. It's not always about money. It has to be a good blend of fun, a stress-free work environment, compensation, working hours, rewards and most importantly, employees being a part of a common organisational growth." He further adds, "We have introduced ‘HQTF (Happiness Quotient Task Force)', which charts out a plan for employee bonding and encourages strong internal communication between them. The HQTF has an event calendar, which includes celebration of various festivals, employee birthdays, sports day, health camps and CSR events."

Accenture India has a women's networking group called Vaahini, which supports networking on efforts and initiatives related to mentoring, communication and counselling. "It aims at addressing women issues proactively by nurturing, sustaining and building the female workforce at all levels.  "Several programmes have been launched under this banner, ranging from leadership talks to training sessions as well as self-defense," reasons Manoj Biswas, HR lead, Accenture India.

"One of the four pillars of freedom that we believe in is "freedom to be," wherein we let the employees do what they want as long as they live within the organisation's policy framework. We have games and recreation on each floor and employees are free to use them whenever they want," says Ajit Menon, executive director – organisational development, Mudra Group.

Rakhi Panigrahy, deputy manager, HR, Geometric opines, "Over the years, our jobs have become very demanding, and most of us spend more than 10 hours in office and more than an hour travelling. This mundane routine slowly leads to a loss of interest at the workplace, thus eventually affecting productivity. Therefore, it becomes essential to break this monotony and bring in some excitement to keep up the spirits of the employees. Various researches have shown that working professionals who have a good time while they're at work accomplish more, show a higher level of creativity and extend more help to co-workers. Now, isn't it cool to have a workforce, which enjoys working and achieving?"

"We have created a fun@work calendar for the employees wherein we organise several activities throughout the year," notes Sandip Mallik, director-HR, Aviva Life Insurance.

Irrespective of any circumstances, it is important for organisations to help their employees maintain a work-life equilibrium. Comviva has programmed ‘Happiness Officers' with key responsibilities to encourage their staff to balance their work-life harmony in a stress-free environment. "The ‘ComNJoy' events, further supported by in-house clubs run by our employees help to run the events and concepts rolled out by the happiness officers. We have also established a hobby club in our offices across locations to enthuse employees to pursue activities like ‘Rock'o'Rhythm', ‘The Falcons', ‘Fotu Club', etc that increase their happiness quotient," asserts Sandyp Bhattacharya, VP-HR, Comviva.

The ethos of HCL's culture lies in its EFCS (Employees First, Customer Second) philosophy, which seeks to empower employees across all levels in the organisation and facilitate personal transformation and individual enlightenment. "At HCL, we also have a unique employee engagement and retention programme called EPIC (Employee Passion Indicative Count) that helps to identify levels and directions of an employee's passion quotient. The EPIC report enables managers to understand the pulse of their respective teams and every individual. Power of ONE, an employee centric corporate social responsibility principle that derives inspiration from EFCS, is yet another unique initiative through which we allow employees to find satisfaction and meaning in their work life," says Ravi Shankar, senior vice president, HR, HCL Technologies.

It's no longer all work and no play at India Inc. Companies are going all out on their fun agenda this year and are making sure that the FQ is not missed out.

- Sheetal Srivastava