An interview with Mr Shrikant Lonikar, Group General Manager HR, Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting, Bangalore.

Briefly encapsulate the range of products that you manufacture within the field of Consumer Care and Lighting?

Consumer Care is the `Mother business' of Wipro. We started our journey with consumer products way back in 1945 and later evolved into the large, diversified, hi-tech Wipro Corporation as it is today.

Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting made Rs. 3 billion in revenue and Rs. 411 million profit before interest and tax last year.

We have 5 manufacturing locations and more than 30 depots/branches across the country. Our product categories include vanaspati, toilet soaps, talcum powders, hair and baby care products.

We also have presence in the field of lighting.

With your operations spread across the country, how do you ensure that the vision and mission of the company percolates to each and every employee?

Our business though large, has been divided into smaller business units headed by functional heads.

This structure allows the flexibility and connectivity of a small and compact organisation.

We have a strong induction program where every new employee is not only exposed to the various functions in the organisation but also to our values and culture.

Each of the induction programs are led by Senior Managers whose responsibility is to share the organisation's vision and Wipro beliefs and values.

Most the seniors in the system like heads of Marketing, Finance, HR and Quality visit the locations frequently and spend time with employees.

This gives an opportunity to employees to interact and learn about the organisation and its developments.

What kind of professionals can find job opportunities with the company?

We have a rigorous recruitment process to ensure that we hire the best talent in the industry. All our HR processes are competency based.

Educational qualifications are function dependent. For example, we largely recruit MBAs from reputed institutes in marketing and sales positions, for finance we hire ICWAs and CAs.

For manufacturing we recruit chemical and mechanical engineers.

In addition to a good education, we look for candidates with high potential, integrity and the ability to lead the organisation in future.

Though we have been recruiting at senior levels from cross sections of industry, our main focus is on `internal growth' and hence we look for candidates who are steady, interested in building a career with Wipro and who bring a new perspective to the organisation.

Candidates who join us in Consumer Care or Lighting business also have career options of moving laterally or vertically to other businesses of Wipro.

What kind of retention policies do you implement to fight attrition?

Our values and culture, freedom and autonomy, exciting challenges and opportunities for career advancement are our key retention tools.

We work in a highly charged environment with talented and successful people that motivate one and all.

We believe that apart from salaries, employees seek fast growth, exciting work environment and opportunity to make a difference through entrepreneurial ventures, amongst other things.

We have been able to build a work environment that is competitive yet non political. We offer our employees not just jobs but a career.

We have a strong HR Review and Planning Process (HRRP), which addresses this issue.

Each employee has a career growth plan in place. Based on the career plan we give each of them opportunity to work in various functions to get a wide and varied exposure.

We also have a compensation design, which aggressively differentiates between performers and non-performers.

We were arguably the first FMCG company in India to offer stock options to employees.

We also purge the bottom 10% on a regular basis so that they do not become a liability for others.

What kind of an appraisal system do you have in place?

We have been following a 360 -degree appraisal system for more than 8 years now. This is known as Wipro Leaders' Qualities survey. This process is conducted by an external agency to maintain confidentiality as well as to encourage all to offer free and upfront feedback. An employee gets a feedback from his supervisor, his peers, his reports and from himself. After the feedback report is ready, we conduct a module `Winds of Change' for the leaders to analyse the report better and work out a self- development plan.

How hierarchical is the company?

We have a flat and networked organisation, which has evolved as a business need.

Between a frontline employee and the head of business, there are maximum four levels of reporting.

This helps us in many ways. There is connectivity at all levels and flow of communication is free and smooth. Unwanted bureaucracy is avoided and decisions are taken faster.

Apart from standard compensation, do you offer any other kind of profit sharing schemes for your employees?

Wipro has been offering Wipro Employee Stock Option up to junior management level.

A large portion of compensation of senior management is linked to business performance.

We have a performance based pay system, which targets at the flexible pay of employees in the range of 20 to 60%. However, this model is now being revised to suit the changing needs of business.

MALINI SURYANARAYANAN

maalini.mds@cxknetworks.com