Life at Brigade
This BPO outfit intends to double its employee
strength in 2005.
Brigade Corporation has mastered the art of
taking care of its employees.
The vision of the company—‘our power is our
people’—says a lot about the company’s HR
practices. Brigade conducts two different
surveys—the employee satisfaction survey and the
annual compensation survey—to ascertain the
drawbacks of the organisation as well as those of
its employees.
Apart from its Chicago and San Francisco
facilities, US-based Brigade has centres in
Hyderabad and Chennai. The company has drawn up
plans for the induction, training and career
advancement of its employees, whose number has
been growing rapidly. Though the current headcount
is already 1,000 in Hyderabad and 500 in Chennai,
Brigade’s goal is to increase its strength beyond
3,000 people in 2005 by adding 500 people every
quarter from now onwards.
A company spokesperson says that Brigade is the
largest third-party BPO organisation in Andhra
Pradesh. It provides customer relationship
management (CRM) and BPO services to Global-1000
corporations.
States Sri Dasari, CEO of the company, “We
implement process-oriented initiatives, so for
everything there is a process. Our aim is to make
Brigade a company of choice. Career decisions of
individuals are usually influenced by family
members. Hence we would like to top the list of
family choices when it comes to careers.” The
attrition rate at Brigade is half the industry
average—50-60 percent—though it varies from place
to place. The number of people being recruited
based upon referrals is rising. At present, more
than 10 percent of those who are hired have been
referred by employees.
Apart from the usual practice of conducting
written tests and interviews, Brigade insists on
psychology tests. Irrespective of experience,
every employee has to undergo a training programme
prescribed by the company.
Training transformation
The company has drawn up a 45-day training
programme. All new employees need to get certified
on various parameters such as language
proficiency, process training, corporate etiquette
and how to dress—something necessary because 60
percent of Brigade’s recruits are fresh out of
college. Brigade also sends people abroad for
training in new products and services.
To transform its employees into managers,
Brigade implements a 40-hour Millennium Leadership
Programme (MLP). Since doing a job is different
from getting a job done, MLP focusses on
managerial skills development. In order to reward
those who perform well, Brigade conducts an annual
compensation benchmark study. Those who get 75
percent in the performance evaluation stand at the
average benchmark level, and 125 percent is
considered to be high-end. The best performers
always get extra benefits.
Top performers are included as members of the
CEO Club, a platform from where members can
exchange views and participate in the company’s
decision-making process. As Brigade strongly feels
that employees should be stakeholders in the
organisation, it issues stock options to them. On
birthdays, a car is sent to the employee’s house
to pick up his or her entire family and take them
to a star hotel in the city; the company bears the
expenses.
All employees get to take a break from work,
Brigade implements a number of extra-curricular
activities that make life more interesting. The
company encourages people to showcase their
talents in games and other areas. Employees in
Hyderabad are very active in cricket, participate
in a number of local matches, and have a trekking
club. The Chennai centre actively participates in
bowling. For those who cannot move from the
workplace, there are one-minute games that give
immediate relief without disturbing the ongoing
work.
Brigade has a chief fun officer (CFO)
exclusively for designing, framing and
implementing various games for employees with the
aim of developing a sense of belonging towards the
organisation.
As part of its responsibility towards society,
Brigade encourages its employees to participate in
a number of welfare programmes. The company helps
orphanages by funding and organising various
entertainment programmes for them. It actively
participated in the recent tsunami relief
activities. The company is also planning to adopt
two villages near Hyderabad for providing total
educational support to underprivileged children.