Aditya Birla Group is Hewitt Best Employer 2007

1st May, 2012

Maybe you would like to take a crash course on branding, run a marathon or even go deep into the hinterland to manage a water conservation project, or probably do all of these while working quietly on a global acquisition. At the Aditya Birla Group, opportunities are only limited by your imagination.

The $12 billion Indian conglomerate was ranked number one in India and among the best in Asia by Hewitt in their Best Employers Survey 2007. The India winners were chosen after a six-month long intensive research that included 230 participating companies and more than 44,000 respondent employees, representing the views of more than one million employees. The Best Employers in Asia study spanned some of the most dynamic markets in Asia attracting more than 750 employers. What is the DNA of a best employer? Contrary to the popular belief, it's not a lifetime employment guarantee or remuneration but an organisation's ability to provide customised solutions to an employee's unique situation. Given the diverse range of organisations represented in the Best Employers in India list, to be the best, parameters like industry size, ownership and legacy didn't matter. But what did, were metrics like employee engagement and alignment, opportunities for growth and development, performance differentiation, quality of HR initiatives and employee diversity.

Clear focus on employee engagement by aligning employee needs and business interests, among others, helped the Group develop and implement its best-in-class people practices. The Group's HR processes are replicated seamlessly across businesses spread over 13 countries. Strong orientation to continuous personal and professional growth, challenging canvas, feeling of ownership, values driven work culture, quality of life, are just some of the elements that have catapulted the Group to be the top employer in 2007.

Says Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Aditya Birla Group, "The broad philosophy of our company as an employer is to empower and to enrich and as part of that there are a couple of things. First, it is very important for people to trust the organisation that they work for unflinchingly and in any situation. Second, we are a meritocracy. People know wherever they are in the organisation they are not lost. If they have merit then on the basis of that merit alone they will bubble up to the top of the organisation. Third, the fact that we offer many opportunities within the same Group. So you could want to be doing BPO in Canada for the first few years, you could be wanting to work in Australia in mines, you could be wanting to work in Atlanta heading the strategy function for the world's largest rolling company. You will have all of these opportunities and more within the same organisation without having to change from one organisation to another."

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