MindTree Consulting - A School for leaders

Two Months After MindTree Consulting was formed in August 1999, it recruited its 27th employee, Bhageerathi D.R, and in the following week its 33rd employee, Babuji Abraham. They are still with the company; and they are not alone in choosing to stay with MindTree. Only five of its 50 senior managers have left the company since inception. “Today, eight years later, the entire (10-member) founding team is still together and the attrition rate at the senior level is just 1 per cent,” says Ashok Soota, 64, Chairman & Managing Director of the company. The company obviously takes pride in being able to retain people. “I think the one key differentiator is the focus we have maintained on continuing to create leadership within MindTree and ensuring that its leadership walks the talk,” says Krishnakumar Natarajan, President and CEO, IT Services, MindTree, and one of its co-founders. The company, like most others on our list, has institutionalised practices to make itself employeefriendly. “We seek feedback from people within the company on areas that are working well and also on those that need improvement. Secondly, we identify and adapt best-in-class practices from globally admired organisations to help increase the engagement levels,” says Soota.

MindTree’s impressive 13-acre campus in Bangalore’s Global Village will notice the efforts the company is making to look into small but crucial employee needs. Today, 23 per cent of its employees are women and growing; in the last round of hires from campuses, it was 40 per cent, up from 18 per cent three years ago. MindTree has launched a fullfledged day-care centre to co-exist with a “Baby’s Day Out” facility that is already in place. Women are now allowed to take up to one year of leave for every six years of service to balance commitments between work and family. This can be availed for extended maternity, accompanying their spouse on travel, caring for dependent family members and taking care of small children. Then, it has launched Dhriti, a MindTree Women’s Network, as a support system to facilitate knowledge sharing, learning, mentoring and networking.

Says Sonal Sharma Mathur, Senior Engineer, who gets her one-year-old son Nalin to campus: “I joined MindTree in January 2005 as an engineer, and quit after the birth of my son to take care of him. Later, when I thought of joining back, the company welcomed me with immense understanding and fullest support.” These initiatives have allowed the company to keep attrition levels under control, though it is rising. It has risen to 15.7 per cent, from 12 per cent in 2005-06, compared to the industry average of about 25 per cent. But, there is a feeling that MindTree is not a good paymaster. Puneet Jetli, Vice President & Head, People Function, at the company, denies this. “We peg our compensation at the 75th percentile in the industry (this means its compensation will be higher than 75 per cent of companies in the industry). And this year, our average compensation increase has been higher than the industry average.” In order to remove misgivings, he says the company undertook an extensive communications and benefits roadshow to communicate this to employees. He adds that the rising attrition level, though not alarming, needs to be watched closely and reduced.

The reasons, he feels, could range from misplaced perceptions on compensation, a desire to relocate to other regions and the pursuit of higher education. To retain talent, MindTree has launched an internal job postings system to help employees align their aspirations with available opportunities. And it’s working. Even employees who have left the company have nice things to say about it. V. Ramakrishna, who recently quit MindTree after a seven-year stint, says: “MindTree is a young company, so, one gets the opportunity to take on challenging roles early on.” And though it now has 5,500 people on its roles, Soota and Jetli are determined to retain the nimbleness and soul of a small company. “We have consciously worked on introducing several new practices to further reinforce our people brand,” says Soota. No wonder MindTree Minds love their workplace

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