1.

GOOGLE

Never penalize the employees for their failures. It doesnt always hire the smartest of people but the ones who would fit in to the culture of the organization. The candidates are also being interviewed by their peers and juniors. Newcomers are given 6 months to watch and absorb Googles ways of working before being put on a team. In case of any professional or personal query, all one has to do is create an online thread for solutions. Even the washroom has innovative posters talking about Googles entrepreneurial spirit. It has white board everywhere in the office, so as soon as any employee gets any idea he can write it down (this was not in the article but I read it on internet that Google follow this practice in U.S.).

It has massage center & health food counters in all 3 locations. It has Bollywood room in Mumbai. It hire generalists who are smart, adaptive, have role-based knowledge leadership and teamwork skills and good at many things and the interviewers are trained in what to look for and what questions to ask etc. It has 5-7 rounds of interviews over a period of time and even the candidate does not clear one interview, he/she is out.

2. INTEL
In Intel ethics are more important than expertise. It doesnt bind its employees by time or location but keeps a tab of their performance. It is female employee - friendly organization, since after 7 PM female employees are allowed to leave and work from home. Twice a year, employees have to report on the work done by their superior.

3. NTPC

The System Review Groups (SRG) is being created to review the HR systems and procedures and suggest changes for improvements. One of the SRG had initiated to tie up with IMI and IIT-Delhi to provide full time executive MBA and M.Tech program to its staff. It has also launched the marriage portal for employees and their wards and also has a free counseling and support programme called SNEHAL. To improve the quality of work life, it came out with a concept of PUPs (Providing Urban Facilities at Project and Stations) considering the fact that its employees are spread across remote areas and locations.

It welcomes their executive at different locations with First Day First Show movie screening and also provides Hi-tech wireless communications to be in touch with their families.

4. MAKE MY TRIP
It encourages a lot of ownership and independence to make decisions. It goes out of way to make the work environment as Gen Y-Friendly as possible, it has an 24-hour event called Hackathons wherein a bunch of people get together and hack code all night. Hackathons encourage not just launching of products for customers but live products that can be shared with user groups.

5. FORBES MARSHALL
It purchased gensets at the peak of recession when state electricity board announced that there wont be any power supply to manufacturing units on Thursdays(weekly off for most companies in Pune). It was done so that their employees get uninterrupted weekends. The company ensures that family spirit one of its core values follows to the tee as employee families are form part of all the activities of the organization. Spouses of employees are present all the way through, right from the orientation to retirement. For the company individuals dignity is as important as the organizations which is also one of the core philosophy of the company. It has started looking at the HR practices followed by IT companies to stop the migration of its employees to IT firms (migration was happening because of work environment, lack of challenges and ability to grow in engineering firms). It launched Blue Chillies an in-house fun at work team which organizes events every alternative month and Blue Wave an in-house band.

6. AMERICAN EXPRESS
It offers workplace flexibility, such as flexible locations, timings and reduces working hours. It workforce includes 40% women so pregnancy care and wellness programmes are also well established. It has started a new initiative Dil Se, a parental care programme. The employees are empowered with formal issues resolution procedure if they feel discriminated against in everyday work. It launched employee Relations team in India through which employees can raise their issues. Employees can opt for a compressed workweek, reduced working hours or scheduled days to telecommute and can also bring their kids to office. They have implemented concepts such as gender intelligence and sponsor effect to build better appreciation for their diverse workforce.

7. MARRIOTT HOTELS
It has a very good policy of promoting the internal talent to middle and top management positions across locations which they have done in past as well as planning to for the new hotels they are opening. It appoints the top executive committee of new property with long-time Marriott people and for junior level they always manage to get really smart people. It has launched an initiative to train youngsters from economically under privileged background for the jobs in hotel industry (one year programme). The youngsters are trained in mostly back office housekeeping jobs and Marriott hopes to offer permanent jobs to most of them after completion of training.

8. INTUIT TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

At intuit learning is a priority before meeting objectives. The 45 day tax-free period is a case in point where senior executives are expected to soak in the culture. An intuit-ian gets 10% of his working hour to sew up in any product which may not be related to his KRA. It has started a retention policy for junior & middle management who will be handed out 10% of their fixed pay after every 2 years. The company makes sure that they dont lose people to rivals but to entrepreneurial ventures that employees embark upon.

9. QUALCOMM
Qualcomms employees have access to a huge pool for their career development. Qualcomm University is the training division for Engineering Seismology Group (ESG), which develops wireless technology courses covering both CDMA & WCDMA technologies taught by experts. Onsite Career Center provides employees with resources and customized guidance to help them manage and develop their careers.

The company also have a culture of recognizing those who excel through an Employee Tradeshow which give teams an opportunity to demonstrate their accomplishments to both fellow employees and senior management.

Qualcomms Annual Report About People is a yearly publication designed to celebrate the companys success through stories about their employees. As far as Social Responsibility is concern, it allows its employees to take a call on funding the projects of social relevance and propose the project themselves. The company has partnered with MV Foundation an organization that rescues victims of child labour.

10. NIIT LTD.

NIIT introduced Performance Assessment & Career Enhancement(PACE) an initiative aimed at recognizing the performance of every individual which takes into consideration not only achievement of employee but also behavior and values used to achieve those results. The performance is calculated by online system using the Balance Scorecard. It has introduced Art of Supervision programme for managers before they start handling a team. It has also introduced N-Tie, in which employees are assessed at 90, 180 & 365 days. This programme is aimed at allowing new NIITians to settle in, understand their own potential, start performing and finally, entering the evaluation process. The company has put in place Mobility Maps, a view of typical career paths of various roles in NIIT. In the company employees regularly give e-WOW cards to each other as tokens on their appreciation. It has also created a Passion Groups for the employees with common interest. In Gurgaon office every floor has AppreciaTree on which employee put notes appreciating and thanking their colleagues. It has one more initiative called HATS OFF program, recognizes the outstanding behavior of an employee. This program also allows employees to collect redeemable points, which they can exchange for electronics & air tickets. It also has a social responsibility program called iGive, which allows each employee to take 4 days leave to help contribute to the betterment of the society.