Section B

CASE STUDY
When play becomes work Sheeted Banavali´s daily routine as a Team Leader at UK 3 in
anything but ordinary. Eight straight hours of handling a team of executives servicing
customers from halfway across the world is bound to leave anyone exhausted. "I either go
to Unwind, which plays great music, or Cuisine, where the food is top of the world.
Sometimes I even go to Finesse to get my hairdo right," she says. Unwind and Cuisine, by
the way, are theme cafeterias, while Finesse is a beauty salon. And yes, all three are
located within the 3 office premises at Mind space, Malady. “We are setting the benchmark
in HR practices," says 3 Head (Recruitment and HR Support) Achill Sharma, who prefers
describing the 5,000-employees strong 3 as a Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
company rather than a plain Jane BPO. "Our focus is the employee and we believe in
nurturing his or her talent." With a Citibank ATM inside the office, a full-fledged gaming
arcade, a higher education programme - Gurukul - that has a tie-up with institutions like
Norse Monee Institute of Management Studies and the Institute of Chartered Financial
Analysts of India allowing employees to pursue an MBA or a CA, the only thing missing is
bed and breakfast. "By the way, we have three company guesthouses if the staff wants to
stay overnight," says Sharma with a laugh, even market leaders joins the game. If BPOs are
upping the ante, the IT companies, small and big, aren´t far behind. Sudheesh Denktash,
Vice- President, HR, of the India operations of Tesco, the world´s largest grocery home-
shopping service in the world, puts the paradigm shift in perspective calling it the ´death of
the personnel manager´" The IT industry has effectively ensured that the old personnel
department is gone and done away with. Human resources today is completely about talent
management and retention," he says. And walking the talk, Tesco offers employees not only
maternity and paternity leave, but also adoption leave. "We are an equal opportunity
employer and if any employee of ours wants to adopt a child, we will support him or her in
every possible ways," he says. The Tesco campus at Whitefield in Bangalore also houses a
learning centre where employees can register themselves for a retail certification course
from no less than the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore. "We have also done
away with the probation period because we are in the business of training people," says
Denktash. Gurgaon-based Eon Technologies, which handles offshore projects across
Europe, is a small company by Indian IT standards. "But we have practices which are
cutting edge," says Preamp Pillai, head of HR at the company. "Tele-commuting, flexi-time
and retreats focused on team building are our strong points."