[HR INITIATIVES AT MINDTREE

AND THEIR IMPACT ON

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
AND PERFORMANCE]

SUBMITTED BY
S.MADHULA
ROLL NO : 52
PGP 10-12
IIM RAIPUR
MindTree – A Brief Introduction

MindTree is a global IT company founded in 1999 by a group of 10 professionals with

stellar careers behind them. With revenues in excess of $ 300 million, MindTree’s business is
organized into 6 units specializing in IT Services, Testing, Infrastructure Management,
Knowledge Services and Product Engineering. Over the last 10 years, it has achieved several
distinctions. Known for its excellence in corporate governance standards and human capital
management, MindTree has consistently been rated among the best employers by leading
surveys. In the Hewitt India Associates ranking (2004-05) of the best places to work in India,
MindTree was placed 15th. In the next year (2005), the “Great Place To Work” Institute rated
MindTree the 19th best employer. More recently, the Asia money magazine rated it No 1 in
India and No 2 in Asia on corporate governance.

The HR function at MindTree

MindTree’s nomenclature system itself is a clear reflection of the organization’s people

orientation. The HR function at MindTree is called ‘People Function’, an explicit recognition of
the precedence that people enjoy over other resources. Also, to promote an egalitarian culture
and ensure that there is no distinction between "Worker and the Management", employees
therein are called “Mindtree Minds”.

Each employee of MindTree, at the time of their induction, attends a session wherein the
Chairman talks to them about the company’s goals and values. MindTree’s values, which
contract to the acronym called CLASS (Caring, Learning, Achieving, Sharing, Social
Responsibility), are tightly linked to the performance management system. While an employee’s
performance on job objectives accounts for only 60% of the appraisal evaluation, the remaining
40% is linked to how well he (she) demonstrates MindTree’s values. In addition, ‘MindTree
citizen awards’ are given out every quarter to employees.

In addition to these broad based initiatives, the HR function at MindTree undertakes

several targeted initiatives, three of which we shall explore as we go along.

Gardener
Context

Sometime during the third quarter of 2007, the top management at MindTree took stock
of all that had happened to the organization since its founding. Mindtree had grown ground up
from being an idea to a 6,000 strong family with revenues in excess of $ 250 million. For the
next stage of its growth, it had set several lofty goals – become a $ billion dollar company by
2014; be among the world's top 20 IT business, and be known for human resource management,
KM and corporate governance. To ready itself for the journey ahead, MindTree did an
organizational restructuring to become, what it called, MindTree 2.0. The Chairman relieved
himself of operational responsibilities and handed them over to the CEO. A new post of Chief
Strategy Officer (CSO) was created. A co CEO had been appointed for MindTree’s R&D
business. While this restructuring was focused on the immediate future, in the long term, the
senior management realized that a new crop of leaders needed to emerge and to take MindTree
into the future. This task of developing the next set of leaders was entrusted to Mr. Subroto
Bagchi, who at that time was the COO and based out of the US.

Concept

This new role was different in that Mr. Bagchi was not required to report to anyone, nor
was anyone required to report to him. Also, Mr. Bagchi gave himself a new title – Gardener.
Explaining the strange choice of the title for this job (Gardener), Mr. Subroto Bagchi said in an
interview, “There is both symbolism and substance in embracing a title like ‘Gardener’ in the
MindTree context.  The symbolism is in the fact that at a certain level, titles do not nourish you. I
am sending that message to our leaders. I am who I am, call me by whatever name. Titles are as
meaningful or meaningless as the person holding it. In the Knowledge Economy, in the
organizations of tomorrow, I see the role of leadership akin to that of a Gardener tending a
garden. So, here I am. Gardener.”

Mr. Bagchi, along with the other members of the senior management, felt that the current
ways of creating internal leaders which include training, mentoring, sending people to leadership
programs, are not enough to meet the demands of the knowledge economy. So, they decided to
focus on the “emotional infrastructure” of the company, which is an aggregate of all feelings
employees have with respect to their organization and colleagues. To facilitate this, Mr. Subroto
bagchi would engage with each of these 100 identified leaders in Mindtree on a one on one basis.
In this role, Bagchi would create the necessary ‘white-space’ , be available to him or her
exclusively and help them retrospect about everything that may be in his or her ‘Personal-
Professional’ space. He (she) can talk to him any professional / personal problem, apart from
that of compensation. He (she) can have the Gardener act as a sounding board, ask questions of
him and demand that he share how dealt with problems in his life. To encourage the leaders to
shed their inhibitions and open up completely, the details of these interactions are kept away
from MindTree.

Mr. Bagchi conducts between four to six sessions, each lasting 4 hours, with these identified
leaders. These sessions help clear up dilemma on issues that these leaders have at the back of
their minds and help them build alignment with their aspirations. This catharsis, claims Mr.
Bagchi, helps these leaders build their capability through self-awareness. These sessions have
had a tremendous impact, especially on those who are likely to drift because of frustration.

Impact

Mr. Raja Shanmugam (former Vice President, Business Development for APAC region)
felt stagnant with this job. However, when he got his turn to interact with Bagchi, he did not
discuss how to improve his job profile. Instead, he asked himself deeper questions like who he
was and what he would be five years down the line. "I was humbled to realize that the
organization was not as dependent on me as I thought. It was also a liberating experience, and I
discussed this with Bagchi and hence the new role," he says. Post his sessions with Mr. Bagchi,
Mr. Shanmugam has since moved on to the MindTree Foundation, where he is the CEO.
 Apart from spending time with top leaders, Mr. Bagchi also gives time to various interest
based knowledge communities that are there in MindTree. This decision to devote time to
knowledge community stems from MindTree’s philosophy of looking at itself as a ‘community
of communities. Their overarching belief is that it is difficult for an employee to identify with a
monolith and hence they would be better off trying to get their employees to associate with such
communities. MindTree has over 45 such communities, with over 80% of the employees being
associated with at least one of them.

Using the experience of this initiative, MindTree hopes to create many more such roles
which don’t have anything to do with seniority or title and can act without going through the
hierarchy system in place. Although this initiative is in the third year of its introduction, it
doesn’t have any concrete metrics to measure its effectiveness except looking at the content that
various knowledge communities are generating.

Baby’s Day Out and Toddler’s Park

Context
Looking at a set the exit interviews forms on his table, the head of the HR function at
MindTree noticed a trend – most women who had quit MindTree had done so after the birth of
their child. Around 17% of MindTree were women. It occurred to him that if MindTree could
take of the needs of mothers with infants and toddlers, MindTree could contain its attrition rate.
Concept
Acting on their findings, the People Function team at MindTree came up with a unique
initiative which was named ‘Baby’s Day Out’ and allocated an area in the office that was
specially designed to meet the needs of young mothers and their little babies.
Baby’s Day Out was built with the objective of enabling mothers to cope with their work and
dependent children in emergency situations such as caring for an unwell child, on days when
theirs maid have taken leave etc. This facility can be utilized for a continuous or cumulative
duration of two weeks extendable to four weeks in a year. Based on its availability, Baby’s Day
Out is allotted on a first-come-first-served basis. This facility is available free of cost.

Impact

While Baby’s Day Out was a hit with young parents, not everyone was able to use these
facilities. Many parents expressed the need for a ‘Day Care’ facility. They had several reasons
for this:
- A “Day Care” set up by the organization would take care of adhering to established
standards of safety and care.
- Kids could meet their parents in case of an emergency
- The toddlers could return from their school to MindTree’s premises and return with their
parents.
To cater to these stated needs, the People Function team at MindTree set up a day care center
called Toddler’s park. Toddler’s Park is built over 800 sq feet and has a play area, feeding area,
sleeping area and shelves for keeping kids’ belongings. There is a full time manager responsible
for running this facility. The feedback from parents has been very positive. “Since the child is
on campus in very responsible hands, I can work peacefully without stress or guilt,” says Deepti
Krishna, whose daughter is in enrolled in Toddler’s park.

PAL - Orchard
Context

In early 2007, a few senior level HR executives gathered to conceptualize an induction

program for its campus hires. One of the mandates given to them was to contain attrition once
these hires acquired a couple of years of work experience. Realizing that they couldn’t match any
of the large players in terms of the physical infrastructure, the team decided to focus on the ‘soft’
infrastructure and ensure that their hires share an emotional bond with the company. With all this
in mind was built a learning facility called Orchard.
Concept

Spread over an entire floor, Orchard had 3 school-style houses, each representing a
unique dimension of MindTree’s DNA – Imagination, Action and Joy. Every time a bunch of
campus hires joins MindTree, they are evenly divided into each of these ‘houses’. These houses
are shaped liked an amphitheater to promote an open, college like environment. All the house
members (called ‘children’) are given lockers and a graffiti wall for their creative outlet. Each of
these houses has a dedicated PAL (Parent, Anchor, Leader) assigned to it. The PAL plays a very
important role in Orchard. Modeled along the role that parents play, a PAL (usually a senior
level executive at MindTree) assumes a non-evaluative role and plays a mentor to each of the
members of his house. He interacts with his house members on a daily basis and shares in their
highs and lows, hand holds them, gives them emotional support all throughout the two and a half
month long induction program.
The induction program comprises of several modules. Technical learning sessions take place in
50-seater house classrooms or in larger facilities. Hands on sessions and assignments are done in
Computer Labs. Apart from imparting technical skills, the induction program lays emphasis on
competitiveness, team building and leadership development. House members are given specific
budgets within which to decorate their houses according to specified themes. Evenings are
normally beehives of activity when inter house competitions ranging from rangoli to cricket to
debates are conducted. In addition to these, several social initiatives are taken up.
Impact

The recruits who went through Orchard gave the program an unprecedented 91%
approval rating. Very soon, they started promoting MindTree as an employer of choice at their
Alma Mater. This showed up in the recruitment drives that MindTree participated in the years to
come. The long term impact, however, hasn’t been very encouraging. The attrition level of the
first batch that went through Orchard is pegged at 70%, with similar figures for the next few
batches as well. Although the program helped the new recruits assimilate into the organization
quickly, it doesn’t seem to have played a role in stemming attrition.
Employee Survey

I sent across the following survey to 13 employees of MindTree to gauge their perception about
MindTree and its various HR initiatives.

Questions asked
What do you think of MindTree as an employer? (a) Excellent (b) Very good (c) Good (d)
Average (e) Below Average
Are you part of any of MindTree’s 45 Knowledge Communities? (a) Yes (b) No
How do rate the Orchard program? (a) Very good (b) Good (c) Average (d) Below Average (d)
Don’t know what it is.
Do you think MindTree’s ‘Gardener’ initiative would help it reach its vision of being a billion
dollar company by 2014? (a) Definitely (b) Probably (c) No (d) Can’t say
Given an offer at a competitor’s company with a 10% hike over my current pay, I’d resign from
MindTree (a) Strongly Agree (b) Agree (b) Disagree (d) Strongly Disagree
What is the main motivation for you to stay with MindTree (a) I like the Company a lot (b) I
like the work I’m doing (c) I get good pay (d) I won’t get a job anywhere outside
Which of the following captures your feeling about “Baby’s Day Out” and “Toddler’s Park”? (a)
Very useful, have seen many mothers use it (b) Ok, but it is empty most of the time (c) Nobody
uses them because it’s not run properly (d) It’s probably a publicity gimmick.
There were 7 respondents to this survey. A compilation of these results reveal the following:
- 75 % of the respondents rated MindTree as an average employer.
- 100% of the respondents were part of at least 1 Knowledge Community.
- About 87 % of the respondents rated the ‘Orchard’ program to be very good.
- 75 % of the polled sample didn’t have a view on whether the ‘Gardner’ initiative
would help MindTree achieve its vision of becoming a billion dollar company.
- 25% of the respondents indicated a willingness to leave MindTree for a modest 10%
hike.
- The 2 strong motivators for staying with MindTree are (a) a strong liking to the
company (b) job satisfaction
- Around 70% of the respondents feel that MindTree’s Day Care center is a highly
useful initiative.

References
1) http://www.businessgyan.com/content/under-banyan-tree
2) http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/manager/2008/02/04/stories/2008020451131100.htm
3) http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/subroto-bagchiconstant-
gardener/12/01/343995/
4) http://specials.rediff.com/money/2008/dec/24slide3-how-leaders-bloom-at-mindtree.htm
5) http://www.india-seminar.com/2010/609/609_aparna_piramal_raje.htm