Exclusive | Employer of choice: HT Media's Sharad Saxena

HT Media has been rated as the16th best company to work in the country across industries and sizes in a joint survey by Great Places to Work and a business daily. HT Media stands out as the No.1 Media company amongst the top 50 companies in the survey. Speaking to Adgully, Sharad Saxena, Executive Director of HR & Operations, HT Media said, “it is a validation of a series of our long-term HR initiatives. Five years back as a part of our Long Term Vision exercise, we embraced a very specific goal of being an employer of choice.” This recognition therefore carries with it a sense of accomplishment. Also it’s encouraging to note that our efforts continue to be in the right direction, he added.   

 

The company had two key Long Term Goals about 5 years back. One, to be the Employer of Choice. Two, to be the most successful media company in the country, in clearly spelt out terms. “When we embraced these goals through intense and active participation of the entire Leadership Team led by Rajiv Verma (CEO), we were clear it necessitated a major cultural turnaround. Over the past years, huge effort has gone towards this endeavor. As a result, today we pride in the strength and integrity of our corporate culture.” Says Saxena.   

 

HT continues to be a strong “People Centric” values driven company. People are its greatest assets and a lot of investment is made in them. The other core value is Empowerment. Most companies don't necessarily practice but “our staying true to it provides our people more holistic leadership exposure and a cutting edge opportunity for personal development.” says Saxena. 

 

HT has instituted a host of reward and recognition systems including some high impact ones like Star Awards for  outstanding individual and team performances. The pay for performance culture is backed with a strong annual employee appraisal evaluation and performance linked compensation structure. The company has a Talent Pool Management Program that grooms leaders to develop their potential and facilitate them with bigger roles.

 

The last 10 years have seen emergence of many companies. Technology is a key driver for a large numbers of sectors today - something that has led to change in the human equation at work-place. Also, companies that have started in the last 10-15 years have had an opportunity to start with a modern work culture and practices. The corresponding effort for older companies - for example a 90 year old company like HT Media has been indeed Herculean but it has managed to adapt well to the transformed culture.

 

Some changes during the last 10 years are applicable to all. One for example has been excellent availability of young talent with greater promise and better understanding of the changing consumer preferences. It provided good intervention opportunity to companies – to create an energetic, futuristic and youthful work place. Another difference today is the employees' outlook on their careers. Retention of people no longer is controllable by conventional methods. It’s an important challenge today for organizations to  find innovative ways of customising individual employee motivations.

 

HT Media has taken some of the unique initiatives in the past few years, the results of which are evident now. The company also has a unique program called "Fresh Eyes" where every new joinee provides feedback to the Business Head on what he thinks could be better. Often organisations develop blind spots on their areas of improvement and this helps HT to be on its toes.

 

Citing another example, Saxena says, “We started this concept with all new hiring in the company. It was basis a philosophy that the first step to impact retention of an employee is his/her welcoming. We have detailed out the welcoming and on-boarding of an employee and his/her family to the minutest detail, starting 3 days before an employee joins. We make sure that the family feels extremely special. Post that the induction plan is equally well planned, with hand holding of the employee to a level of comfort – often extending up to 2-3 months”.