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These were a result of addressing sources of 'unwellness' in employees, through leadership-led sessions, education, and more, says Ahmad Kamal, Employee Engagement Officer, Infosys Compaz.
Infosys Compaz is a joint venture between Infosys Limited and Temasek Holdings in Singapore, created exclusively to bring digital transformation capabilities and global skills to the ASEAN market. Its strengths lie in AI, data, user experience, Cloud, cybersecurity, and analytics, while also serving clients in their IT management in technology operations, infrastructure and applications.
The firm's client network spans multiple industries and sectors including financial services, retail, transportation and logistics, telecom, services, and resource sectors among others.
At the 10th annual edition of HR Excellence Awards, Singapore in 2022, the team at Infosys Compaz took home the Silver award for Excellence in Corporate Wellness. Following this win, we speak to Ahmad Kamal, Employee Engagement Officer, Infosys Compaz, who tells us about the company's journey to improving employee productivity, reducing absenteeism, and increasing retention and job satisfaction through its bespoke wellness programme.
Q Congratulations on the achievement! Could you take us through the highs and lows of your winning strategy?
Named Project Qi, our bespoke wellness programme was designed and implemented in mid-2021 by iCompaz HR in partnership with Infosys and Temasek parents' companies’ human resources leadership, taking into account various employee feedback and challenges perceived on the ground during pandemic and post-pandemic.
It is a holistic wellness programme, which encompasses the definition and execution of the wellness agenda at the leadership, people managers, teams, and the individual levels. The launch of the initiative required support from key leadership who are seen as good role models themselves, to encourage greater involvement and participation of the entire employee base. We sought representation from the customer side to speak about the topic, having the feedback that the customer is a major source of ‘unwellness’ in employees.
Driving awareness via multiple communication channels is foundational to taking everyone in the journey lane. From crafting exciting EDMs, back-to-back leader-led sessions to speak about the topic, to curating an activation approach that will be a sure-fire success in participation. The premise is that leadership wellness is primordial in ensuring the reverberating ripple impact across the chain. We have determined the leadership styles and status of leadership wellness in their eyes and from there curated specific interventions that will be seen as relevant and impactful. The other platform that is at our disposal was leveraged to push education along topics of interest such as time management, communication, and learning how to de-stress. An initiative to get bottoms-up factors that contribute to employee burnout, called 6S, was also undertaken with the use of design thinking methodology.
It resulted in more than 100 ways to manage and prevent burnout. A synthesis across various functions led to five-10 key actionable targets. This momentum was sustained by continuous creative EDMs and regular publications on upcoming initiatives, so much in advance so that employees can plan their involvement. There has been a steady increase in participation rates, and employees are always looking forward to the next wellness session.
Q How did the HR team identify and align the business & employee needs, and craft this perfect solution?
Multiple listening tours, leadership connects, and external perspectives from the market through interaction with HR and business leaders. An employee satisfaction survey is conducted annually along with a regular dipstick to get the pulse of the employees around many aspects of the work, organisation, and their sense of purpose. Our HR team maintains close relationships with most employees, such that they feel comfortable enough to tell us about their ideas for improvements at any time. We also constantly promote our internal suggestion box, where employees can provide any suggestions or feedback at any time. We are spending six hours on average with our employees and leaders monthly. With the growing business, we are empowering the people managers to take a greater part in driving wellness and that is an important KRA to measure people manager effectiveness.
Moreover, we find opportunities to show we care for our employees and their families. We consider having a deeper emotional connection with our employees and those people whom they value. Through the combinations of methods above, we were able to successfully deduce that holistic employee wellness was something that we should focus on in 2022.
Q Could you share the results that your strategy has delivered – be it on the business, HR, or people side?
The corporate wellness culture at Infosys Compaz aims to improve employee productivity, reduce absenteeism, and increase retention and job satisfaction. Our wellness programme meets our business goals, as employee wellness is an integral part of our HR Strategy. We constantly review the results of our wellness efforts, through participation rates and employee and leadership survey feedback at the end of every event, which has mostly been positive and supportive. Despite this, we continue to tweak our events to cater to the needs of employees.
This programme has also impacted our clients. Since the implementation of the programme, there has been significant productivity in responding to client queries and escalations, and timely execution of critical projects. There is also an increase in cross-functional interaction as these events have provided a platform for employees to mingle with each other again.
Q What is your message to all the stakeholders who have supported you in this journey?
We have done a validation on the relevance and impact of our programme. Having achieved some of our goals, impacting the lives of our people is central to continuing to innovate in this area. Management driving the goals top-down and having executive sponsorship for major programmes are key to success. We have employee volunteers and ambassadors who are role models to other employees, actively participating in our programmes. We have also created a powerful communication platform to sustain and activate the initiatives seamlessly across the organisation.
HR plays a big role in designing the programme and implementation. While the initial push was made by the HR team, the overall success would not have been possible without the support of the rest of the organisation. Let’s continue to strive forward together!
Q What are you most excited about when you think about the future of HR?
The biggest change in the short-term future would be the implementation of hybrid work. Infosys Compaz has already taken hybrid working in our stride, but we continuously adapt to ensure maximum productivity and engagement for our employees. With the new generation continuing to enter the workforce, diversity & inclusion will also become increasingly prominent as well. We are launching our Hybrid Playbook this month.
Alongside this, the role of technology in HR will also become increasingly important. Many tasks would probably be automated, with the evolving technology in the space. It is also exciting to see how we can use technology to leverage the new strategies and initiatives that will come.
As HR professionals, this proves to be an exciting challenge that will revolutionise the way we work. We will have to continuously keep up with trends and ensure we remain ahead of the curve.
Image / Provided (featuring the Infosys Compaz team)
Read more interviews on why organisations have won trophies for their HR practices - head over to our Winning Secrets' section!
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