Milind Lakkad EVP and CHRO, Tata Consultancy Services on Happiness Quotient
Answering how TCS drives Employee Happiness at work, Milind Lakkad EVP and CHRO of the company said, Reflecting over the past six months, we seem to be living in a whole new world. The way we live, work, and conduct business has transformed, and home-office boundaries have blurred in the new work order. A recent study by Linkedin shows that about 36% of the respondents were struggling to maintain a balance in their personal and professional lives. There seems to be a fundamental shift in the definition of satisfaction and happiness in our lives.
Today, the role of the employer has become more critical than ever before. The uncertainty heightened by the pandemic has resulted in a significant increase in the sense of fear and anxiety and providing safety mechanisms has become a key imperative.
In today’s virtually connected work world with the dispersed employee setup, organizational engagement has gone much beyond collaborative tools and internal virtual events. Employee empathy has become a key building block of organization culture. An empathetic organization will find its own recipe to ensure employees have a feeling of Oneness while being distant physically.
“At TCS, we have never waited for a crisis to put in place practices and policies to support employee wellbeing. We strongly believe customer centricity and employee empathy are two sides of the same coin.”
Our well-defined initiative – TCS Cares, put in place long before the pandemic, is focused on the mental health and emotional wellbeing of employees, and encourages a culture of awareness, understanding, and acceptance. All employees have access to counseling sessions, self-help resources, self-assessments, and a host of initiatives focused on maintaining emotional and physical health.
By creating self-help networks of our associates with similar interests, we have empowered our associates to support and guide each other. I believe that continuous engagement and a lot of thoughtfulness help to build a strong psychological contract between employees and the organization.
While organizations continue to enhance and redefine their employee care initiatives, managers and leaders will need to understand the soft signals to gauge the emotional state of their colleagues. At the individual level, as we continue to adapt to the new normal, we need to make an effort to define the Happiness Quotient for ourselves and do what brings us joy.
With home being the new office, we must take time for ourselves, stay connected with our loved ones – participate in fun activities, make consistent efforts to reach out to our colleagues. Together, we can turn this crisis into an opportunity.
