AT TITAN,CRAFTING AMBITIONS THROUGH CONVERSATIONS

The Tata Group company aspires to grow three times in the next four years. It is getting its workforce to be future-ready, by listening to them.

- AJITA SHASHIDHAR

WAY BACK IN 2003, homegrown lifestyle major, Titan Company, institutionalised an initiative called ‘Tell Me’: Employee engagement survey forms were sent directly from the MD’s office and responses were evaluated by the top leader himself.

Though employee engagement surveys are common in most organisations, not many put their heart and mind into them. In most cases, they are just annual exercises at the end of every financial year, where employees are asked to rate the company on parameters such as work culture, ethics etc.

It was this mindset that bothered Titan’s senior management led by MD C.K. Venkataraman and CHRO Swadesh Behera. “I often tell my friends do not fill up feedback forms at restaurants just for the sake of it, as the person out there is looking for genuine feedback. The sentiment was similar when it came to our employment engagement surveys, and we felt that having personal conversations could be more effective,” says Behera.