The Best Employers: How We Ranked Them

By Yamini Maheshwari Sapra, Senior Consultant, Aon Hewitt Consulting

Aon Hewitt pioneered the Best Employers study in 2001 as its flagship research to define the contours of a winning workplace. The Best Employers study is 16 years old in Asia. It is backed by engagement research of over 6,400 global organisations including 2,300 in the region and covers 800,000 employees’ opinions. The longitude and depth enables Aon Hewitt in defining a Best Employer.

Aon Hewitt believes every organisation has its own unique journey. To that disposition, a unique, time-tested and robust evaluation framework was created. It is based on the principles of measuring the people environment through the lens of ‘Intent-Design-Experience’. Aon Hewitt’s research indicates that all three are equally important to create the real competitive advantage through people.

A total of 113 organisations representing 12 key industries, cumulatively employing approximately 950,000 employees, participated in the 2016 Aon Best Employers India study. The shortlisted organisations are taken through an intense on-site audit to validate the details provided and to look for innovative practices that truly differentiate these organisations. These details are presented to an external panel of unbiased jury, which is a mix of corporate and academic personalities, to help arrive at the final list of India’s Best Employers. Aon Hewitt is only a facilitator through this process of evaluation. The list as published by Aon is meant to felicitate the very best for their differentiated journeys to become a Best Employer, irrespective of their ranking.

Aon Hewitt research indicates that while the path to being a Best Employer could be different and unique, but what holds the Best Employers together are four common pillars that define a winning workplace. The 2016 study continues to indicate a commanding position of the Best Employers on these four pillars vis-à-vis the market.

* The focus on employer branding continues to grow in India Inc. as it continues to be among the top imp-rovement drivers for the market.
* This year, for India as a market, a 5 per centage point increase was seen on Employee Engagement and the Employer Brand. Despite this, Best Employers have continued to stay ahead through a rigorous focus on living their brand.
* Effective Leadership gaps have widened across the Best Employers and the Market average since the time the four pillars were introduced by Aon Hewitt. There is no doubt that Best Employers use leaders to drive culture, reinforce organisational values and create an engaging environment.

* Within Performance Culture, while the managers’ role and career growth aspects are closing in for Best Employers and the market; Best Employers continue to create the highest gap on Rewards & Recognition vis-à-vis the market

Further, the 2016 study highlights that the Best Employers are thinking of the future and strengthening their ability to future-proof the organisations against possible market and talent risks. Detailed analysis and inferences of the same would be covered in the April edition of BW Businessworld.

BEST EMPLOYERS
AAPC India Hotel Management (Accor Hotels)
Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co. Bajaj Finance
Becton Dickinson India
Bharti Infratel
Blue Dart Express
DHL Express India
Godrej Consumer Products
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Global Soft
InterGlobe Aviation(IndiGo)
Lupin
Metro Cash and Carry India
Reliance Capital Asset Management (subsidiary of Reliance Capital)
Saint-Gobain India - Gyproc Business
Starwood Hotels & Resorts India
Tata AIA Life Insurance Company
Tata Autocomp Systems
Tata Chemicals
Tata Communications
The Oberoi Group
Whirlpool of India
WNS Global Service

EMERGING BEST EMPLOYERS
AGS Health
SKS Microfinance
Yash Technologies