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Better Work Environment for Better Employee Development

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Sumit Sabharwal, Head - HR, Fujitsu Consulting IndiaSumit Sabharwal manages the end-to-end HR for close to 5000 employees at Fujitsu Consulting India, which is one of the largest Development center outside Fujitsu Japan along with organizational development and implementing industry best practices.

Creating a better working environment for your employee’s development is important for a company’s success. Developing or up-skilling your employees ensure the growth of the business. Businesses should give importance to inclusive growth of their employees. Inclusive means the employees should have a healthy body and mind and they are happy to come to work. Fundamentally organizations can create an all-inclusive growth for employees by running a strong performance management process that is transparent and fair. It is imperative that organizations make their workforce accountable for their own growth and development rather than having an organizational mandate. Secondly, organizations can work towards giving their employees equal work opportunities in terms of various positions in the company, as this gives people an opportunity to expand their horizons which ultimately contributes to their growth. This includes considering issues such as gender equality and disability inclusion. It should also be observed in today’s day and age that organizations need to concentrate not only on having a growth plan for their staff, but also on their well-being, mental health, and what stands important for them to focus on, these are areas outside of development that would contribute to the overall inclusive growth of an employee.

Some of the things that need to be taken care of to create a better working environment are

Addressing the Biases to Create Environment Diversity:

Unconscious Biases are something that people are not generally aware of and it is difficult to explain to them. These are paradigms that people carry – snap decisions that people make based on what someone looks like, where they’re from, what they sound like, many
more. People can be made aware of these biases by giving them an example. There are different kinds of biases you may have like an in-group, affinity biases and others. Unconscious biases and judgments compel individuals to make decisions that might be detrimental to the overall wellbeing of the organization. Companies need to consider standardized recruitment processes through campaigns with measurable results to prevent any such biases, which guarantee a ‘like for like’ comparison.

Implementing Equal Opportunities:

To implement equal opportunities organizations should involve their employees in various tasks and should give them a chance to work with other departments. This will help in generating new ideas and foster a better co-working relationship. This will not only make them more skilled but will also advance their professional skills as well. A lot of the workforce is mobile today and they prefer to move to different locations. If companies have offices in different cities, relocating an employee becomes fairly easy. If the employee wants to shift his/her location, the organization should be open to helping him find a job in the same organization. This will help in keeping the workforce in the organization. Organizations today are on a spree of diversity hiring. The range in which inclusion is being adopted in India is wide. On one hand, there are organizations that are doing great work and have become equal opportunity providers. And on the other hand, there are organizations that are yet to encourage talent from the wide diversity of potential employees across India. Companies are interested to promote women also in managerial positions. Today, companies need to be responsive to the LGBTQ community and individuals with disabilities by offering them equal accessibility and possibilities compared to other staff. This would give them a feeling of belonging.

To implement equal opportunities organizations should involve their employees in various tasks and should give them a chance to work with other departments



The management should concentrate on their skills and not their personal attributes.

Promoting Equality and Diversified Workforce:

Having a diverse workforce is scientifically proven to improve productivity, profits, and lead to solutions that are more creative. However, despite the increasing number of women in the workplace, there are not a lot of women in the company boards. One of the potential reasons why there are fewer women on boards is because it is challenging to balance work and home demands. Organizations can be helpfully giving women employees flexible working opportunities, like letting them leave early on some occasions. Companies can provide flexible sabbatical, where if an employee takes a short break, she can come back to the same company and the management will keep that role open for the employee to return to. Companies can promote their women workforce by giving them appropriate training in technology and in leadership that would help in enhancing their confidence and thought leadership. As women already take on multiple roles in their life, they possess multiple qualities that a company can use to grow.