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QuEST maps
individual goals with key result areas of the organisation
RAJIV BANERJEE
"Winning heart and mind", that's the motto of the social
services club at QuEST, a Bangalore based company which is
into engineering solutions for advanced technology products
in domains such as aerospace, automotive and oil and gas to
name a few. However the heart and mind of the employees at
QuEST is also been won by the company by allowing them to
pursue their aspirations. And the quest for aspirational
pursuits at QuEST is taking different forms. From a social
services club to an aero modeling club, from a trekking
group to a cricket club. The realisation at QuEST is that
employees need to develop their aspirational endeavours
within the precincts of an organisation to enable them to
contribute more efficiently and more importantly foster a
sense of belonging amongst the employees.
Natarajan Iyer, VP - Human Resources feels that the
initiatives which are happening are nothing new and are in
practice in many organisations. But the difference, he says
is in mapping the aspirational goals of the employees along
with the tangibles and the intangibles. "The tangibles and
the intangibles are the regular aspects which are mapped to
the employee's KRA (key result area). However the goal
mapping, we map the aspirations of each employees and this
has given us a huge bandwidth as each employee has his or
her aspiration which they aspire for even though they are in
a totally different field," said Mr Iyer. And it is this
huge bandwidth which has resulted in hobby clubs being
formed in the organisation. So there is a social services
club, an aero modeling club, trekking club and a cricket
club.
However, all these initiatives in any organisation are
generally looked on with a certain amount of cynicism by the
employees. This ranges from outright refusal to be a part of
it or acceptance only to appease the employers, without
putting one's heart into it. Here, Mr Iyer said that the
success of such endeavours depends on allowing the employees
to kick start it, with the management playing the role of a
catalyst. "That's what we need to be, a catalyst for
growth," he said. Therefore at QuEST, a bottom top model has
been adopted with employees asked to define their
aspirational endeavours and then the management suggesting
ways to improve on the idea. Thus even as some employees are
part of more than one club, many are not associated with any
club. Mr Iyer said many of the employees used to play
cricket with dedication before they got into a career. "The
idea was to let them pursue what they love to do even when
they are working," said Mr Iyer. |
