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The Social
Service Club
Tejaswini Sankop is a software engineer in the e-engineering
at QuEST and for her being part of the social service club
allows her to contribute a little more meaningfully to the
society. "In schools and colleges, the way was to collect
money for a cause but there was no physical contact with the
less privileged," said Ms Sankop. And it is this physical
contact, which is high on the agenda of the social services
club with the motto, "Winning heart and mind". The group
comprises of 40 active members from finance, marketing and
technical departments of the various strategic business unit
(SBUs). The club led by Verrabhadra Swamy, project manager
at the company is involved with two government schools, a
school for the hearing impaired and an organisation
providing career guidance to youth. Mr Swamy said that since
the inception of the club around eight months back, the
endeavour has been to move beyond the monetary contribution.
The group therefore meets every week after office hours to
plan out the activities which are usually carried out in the
weekends. Ajay Prabhu is the marketing manager at the
Company and he is using his marketing skillsets to not only
better the company's business but to also add value to the
youth at Unnati, a NGO seeking to provide employment for
them. "Many of the boys and girls are seeking employment at
the various retail formats which are coming up in the city
of Bang-alore. I provide counselling to them and give them
tips on communication and customer interaction. The guidance
may be small but it's invaluable in the long run," said Mr
Prabhu.
The Aero-modeling Club
While the social services club may have the larger interests
of the society in mind, the aero modeling club which was
formed two months ago by 15 members, most of them engineers
who shared the love for flying. Secondly there was also the
urge to understand the overall business of aerospace. The
beginnings for the aero modeling club may be small but the
objective is to giant strides in the field of avionics. So
for now, the members are working on a propeller driven radio
controlled aircraft, but through the journey, the aero
modeling is looking to set standards, which will become
benchmarks in the time ahead. "Through these models, we want
to learn more about avionics. The future could see us
working on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) also," said Dr
Sharat Kumar Variyar, senior technology manager, QuEST.
According to Dr Variyar, what the aero-modeling club is
doing, is that it is giving the engineers a chance to gain a
practical experience of building an aircraft. Through the
aero-modeling club, the members are encountering various
aspects like design, material selection, maintenance and
system integration. "Earlier, members who are mostly
engineers were concerned with just one aspect but now they
have to get involved in every aspect of building the
aircraft. They are not really comfortable with managing the
cost aspect but they have to do it," said Dr Variyar. So in
effect, the aero-modeling club is enabling the members to be
better managers. Secondly, Dr Variyar added that working as
a close knit team actually helps in these members imbibe a
sense of comraderie which bodes well for the company as
well.
The HR Perspective
Mr Iyer feels that these initiatives will help develop the
personality of the employees in a far greater manner as it
enables them to do what they want to do. Surely, parties,
get together and bashes still rema-in, but the ability to
pursue the hobbies is adding a new dimension in the effort
to map the aspiration of the employees. "The members are
getting to know each other better in a mo-re open
environment devoid of the trappings of the office. This
helps foster a sense of teamsmanship amongst them," said Mr
Iyer. He said that the feedback will enable him to add new
perspective to the KRAs of employees. "The new plugs are
still coming in," he said. Thus the trekking club, cricket
club, the social services and the aero-modeling club is
allowing the employees of the Company to pursue their
aspirations. The quest doesn't end there, for there is a
possible orchestra club on the anvil in the time to come. |
