Handle with care January 31, 2002 Let’s take a quick Gallup Poll. Ask yourself which organization would you like to work for? One that’s minting huge profits or one that follows hugely popular; employee-friendly policies? Obviously, the latter. Recent news, that Wipro’s Q3 results did not live up to market expectations, came as no surprise, considering the goal recession. But what was indeed surprising was that despite the recession, while every other software company was retrenching, Wipro was not just fighting the trend, but also emerged as the world’s first company to achieve level five (the top level) on Quality Assurance India’s ‘People Capability Maturity Model’ (PCMM®), that benchmarks a company’s HR practices. What is PCMM®? Authored in 1995 by Bill Curtis, Chairman of the Software Engineering Institute (SEISM) in USA, PCMM® is perhaps the only HR certification of its kind that guides an organization through five stages of people development, each layer measuring the maturity level of the organisation’s work force practices. So, from an organization that pays scant attention to its workforce (level 1), the model facilities the company’s growth to level 3,4 and, where the growth on the human index is considered optimum. Here each employee is made to contribute to his maximum.      The other top companies who have been assessed on the PCMM® model are TCS (level four), RS Software, SISL and Mastek (all Level three), Futuresoft and Intelligroup (level two), besides a host of others. Why just software companies? If we go by the principle of microeconomics, whatever happens to be in short supply, flows to the highest bidder. Since talent (the key driver of the knowledge economy) is what is scarce in the market, software companies have no choice but to position themselves as employers of choice. Hence, their interest in a concept like the PCMM®. The Wipro story The story goes back to 1996, when Wipro Ltd. hired the UK-based company, Saville and Holdsworth Ltd. (SHL) to psycho-profile its human resources base. “SHL used psychometric tools to determine the competency level of our employees, identifying their future needs etc.,” recounts Dileep Ranjekar Corporate Executive V.P (HR), Wipro Ltd. Meanwhile, the company also sent a HR team to check out the facilities at AT & T, GE, Tandem, Acer and British Telecom, in search of the best HR practices. Then came Bill Curtis’ visit to Wipro Ltd. 1999 and, “Instantly, ‘ there was a tremendous buy-in to the PCMM® model, “ recalls Ranjekar. Reaching level five was however, the result of 18 months of grinding effort, several cycles of assessment, loads of data collection from the Intranet, surveys, interviews and presentations – compressed into 150 man days. Suitable for any company with an employee strength of 100-10,000, QAI-India charges about 15-20 lakhs per cycle of PCMM® assessment. Listing the reasons for Wipro reaching this level, Ajay Batra, QAI-India’s consulting partner and lead assessor, says. “First, as a company they are extremely process-centric. Second, they have well-entrenched Six Sigma practices. And, last, they seem to have appointed leaders at all levels; technical leaders, people leaders and business leaders.” However, the one challenge that the QAI team did face had to do with logistics. The assessors had to do with logistics. The assessors had to examine 20 Key Process Areas (KPAs), each with six observation practices; there were some 400 practices are automated at Wipro, sighs Batra. Finally, is reaching level five the end of the road for Wipro? “Not at all,” says Navyug Mohnot, Executive Director, QAI Ltd. “With PCMM®, the bar of compliance keeps moving up. There can be no absolutes. No organization can be billed as 100 per cent, PCMM® is after all, just an aspirational model.” The journey as they say, has started. Wipro’s win-win points First company (1983) to launch the Employee Stock Option Programme in India. Programme is also supported by another shadow plan linked to the economic value added by each employee. Began recruiting  talent in 1970. Began to use the 360-degree method of annual appraisals in 1994, wherein, on specific competencies, even the Chairman is appraised by his subordinates, including the office peon. Claims it did not lay-off a single employee last year. Wipro’s current attrition rate is pegged at 4-5% against the industry average of 30%. Began its leadership development programme in the early 70s. Is India’s first company to get an ISO 14000 certification (on environment compliance) and has achieved level five on QAI’s software process model, called CMM®. Organisational design is fairly flat with four levels below each business head in every division. Compensation structure is well designed, based on performance, consistency, market rate, critically and the potential of each Wipro employee.   "Azim Premji was very handson and would supervise all weekly meetings with the PCMM® assessors. I am surprosed at their remarkable speed, because the earliest, we thought, they would reach this level was by December 2002."   - Ajay Batra   QAI's Lead assessor for PCMM® "PCMM® has become an effective way of benchmarking our current HR practices against a globally accepted yardstick. Reaching level five also means we can now build a level of trust with our shareholders, customers, investors and employees." - Dileep Ranjekar, Corporate Executive Vice   President, Human Resources, Wipro Ltd. 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