Where India Wants to Work Now

Flipkart was the original startup poster boy and that aura continues to draw ambitious professionals. A unicorn status and much media hype hasn’t changed things much. It is a place where risk taking is encouraged – witness the recent move by Myntra to go app-only and roll it back when the results weren’t as expected. Personal benefits and perks go side by side with a competitive environment. Flipkart was one of the first companies to offer six months of maternity leave and sabbatical options. Flipkart is, at heart, a tech company, and its most exciting projects are still in that domain. Flipkart Lite, its mobile site that highlights the company’s efforts to reach customers in poor network zones, and a hackathon for mobile developer hires were some of its recent projects that caught employees' fancy.

Capgemini is one of the only big companies to have elevated its head of human resources to country head, highlighting the importance this global consultant places on people management. That’s no surprise as half of the company’s global workforce is based in India. Catering to 800 global clients 24/7 can be challenging, but the company finds ways to keep its people engaged and happy. Like the time they organized a single Bollywood dance lesson for 4,000-plus employees, setting a Guinness record. In a win for diversity, the company also has a Disability Inclusion Program for differently abled employees.

In the arms race for perks, few can top Google. The company lavishes its 60,000 workers with mountains of food, A-list speakers, on-site massages — even benefits after death, as HR chief Laszlo Bock shared. The bigger draw, though: working on noteworthy projects with “impatient overachievers,” as one ex-Googler wrote on LinkedIn. The company obsesses about employee happiness, rigorously studying how to build the perfect team. It doesn’t allow managers to make hiring decisions — removing bias — and bases pay on the job, not someone’s prior salary, to close the gender gap, Bock wrote.

KPMG’s workforce has never been larger — now at close to 174,000 people globally. Last year, the audit and consulting company hired 24,000 new college graduates, a record, and created the largest partner class it’s ever had, promoting roughly 650 employees into that coveted role. So when it notes that “talent has never been more important to our business,” you get the sense it’s not corporate bluster. The company told LinkedIn that employees stay happy with stretch assignments and global placements; last year, 2,500 KPMG’ers participated in the company’s “global mobility program,” allowing them to work internationally. Want a job there? KPMG says it prizes agility in candidates, looking for those who can connect “issues that may not have been obvious before.”

Deloitte is so in-demand as an employer that the company receives 1.9 million applications annually. One simple — but important — reason so many employees want to join? “Our people are challenged by interesting work,” it told LinkedIn. The 225,000-employee firm is known for its accounting, consulting and tax services. But its scope, coupled with its use of emerging technologies like data analytics and AI, has attracted many employees with STEM backgrounds. Deloitte invests heavily in its employees, offering various training as well as education reimbursement. It also encourages employees to give back: In the 2015 fiscal year, employees spent 340,000 hours on pro-bono assignments and more than 820,000 hours volunteering.

Constant reinvention is a hallmark of Adobe's culture. The company behind Photoshop and Acrobat is more than 30 years old — a rarity in tech — and knows any of its 14,000 employees could come up with its next killer product. For that reason, it launched a program called "Kickbox" to help staffers develop and test ideas. Employees get $1,000 and lots of encouragement to refine their potential breakthrough. More recently, it introduced "experience-a-thons" so employees can dig in to new Adobe products and provide feedback ahead of launch. And while many companies are just now getting on the no-more-annual-review-bandwagon, forward-thinking Adobe got rid of its five years ago. Who does well here? The company tells LinkedIn it prizes "a learn-it-all versus a know-it-all attitude."

In 2015, HCL Technologies CEO Anant Gupta wrote a LinkedIn post describing what he thought a 21st century technology professional should look like, in which he highlighted five mindset changes that are needed to equip technocrats for the new world. Six months later, HCL Tech introduced an employee-led initiative called “Inspire,” which engages people managers directly and drives “ideapreneurship.” With a culture like that, is there any wonder why this company ranks up there on the list of top employers?

This company was started by a team of students from one of India’s premier engineering colleges to solve the country’s real estate problem with technology. Months after setting up, the startup also attracted a bunch of investors, including Softbank. It went through upheavals with a misbehaving CEO and some questionable ad spends, but employees swear by the exhilarating challenges that the company offers. “The only thing that matches the enthusiasm of our employees is the audacity of what we do,” it says on its website and, by all accounts, it’s true.

In December, unprecedented rains shook the city of Chennai, flooding roads and leaving scores of people stranded. As plying cabs in the city became out of the question, Ola worked with fishermen of the coastal city and professional rowers to arrange for boats to rescue stranded passengers. For a company in a business better known for surge pricing in times of need, this was not just innovative, but also large hearted. It is this spirit that drives employees at the company that’s giving Uber a run for its money in India. The other thing any Ola watcher will tell you is that the company is always trying something new – Ola Café, Ola Store, Ola E-rickshaws, some of which worked and some didn’t. In fact, the most commonly asked question in Ola’s corridors is, “What’s next?”

A startup that scales rapidly almost always encounters hiccups on the way, and one of its biggest challenges is to create and nurture a healthy work culture. Snapdeal’s founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal have made sure that’s on top of the agenda, even as they network with VCs for funding or trade barbs on Twitter with rivals. The company's known for a culture of meritocracy and flexibility to experiment with different roles. Snapdeal has also acquired companies along the way and integrated those employees into its own workforce with fewer hiccups than some of its rivals. Co-founder Rohit Bansal summed it up in a LinkedIn post: "Competition can copy your strategy, not your culture.”

Microsoft continues to be a magnet for job-seeking techies. One draw for candidates is Microsoft’s unique approach to career development: “an individual adventure,” as it’s called. Its 118,000 employees are encouraged to plot their own path, working towards becoming a specialist or a generalist. Management might suit one employee; working abroad in one of the 200 locations, another. Microsoft provides career resources like mentoring, coaching and 2,000 training programs. (Note: This list was finalized before Microsoft said it would acquire LinkedIn in a $26 billion deal. For more, read here.)

In India, the Tata name has been associated with good work culture and benefits for decades. A relative newcomer to the Tata group, Tata Communications has, nevertheless, lost no time in gaining the same reputation as its group peers. Generous insurance policies, a flexible work schedule and support systems for new parents are some of the things that employees cite as pros in working for the telecom provider. The company also offers education assistance in the form of interest-free loans to employees looking for additional qualificatons. 

In three generations Wipro grew from a family-run cooking oils company — the name stands for Western India Palm Refined Oils Limited — to a global IT power. One of India’s largest public companies and the seventh largest IT company in the world, Wipro tackles the kind of enterprise problems that puts it in the same league as Oracle, HP and IBM — and like Big Blue, it has a Watson-like AI of its own, Holmes. The company is proving the concept of this new revenue center on its own turf, by “freeing around 3,000 engineers from mundane software maintenance activities.” That doesn’t mean they aren’t still hiring humans — Wipro has 170,000 employees on six continents and generates half of its revenues in the Americas.

When a German ambassador visited the company’s campus in Bangalore earlier this year, he pointed out: “There is a piece of India in every Mercedes.” Indeed, the company’s research and development arm here — the largest of its kind outside Germany, employing more than 3,000 engineers — focuses on everything from alternate powertrain development to electrical engineering and IT applications. It’s meant to draw top-notch engineering talent to support Mercedes and its parent company, Daimler. Employees benefit from a range of perks, including an annual day to celebrate their work alongside their families. The R&D group is growing too; it expanded its capacity again in April.

CB Insights cited OYO as one of the top 50 startups most likely to next reach “unicorn” status (a valuation of $1 billion or more) — and all signs seem to be pointing towards that. In just three years since launch, the online hotel bookings company says it’s now making profit on every room booked. Its network includes 65,000 rooms in 170 Indian cities — 2.3 million room-nights were booked in the first quarter of 2016 — and the company secured an additional $100 million in new funding in April. OYO’s founder and CEO, Ritesh Agarwal (above), is a skyrocket success too: Agarwal is just 22 years old and is the first resident Indian to win the Thiel Fellowship, a $100,000 grant from Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel.

Accenture’s CEO Pierre Nanterme has an acute dislike for the status quo and leads accordingly. Most consulting firms of Accenture’s size layer on process and standardization; even in the midst of growth, Nanterme has done the opposite, abolishing the annual employee review. “The process is too heavy, too costly for the outcome” and not in step with the millennial generation, Nanterme told the Washington Post. Instead, Accenture has implemented a system in which managers give timely feedback all the time. Its 373,000 global employees work in 200 cities in 56 countries. Professional development is highly valued: Accenture sank $841 million into employee training in 2015.

Bajaj Finserv, India's “most diversified” non-bank, may be a leader in the lending, insurance and investment business, but its top product is time. Non-banks exist because customers grew angry with delay and bureaucracy, and Bajaj has elevated quick decisions to a science — it boasts, for example, having financed one-quarter or all flat-screen TVs sold in the country. Though nimble, Bajaj Finserv is hardly small: It has 20,000 employees and is still hiring like crazy. They also leave no stone unturned building on what Forbes India says is already a “financial powerhouse.” 

The iconic round Honeywell heat thermostat found in homes is how most people know the company. But engineers know this massive conglomerate’s handiwork is woven into the fabric of everyday life, from power grids to food packaging. Honeywell, led by CEO David M. Cote (pictured above), attracts those interested in manufacturing, developing or managing anything from hospital infrastructure to ballistic-resistant armor. It employs 137,000 worldwide and is headquartered in the U.S. What it's hiring for now: software engineering; user experience and design; and jobs in the "STEMM" (science, technology, engineering, math and manufacturing) fields.

There’s a reason why 75% of India college students who received a job offer from Cognizant in 2015 chose to accept that offer over others: “We are known as a $12 billion startup,” says Sriram Rajagopal, Senior Vice President, Human Resources at Cognizant. “Nimble” and “agile” might not be words that come to mind when thinking of a 233,000-employee company, but it’s exactly how Rajagopal describes the global technology company, pointing to a strong culture of empowerment, entrepreneurship and merit-based recognition.  Indeed, it looks like the company is doing something right: Cognizant was ranked #230 in the Fortune 500 list this year, up from #288 in 2015.

Consulting firm ZS Associates has offices around the world — and its team in India works with all of them. The company is known its expertise in sales and marketing, particularly in the healthcare and pharmaceutical fields, with employees in India supporting data analysis, operations and other projects. Learning is constant. The company boasts of its extensive “expertise development,” whether that’s a structured course or a brown-bag lunch, along with “regular and timely role-evolution discussions.” It also spells out its approach to flexibility: giving employees a choice in when, where and how many hours per week they work.

This was one of India’s earliest online travel companies. For a 16-year-old company that survived the dotcom bust, MakeMyTrip has managed to maintain its startup aura. Speak to any employee here and you’ll realize it’s not something that happened by accident. An open-door policy, perks galore, a work-hard-play-hard culture have all contributed in some way or another to making it a talent magnet. Entrepreneurship is encouraged, and many of the company’s employees have gone on to start up companies that are working with MakeMyTrip. A robust rewards system and ample growth opportunities are some of the other factors that draw in talent.

India’s second largest company by market capitalization has been best known for its dominance in retail and oil and energy. But it’s increasingly turning its focus to media and technology. The conglomerate’s telecom unit, Reliance Jio, has invested billions of dollars launching a 4G LTE network across India, with the vision that “broadband and digital services will no longer be a luxury item.” At the same time, it’s making a play at the entertainment industry with its own version of Netflix, Jio Play, and is reportedly trying to muscle itself into the cable TV market. Transition seems to be a theme: Reliance just announced a new talent retention program that helps employees make career pivots within the company.

It didn’t take long for Cisco’s new CEO, Chuck Robbins, to start shaking up the enterprise tech giant and its workforce of 72,000 employees. In March, Robbins restructured Cisco’s roughly 25,000-person engineering team into four new units, a move one journalist called “much better aligned with current customer and market trends.” He’s also brought aboard a raft of new talent — including ex-BCG’er Ruba Borno, featured on LinkedIn’s Next Wave list — calling for employees to move faster to keep innovating. It’s all led to new energy inside Cisco and its offices in India, where employees can make use of a massive gym, zen gardens and enough Cisco video-conferencing products to feel like they’re never out of touch.

When HSBC slashed Zomato’s valuation from $1 billion to $500 million in May, CEO Deepinder Goyal was quick to retort, citing doubled revenue, lowered costs and profitability stats in an email to his 2,100 employees. He ended the 1,300-word letter by saying: “There’s something that we say often – ‘we are only 1% done.' We are truly 1% done, and if we continue to focus on execution, the noise will die down very soon.” In the past month since the devaluation, the global restaurant discovery site has announced a partnership with Pepsi, a new algorithm for online reviews, and 750,000 food-delivery orders processed in May, up 30 percent month-on-month. There’s no telling what else is in store for that 99 percent.