What's the key to the ever-complicated HR management puzzle? Well, asking the brains at India's largest software company could help. When a near 60,000 employees-strong organization emerges as the best employer, one cannot help but wonder what it really takes to keep such a huge workforce-added both organically and inorganically-really satisfied in these trying times.

Last year, six companies and 6,000 people were integrated through mergers. Currently, 7% of TCS' workforce belongs to other nationalities and are spread across the globe. True to the characteristics of a global organization, TCS has added a local flavor to all its existing HR policies. Says S Padmanabhan, executive VP, Global HR, “The DNA of the company is to create an easy work environment and this has been built over years of effort.”  

A key derivative of satisfaction is the learning culture that the organization promotes. Says Padmanabhan, “People join us for the strong culture of learning and growth in the organization.” One of the key initiatives launched last year was iCALMS, an integrated competency and learning management system, which was deployed globally across all TCS offices. Not considered the best paymaster in the industry, TCS' compensation structure is also based on a simple philosophy-it is not sufficient to give a lot, but give it to the right people.  

DQ Rank 1

S Padmanabhan, executive VP, Global HR

High ratings	Score	Industry rank
High standards of corporate governance	100	2
Conducts its business in a fair manner	98	3
High value on honesty and integrity	99	3
Low ratings
Good work-life balance	91	10
Encouraged to take risk	75	14
Managers care about growth	87	12
Dream job wishlist
Overseas opportunity	100	1
Job security/stability	96	2
Policies and procedures	78	3

The importance of overseas postings has risen considerably over the years and most employees see it as the road to growth as well as fortune. TCS stays right ahead of all its competitors on this count as our survey revealed. Contrary to our survey results where overseas opportunity fails to make it to the top five derivatives of employee satisfaction, the factor does work to TCS' advantage.

Finally, how did TCS, unlike most of its competitors, manage to keep such a huge workforce really happy? Says Padmanabhan, “We replicated every successful HR initiative on a larger employee base.”

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