Sukhdeep Aurora Chief People Officer ANAROCK “ANAROCK was an early adopter of the open office format infused with smart collaboration hubs which has helped foster a collaborative culture par excellence and caters to the sensibilities of our Gen Next workforce.” — Sukhdeep Aurora In July 2022, six team members from our Pune office went on a company sponsored motorcycle expedition to Leh Ladakh! This is one of the many ways engagement happens at ANAROCK. Five years since its inception, the promoters and the start up team at ANAROCK were clear that our culture would be our differentiator. We adopted the tagline “Values Over Value” (VOV) which is attached inseparably to our name and were determined that it would be a “living” declaration of the culture we stand for. We knew that we will need to ensure that our values are cascaded down the line to every employee in the company so that regardless of which culture they came from, they had to own, embrace and live ANAROCK’s culture so that VOV was delivered in totality. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. Our recruitment policies are totally agnostic to religion, ethnicity, caste, colour, age, gender or sexual orientation. We have higher payment slabs for our hiring partners for helping us hire diverse talent. We have employees ranging from the age of 24 to 68. We do not ask or record their religious faiths or ethnicities. All we focus on is hiring relevant and potential talent. All diversity, ethics and CSR initiatives at ANAROCK are led by our Chief Evangelist – Culture, a seasoned and experience business professional. Our ‘Empower Diversity’ programme works on sensitisation about the business imperative of diversity and runs programmes to increase and nurture diversity. October is celebrated as the ‘Inclusion Month’, which we start with an ‘Inclusion Pledge’ led by the Chairman on a pan-India zoom call. Several activities like debates and talks by celebrities and activities are organised. Regular trainings on unconscious bias are also conducted. Our HR policies are formulated on the principles of equity, transparency, and empowerment, and are futuristic. All our policies are gender agnostic. Our Mediclaim cover includes same sex partners and the quantum of cover provided is the same for the chairman right to the junior-most employee of the company. We have policies that cater to specific needs of women, at different stages of their life cycle, as well as a ‘gradual return to work’ policy that affords flexibility to employees, to come back to work in a staggered manner, in times of need. Given the unique and fast-paced nature of technology work at ANAROCK, we have created a special ‘Career Break Policy’ for ANAROCK's large technology team. We understand that employees manage competing priorities, and this policy has been developed to enable them to take an extended period of unpaid leave from work to balance their careers with other commitments, responsibilities, and interests. ‘AMIGO’, is our confidential third party 24 x 7 counselling helpline for our employees and their families for any support they might require. Our mentorship programme has seen over 65 high potential employees being mentored by senior leadership over the last five years. The inhouse Learning and Development team has developed tailor-made training programmes for our sales teams to suit our business model. Leadership is encouraged to pursue training at leading institutes in India and abroad. Exemplary achievements are regularly recognised and rewarded through innovative practices like playing pre-recorded videos of family members of the awardees, in quarterly and annual townhalls across all offices. ANAROCK was an early adopter of the open office format infused with smart collaboration hubs, which has helped foster a collaborative culture par excellence and caters to the sensibilities of our Gen Next workforce. It has been a key differentiator to achieve better productivity and employee retention. CSR is a part of an employee’s life at ANAROCK. Quarterly CSR activities are conducted at a pan-India level and CSR champions at the city level do CSR activities regularly. Activities include blood donation drives, ‘Swachh Bharat’ initiatives, visits to children shelters and homes for the aged and more. Last Diwali, our Mumbai team provided food to all the workers at all the sites where we were engaged. A total of 5,000 workers were fed that day. We also have a ‘Give as you earn’ programme where employees can opt to donate some amount from their monthly salary for a selected NGO. ANAROCK matches what the employees donate and doubles the amount that employees give. We continue to invest in technology solutions (HRIS for HR, sales CRM for all sales related processes and SAP finance system), make information available to employees across the organisation, enable an engaging environment for remote or hybrid teams (Zoom, teams, Slack, online townhalls and expert-speak sessions), and enable employees to own their own development – a new age mobile app hosting byte sized training videos in engaging gamified formats with the ‘Netflix’ principle of making available varied content to employees to choose and consume at their own comfort. About the author Sukhdeep Aurora, Chief People Officer, ANAROCK, is responsible for defining the overall HR strategy, strengthening organisational culture, and leading the HR function for ANAROCK Group. In this role, Aurora, partners with the leadership team of ANAROCK to deliver the organisation’s goals and sustaining the company’s leadership position in the industry through progressive talent management practices.