Aon's 19 Best Employers of 2017

They are previous winners and have been extremely focused on their business and people agenda. Whirlpool has high engagement – great scores and solid people practices. A large percentage of their senior management roles are filled from their HIPO pool. They have an interesting practice specifically for their millennial employees - employees can enlist their career aspirations at Whirlpool through a web-based platform, which is made available to their managers and all Whirlpool leaders. This enables ‘future back career planning' .Project Harvest is an organisation wide initiative - future readiness focused definitely ahead of the curve.

They are past winners. Their scores are quite high on all BE pillars. They are a progressive organization and have evolved people practices. Oberoi is a very solid brand and their legacy heavily contributes to their brand. Their Learning Academy is quite well-established and is also one of their USPs as an employer.

This company has very good scores and very well-designed, well-developed people practices. They are the largest player in their market - they operate within APAC and India is their largest market. They are definitely ahead of the curve in the practices design aspect. They have a lot of ambitious initiatives like a tie up with Columbia University. They have launched a workplace market - for roles within the company, across locations and units. They are moving away from performance rating to a performance dialogue scenario. There will be check-ins every 3 months which will form the backbone of their performance cycle.

They have really high scores, and again very well-developed people practices. They are a TATA brand and that adds to their employer brand. Their attrition numbers are among the lowest in the industry. They are extremely process driven and focus on doing things well. Their context is unique, as in the 2 years they have won the BE award and they have also moved from 18th to 6th position in the life insurance players list. The CEO attributes it to the teams ability to channelize and enable people to deliver business. It is a clear case of the power of engagement's ability to drive business.

The company has very high engagement scores and scores across all BE pillars are very high. Almost 98% of their employee population responded to the employee opinion survey, which is also extremely high. Their people practices are also pretty well established considering their industry. In their industry, they are considered aspirational employers and their scores are well ahead of the industry benchmark by a solid margin.

Their scores are high, people practices are very well established. One would think that a lot of their practices are coming from global HR, but they are developing in-house and India initiatives which have been adopted globally. They have a very comprehensive diversity initiative. It includes diversity focus in their CSR initiatives as well gender sensitization etc for underprivileged lower income groups.

Mariott were the winners under the Global Best Employers program last year. This year they participated specifically under Best Employers India. They have very high employee engagement and the overall employee opinion scores were also high all aspects of organizational health. They have some interesting practices - there is a common talent pool for the APAC region. They are leveraging technology in health and wellness, and properties across have health and wellness certifications. As majority of their properties come up in areas away from cities, it is critical for them to develop the local villages/towns to be able to attract and retain talent. Thus their CSR focus is also very high, creating a symbiotic relationship with their neighborhood.

This company has high engagement scores. Their scores are quite high on all BE pillars. Their people practices are mature and they focus on building a lot in-house. Overall attrition compared to the industry is pretty low. They have initiatives for developing entrepreneurial leadership skills among their HIPO population. One interesting Initiative is that they have developed Soap opera style learning Podcasts programs for field executives.

IndiGo Airlines was a winner last year and have won this year as well. They participated as a group this year and have won as a conglomerate. Overall, this company is high on employee opinion scores, strong people practices and has a very well aligned business HR strategy. It is very focused on providing the hassle-free customer experience to their internal customers as well. The businesses under the group are well-aligned and operate within inter-related industries. IndiGo is definitely ahead of the rest of the group companies - their employee focus is noteworthy and the kind of employee experience they are delivering is definitely laudable. x

It is the Conglomerate Winner

Godrej Consumer Products Limited have been winners since 2009. The entire group has remained committed to their people agenda and they are among the first companies to adopt progressive people practices. They have very high scores, a well-developed people strategy and evolved people practices. GCPL is usually amongst the first to adopt next level people practices, especially focused on diversity and their millennial population. On ground implementation is excellent - they have recently adopted Workplace by Facebook. Their LOUD program has got a lot of media coverage and their diversity initiative is one of the most progressive in the country.

First time winners, Godrej Agrovet’s people practices have been found to be exceptional. They have borrowed a lot of good practices from Godrej's overall corporate practices. They are leveraging technology to use mobile apps for learning programs. Employees attend a lot of programs, but training not aligned to individual needs.

DHL has been earning themselves the award for best employers for past several years. They have very high scores, very well-developed people practices, and their business promise of efficiency and timeliness reflects in all aspects of their people practices.

They were winners last year as well. Despite the fact that a lot of their employees are located in rural remote locations given their organizational context, it still has high scores and very well established HR people practices - well ahead of their industry. Also, it is extremely process-oriented and very collaborative. Their CHRO and the entire team is very driven and connected with their on-ground realities. Additionally, their HR dashboard and the kind of metrics they are tracking is extremely impressive"

Bharti Airtel Ltd are first time winners. The company has scored very high engagement scores and scores across all BE pillars are also very high. Their people practices are well established - as an organization, they try a lot of new things and are not afraid to fail and improve further. It’s also exceptionally high on employer brand and their HR initiatives - the HR team switches roles every two years and are acquiring new skills constantly. They have recently launched a chatbot for their campus hiring program which has been widely covered by media. Overall leadership intent, organizational health and people practices design is aligned.

Bayer is a Life Science company with more than 150-year history and core competencies in the areas of health care and agriculture. The company follows well established practices and scores very high on the employee opinion survey, especially compared to their industry benchmark. Their hiring practices are focused on recruiting for culture fitment and the manager has an online tool to create a custom BEI tool for each role basis competencies.

Also one of the winners last year, this company has been reported to have very high engagement scores. Employee opinion is very positive across all aspects of organizational health. People practices are also very evolved and it has very well defined HR strategy. They are some of the early adopters and are using predictive analytics and machine learning. They also have clear communication on employee expectations. Everyone starting from the CEO quotes that the organization rewards high performance via career opportunities. However, the organization in its current growth spurt would not be able to provide work-life balance. It wants to attract (and has very successfully added almost 40% workforce) with the same context.

Aegis Limited has been found to have a high employee opinion scores and solid people practices. The company is much ahead of the industry benchmark. Their attrition is well managed given the nature of the industry.