This 28-year-old broking company shows how to retain people

Companies employ different strategies to retain people but it certainly can be a challenging task. Retention depends on varied factors ranging from external market conditions to employee satisfaction and happiness.

Religare Broking, a financial services company established in 1994, enjoys a good reputation among employees vis-à-vis other companies in the sector, as is evident from popular employee review websites. Today, it’s one of the preferred companies in the sector.

Besides, as Hina Dhamija, HR Head, Religare Broking, claims, the average tenure of an employee is 5.5 years. In addition there are also team members who have been working for more than 15 years.

The company claims that the power of retention has been achieved through employee happiness.

“Ever evolving values along with the constant focus on employee-centricity makes Religare Broking a place people want to work at for long periods of time,” says Dhamija.

Hina echoes the organisation’s dedication to employee happiness. “Satisfied employees means retaining them becomes much easier, allowing them to maintain a higher median tenure than most of the competition,” she states.

And how do they achieve that happiness level?

The first thing that they do is ensure an equal treatment for employees across functions.

This means employees who are on the non-business function roles are treated at par with those in the business roles directly impacting revenues for companies.

This is why the company also has both phantom and non-phantom benefits in place.

“We have an open door policy. We welcome all feedback and keep on improvising on our strategy in terms of retention,” says Dhamija.

“Besides, the retention policy remains open across the functions and each employee irrespective of their contribution towards the revenue is important to us as an organisation. There are regular interventions, rewards and recognition policies, and benefits,” she adds.

“Beyond that, it’s about how the employee feels or is being treated, that’s what leads to longevity, as a person in human resource,” Dhamija opines.

“When employees are happy and willing to communicate, not only does that allow the organisation to keep them for longer but also has a positive impact on the revenue the business makes,” she adds.

“The retention policy remains open across the functions and each employee irrespective of their contribution towards the revenue is important to us as an organisation.”

Hina Dhamija, HR head, Religare Broking

Happiness is key to retention, and work-life balance contributes towards employee happiness.

Dhamija says, “The organisation is always open to adapt as per the industry norms and practices.”

For instance, these days there have been talks around the 4-day work week. On this Dhamija says, “Depending on the kind of business we are in, we are required to work at the moment for five days as the market is open. If tomorrow the market shifts to a 4-day schedule, we are open to offer that flexibility to our employees.”

“In fact, banks and NBFCs work for six days, while we work for five days,” Dhamija draws a comparison.

When the company has higher number of tenured and vintage employees, there is also a need for upskilling them. Dhamija says, “Vinatges require to upskill in terms of the trends, behaviours and traits in the market, and we have regular programmes around it.”

While the company has a large number of vintages, it also looks for new and fresh talent from the market.

One of the outstanding qualities that the company looks for in a recruit is their willingness. According to her, if she sees that a person is willing to make an impact, then educational qualifications might not matter as much.

“If they have the zeal to excel then their degree might not make a difference when making a decision,” she says.

The company also has a robust induction and onboarding programme for the new joinees.

There is a detailed induction programme called Pravesham which is spread across a number of hours so that an employee can hit the floor knowing every business aspect and about the organisation as a whole.

Next, there is an orientation programme in which the new joinee gets inputs from several functions of the business thus making their induction more substantive.

Following which there is an onboarding and hand holding process and depending on the level, this ranges between 0-90 days.

Results speak for themselves and in a year plagued by layoffs and the after effects of the great resignation, Religare has stood firm in its stance to retain its internal talent pool and progress.