How Sulekha’s awards keep employees engaged in a full circle

The Awards are a prestigious recognition of excellence in the Sulekha Way of Working.

Circles can keep you in or out. Some circles can be erased, while others cannot. Some circles, you wait for, but some make you wait. Circles run forever, but the only circles that matter, are the ones you achieve. Only then does life come a full circle! There is a deep sense of accomplishment in finding meaning in what you do and being rewarded for the same, and it is this philosophy that forms the basis of the Sulekha Way of Working.

Sulekha Wow, or the Sulekha ‘Way of Working’ was born from a collective understanding and realisation that building a great place to work is all about figuring out the how of performance management.
This involves leaders having open, honest, frequent and constructive coaching dialogues with their team members on the ‘how’ aspect of performance.

When we started thinking about these awards, in the process we realised that it is not just an award but an integral part of the culture and defines our way of working

Explaining the idea behind Sulekha WoW, Satya Prabhakar, CEO, president, Sulekha says, “When we started thinking about these awards, in the process we realised that it is not just an award but an integral part of the culture and defines our way of working.”

The Sulekha WoW dimensions provide a guiding framework to the employees—one that acts as a navigating compass, a GPS, helping the managers to take these value-adding coaching conversations, leading to development and growth across levels. The five dimensions of Sulekha WoW are – competence, commitment, collaboration, customer focus and leadership.

Param Parameswaran, chairman, Sulekha believes everyone brings in their best into the workplace and should be acknowledged for their efforts. He says, “While every contributor shines in one dimension or perhaps two, they do bring all these dimensions into focus in delivering a remarkable job, every single day.”

The Sulekha WoW dimensions provide a guiding framework to the employees—one that acts as a navigating compass, a GPS, helping the managers to take these value-adding coaching conversations, leading to development and growth across levels. The five dimensions of Sulekha WoW are – competence, commitment, collaboration, customer focus and leadership.

Vasudha Nandal, vice president-HR, Sulekha, says, “It’s so much easier to talk about and measure the what, as it’s all about the metrics, dashboards and other tangible, material outcomes. But we wanted our people to understand and appreciate the how of performance. WoW Awards is an acknowledgement of what goes behind the growth of people in an organisation.”
Nandal shares that they wanted the leaders to talk to their team members, give them personalised feedback and create awareness in them about what they are doing right, where they are perceived as lagging and how they could develop further; what they should start, stop or continue doing. Creating this awareness is what good talent management is all about, and the more senior one becomes, the more critical it gets.

“Our aim to is to create an open and inclusive environment, where employees can be heard, valued and provided with inputs, information as well as personalised feedback, thus empowering them to steer and fuel their career growth,” she adds.

But most managers agree that this is the most difficult aspect of being a manager, as most tend to be reticent, and often shy away from these conversations, with the aspects to be addressed mostly being left to each individual manager.

In order to infuse these competencies into the overall work culture, the Company has created several learning, leadership development and reward mechanisms that acknowledge the success of those who exemplify this behaviour, giving them visibility within the organisation and providing them with opportunities for development.

The WoW Awards were launched last year and this being their third season, the Company has created an interesting video celebrating the winners of the latest edition. Each of them have been nominated and voted for by their peers or managers, and carefully selected from the final short list. Each of them epitomises one or more of the key competencies.

The families of the winners are invited for the ceremony, and thanked for their constant support in making all the winners successful at the workplace as well. Nandal shares that along with a cash prize, the acknowledgement and appreciation is what excites the winners the most. “Moreover, the visibility and the developmental opportunities it provides them are immense, and this is what helps them expedite their growth, both within the organisation and as individuals,” she says.