Question 1: As a leader at Viacom-18 what are some of the recent initiatives you have taken in making sure that your people remain fully "productive", "engaged" and also boost their morale?
-We have several interventions that foster personal growth and effectiveness in our organization. Learning and Development is done to build capacity, map expectations based on organization goals. While we run L&D we are also simultaneously focused on churning and building future leaders. Engagement at Viacom works at three different levels:

1) Engagement through Performance Management System. We ensure that the roles and goals are clearly defined.
2) Engagement through rewards and recognition. This is purely performance oriented leading to positive behavior amongst employees
3) Finally the most important form of engagement is Causal engagement. The personal goals of the employee are aligned in sync with the overall organizational goals. The employee's family, vision, missions, personal and professional relationship dynamics are carefully heard and understood so that they can be fulfilled so that no employee works in isolation.

Question 2: Organizations these days are facing high rate of attrition. What steps and policies have you put in place to ensure that the rate of attrition is substantially reduced?
We do not believe in reactive intervention as that approach only leads to repair work. Our attrition rate is 4%. We undertake more preparatory and reflective work. We work on finding out what factors make an employee stay. Some of the key factors that help in employee retention are:

Transparent performance driven culture

Opportunities to grow

Leadership depth & quality

Superior and peer relationship dynamics
Investment in development of both present and future roles

Recognition and appreciation of employees
One of our interventions called the “Back to School” program encourages employees to pursue academic excellence in top institutes globally fully sponsored by the company.

 

Question 3: Do you think the academic establishments in the country produce candidates with the potential ability required to make a career in your organization?

Getting readily available skilled talent is a big challenge in the media industry as a whole. There is a dearth of state of the art institutions. We don't get the person with the right skillet readily available for hire. We invest heavily in training through our learning platform at the "Bodhi Tree Learning Academy"

 

Question 4: Apart from material incentives what is the single non-tangible factor, which ensures loyalty of employees towards the organization?
Initially it's monetary. But as an employee spends time in an organization career development, growth opportunities, investment in training and leadership development plans play a vital role in ensuring employee loyalty.

 

Question 5: What strategies and policies have you introduced to ensure that there is a smooth complimentary functioning of Gen X and Gen Y?
The best way to bridge the gap between Gen X and Gen Y is to have no gap. At Viacom we have built a culture of diversity. We value the differences in opinions and ideas from all levels. The goal is to create a culture where both senior and junior employees compliment each other thereby ensuring better teamwork. In a true sense there is no hierarchy, no boundaries they treat each other as equals.