Taking fun seriously: Work at NIIT takes a backseat as its employees gather for a session of dumb charades

BACK OF THE BOOK Second Thoughts BOOKEND

This has to be a joke, I said to myself as I hopped into my white Maruti 800 and buckled up for a 30-odd kilometre drive to niit's headquarters at Kalkaji in South Delhi. Vijay Thadani, I had been informed just hours before, had been redesignated as the computer education company's CFO. Well, I knew that NIIT was going through some really rough patch ever since the tech slowdown started three years ago, but the move seemed harsh even by the tech industry's unorthodox standards. Besides, why would co-promoter Thadani, who has been working out of the US for the last few years, meekly accept the demotion?

As it turned out, it was a joke alright-pulled on me. The new addition to the 51-year-old Thadani's title didn't read Chief Financial Officer as I had thought. Rather, it spelt Chief Fun Officer. His mission: To bring the smile, rather the guffaws, back into the workplace. "There's a new intruder who has crept into our lives. It is causing terror in NIIT. As the CFO, I declare a prolonged war against that intruder-seriousness," declared Thadani, er..., seriously. An army of fun officers have been "appointed" across NIIT's offices, and the theme for the year is: 366 Days of Fun.

That fun is (or, rather, was) a serious business at dotcoms is nothing new. But why are hardcore tech companies now either entrusting the serious business of fun to their senior-most executives or going out of their way to tickle the geek's funny bone? Is it because profits are under pressure, there's a growing backlash against the Indian techie, or that h1s are getting scarcer? Sure these may be some of the reasons, but not as big as the problem such programmes are aimed at addressing: Attrition. Yes, despite the slowdown, the industry churns over a staggering 13-14 per cent of its workforce every year. And it is a proven fact that companies with better work environment lose less people.

Infoscions at a golfing session: It is the company's stated goal to provide its employees "a home away from home"

A case in point: HCL Perot Systems, where the attrition rate is half the industry average. "The philosophy is to encourage people to enjoy themselves," says Rajnish Kohli, an associate and a co-founder of HCL Perot Systems. The last Friday cake and coke party at the Noida-based company, for instance, required the basement dwellers to show up in black and white, bright blue was fixed for the ground floor guys, purple for first floor, second floor got yellow/orange, while it was a red day for the third floor associates (there are no designations in the company and everyone is an associate). Trekking breaks. Art of living courses. Even Hypnosis. All these go into the positioning of HPs as an adventure company, and which, according to Kohli, boosts productivity and curbs attrition.

Teams at the Chennai-based Polaris occasionally break-out into impromptu get togethers dubbed JLT (Just Like That) Parties, which are amorphous in nature and take shape according to the mood at the time. I thought it was some kid's b'day party plans when I heard their listing of fun events, which range from balloon busting races to eating competitions to painting competitions to dumb charades (a hot favourite). That is just the superficial part though. "We realise that the challenge is in engaging the highly creative minds that work for us," says Senior Vice President at Polaris, R. Shekar. "The aim is to encourage creativity while imbibing the discipline that project execution requires."

And families, more often than not, are welcome to be part of the merry-making. The grand-old-company of the IT industry, Tata Consultancy Services, has its annual Family Day in June. But it is not collegial flippant and flamboyant atmosphere that is sought to be replicated, but a more sophisticated one in keeping with the profile of the Tata group. "There is a least one fun event scheduled each month," says Atul Takle, Vice President for Corporate Communications at TCS. No, February is not set aside for Valentine celebrations here. It is the month in which each branch office has the option to choose its own activity. The company does, however, celebrate Women's Day along with the rest of the world in March and Secretaries' Day in April. You could play around with your workspace creatively and get the TCS workspace award (September) or just hang around at the company long enough and get a Hats Off for long service (August).

Similarly, Infosys has a maturish profile of events which it categorises as fun: Dhun-Dhun cultural festival involving a variety of competitions; Health Assessment and Lifestyle Enrichment plan; Training on Confidence in the Face of Aggressive Response; meditation workshops and...okay, there are dancing sessions too. Interestingly, this is what I found to be a first for any company-Infosys aims to provide "a home away from home" for its employees, enabling them to be enriched intellectually, physically, emotionally and materially. In keeping with the all-embracing philosophy of the firm, one high point of celebrations is the Petit Infoscions day dedicated to the children of the employees.

Sadly, not one of the companies I spoke to measured up to the high that some Japanese firms provide to their employees by a simple inexpensive device-a punching bag that resembles the boss.