Why this year's survey is different. And how.

Four years ago, business today pioneered the concept of workplace surveys in India. Three editions of the survey down the line, we've tweaked the methodology some, changed partners, and pioneered what we believe is a process that will set the benchmark for all future qualitative surveys.

The best companies to work for in India will be arrived at on the basis of a process that involves an understanding of the hr processes of companies, a survey of their employees, and a survey of their external stakeholders such as B-schools, placement firms, and alumni. The third is, we believe, a significant improvement over the process used in previous years. That, though, isn't why this survey will set a benchmark.

The spectre of conflict of interest looms large over all qualitative surveys that involve domain expertise and, consequently, a research partner with the requisite proficiency. Business Today partners with premier consulting firms for expertise-based surveys such as this one. However, the same consulting firms work with the companies participating in the survey, very often in the same areas. The issue of conflict of interest in a quantitative survey can be ruled out. For instance, Business Today partners with KPMG to identify India's best banks every year. KPMG has a huge banking practice and representatives from the same work on the survey. However, the methodology is purely quantitative and based on numbers gleaned from the financial statements of the banks. But qualitative surveys are a different cup of tea altogether.

To cut to the chase, here's the innovation of this year's survey: BT's partner in this exercise is Mercer Human Resource Consulting, an international hr consulting firm. However, while Mercer has developed the methodology of the survey and will arrive at a short-list of the best companies to work for in India, the entire front-end of the survey, and the data collection and aggregation will be managed by international market research major TNS' Indian arm. The research firm will present summary reports for short-listed companies on an anonymous basis to Mercer. The consulting firm will present a list of proposed rankings to Business Today that will put names to numbers, and present these to a jury that will decide on the final ranking.

Fair. Free. And faultless. Just thee way this magazine likes its surveys to be.

The Process Steps

The 'best companies to work For In India' study has been designed keeping in mind the principles of accessibility, online updation, transparency and confidentiality. The study extends to a period of two months of gaining an understanding of the people practices and perceptions of key stakeholders of the participating companies. The survey will be conducted online through interactions with various stakeholders of the company. Each stakeholder will be given a separate id and password giving access to only the particular questionnaire that he/she is required to complete.

The various stages of the survey relating to interfacing with relevant stakeholders on seeking their views and perceptions are described below:

Eligibility to Participate: Interested companies will provide their contact and eligibility information to the survey administration team. To be eligible, the company must be at least four years old in India and have a minimum of 200 managerial staff in the country.

Company Overview: If found eligible, the key company contact will be asked to provide information relating to certain financial and people-related aspects through a pre-defined format on the survey site.

The steps that follow involve:

1. Getting an in-depth understanding of hr processes and policies of the company such as recruitment, performance management systems, hr Information Systems, etc. The company contact can provide it online or offline.

2. Gaining an insight into how employees perceive their company. Through an online questionnaire, a sample of the employees will be contacted to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the hr processes and systems, culture, alignment of their position with organisational goals and the efficiency of hr, among others.

3. Obtaining information on the perceptions of key stakeholders such as campuses, placement agencies, industry forums, alumni and new joiners. Through an online questionnaire, a sample from this set will be contacted for feedback.

The feedback of the employee perception survey will be the study's short-listing criteria. Summary reports for the short-listed companies will be presented to Mercer on an anonymous basis. These reports would include:

a) Consolidated scores on the internal and external employee perception survey, and

b) The qualitative inputs on the hr policies and processes and financial and employee information.

Each of the above will be evaluated by Mercer and will carry pre-defined weightages. The overall score, which will be calculated by Mercer after a review of the reports, will be used to determine the ranking order of the companies. Mercer will also provide a summary report for each short-listed company along with the proposed rankings.

Selection: These companies will be presented to the jury for the final rankings and winners, which will be announced in the subsequent issues of Business Today.

TNS, one of the world's leading market information groups, will play a central role in developing the site, managing data input, and collating scores online and offline to determine the shortlist companies. TNS will also be the key co-ordinator, managing the front-end interface with the companies.