Keeping it simple: MD Keki Mistry (centre, in tie) and ED Renu Sud-Karnad (to his left) have kept HDFC's people policies simple, but effective

On the fifth floor sits the HDFC top brass. The doors to their cabins may be closed, but anyone can knock, enter and speak out. HDFC promotes an open culture based on transparency; the hr philosophy communicated to employees at the time of joining through a staff handbook, is clearly linked to the business drivers of delivering exceptional customer service. Everybody gets their due, be it the customer who has entered a branch to take a home loan, or the executive serving that customer, or the employee serving the executive who is serving the customer.

That feeling of "being wanted" prevails at HDFC, even as it has grown into a Rs 3,068-crore mega-corporation. From 727 employees and 24 offices in 1990, HDFC today has an employee strength of 1,321 and 180 offices. Points out Keki Mistry, MD, HDFC: "We try and create an informal atmosphere and keep it free of politics, a big problem faced by growing companies." That could perhaps be attributed to HDFC's core values of fairness, kindness, efficiency and effectiveness.

HDFC doesn't hire laterally. It prefers to recruit fresh management trainees straight from campuses and the middle and senior management grows from within. And it's not the pay packet, but the HDFC brand and culture that attract fresh talent. For management trainees, the first two-three years are critical. Once they cross that hump, they stay on, as long-term career growth options are determined. Not surprisingly, therefore, a random poll of employees taken by this writer revealed that the average tenure of an HDFC employee is rarely less than 16 years.

Executive Director Renu Sud-Karnad attributes this commitment to the "spirit of entrepreneurship or ownership", that's inculcated in each HDFC employee. Flexibility is a popular mantra, and even at a young age, you are encouraged to take decisions. A fact corroborated by senior officer Asif Upadhyay. Upadhyay has been with the company for 15 months now, but had joined as a management trainee when he got recruited from campus from Symbiosis, Pune, in June last year. His reasons for joining: HDFC is a trusted name in finance and offers early challenges. "There is freedom to work and if there's an issue, you just walk into your boss' cabin and discuss it."

What also keeps employees on the ball is the strong orientation towards development and training, which is an important part of the hr process. Last year, on an average, HDFC clocked some 37,000 hours of formal training, which works out to six-to-seven days a year per person.

The most critical discomfort factor at HDFC, according to Malkani, is that "the company is soft with people and has carried along mediocre people". She's hoping to change that, though, by March 2005, when an appraisal system that tots up individual performance scores instead of performance ratings comes into play.

HDFC's formula for keeping employees happy may lack the usual hr hype, jargon and spiel. It may sound too simple and good to be true. But it works, and that's all that matters.

INTERVIEW/Keki Mistry/MD "We try and create an informal atmosphere"

How do you make a non-tech company a preferred employer? The most important thing is we try and create an informal atmosphere. Even with 180 offices, we try and talk to branch managers regularly so as to have a feeling of being wanted. Secondly, we try to keep the atmosphere as free of politics as possible. Lastly, while we may not be the best paymasters, we have created long-term value for our employees through stock options. What is your recruitment strategy? It is the HDFC brand that has helped us attract talent. We try and recruit people as management trainees and let them rise and provide opportunities for promotion. The HDFC group is a financial conglomerate, and since we have promoted a number of companies, including the bank, insurance, mutual fund, credit bureau and call centre, there are plenty of growth opportunities. You are changing your performance appraisal system. Why? Grading involves some amount of subjectivity. But you can be more transparent with scores and targets, which is our new appraisal system. Are you afraid of losing people to new rivals? No. As long as we manage to keep the company lean and clean, I see no problems.