Exclusive Interview

Emerio: Good dialogue with employee matters

“It is very important for employers to know what’s on the minds of its employees – especially in economic downturns such as the current one”, says Emerio Malaysia Sdn Bhd’s Assistant Vice President (Recruitment) & Head of Technical Consulting.

”We hold coffee talks & Management Dialogues once a quarter. This is basically a forum to share how the company is doing, what’s in store, what it means for employees & most importantly, to listen to the voice of the employees” he said, adding that the Human Resource (HR) team addresses most issues in 24-48 hours

The HR team also has a team mailbox & its email address is published widely so that employees can send email easily & are guaranteed responses & resolutions. The HR team even has KPI’s linked to the prompt handling of issues.

No matter where the employees are located, they are always connected to the company and are treated the same way as the staff within Emerio’s premises. “It’s all about bonding with employees & creating a sense of belonging. Grievances of employees, however small they may seem to anyone else, are very important to the employee ,” he said.

Grievances might be a relatively smaller issue if companies hire quality candidates in the first place, and therefore Emerio takes great caution in adding new members to its family.

The first process, of course, is the sourcing. “We use job portals and newspapers, if our hiring numbers are higher. We have our own in-house application for talent acquisition & management. Most importantly, Employee referrals constitute a major portion of our talent acquisition strategy” Jagadeesan noted, adding that the company has its own network that can be used for additional sourcing.

As Employees are Key strength for any Organization, we do focus on employees and build relationship, We conduct various team building activities, Sports event annually, we provide frequent training to improve their Technical skills, Leadership skill and process improvement skill, which will allow them to think out of box in long run.

Emerio, which focuses on Business Intelligence, Infrastructure Solutions, Managed Services, Professional Services, and Software Services among others, currently has over 1400 employees across the global and around 600 in Malaysia. The company has not stopped hiring, despite the global economic downturn & foresees growth this year.

“Most projects that come to Malaysia are outsourced; that is where revenue generation is happening. We support global customers (North America, Europe) as well as regional customers (Asia Pacific & Japan),” he said.

On the economic front, Jagadeesan, noted that the market has indeed slowed down since the last quarter of 2008, but sees this as an opportunity for IT Outsourcing companies like Emerio to bring exceptional value to customers at reasonable costs.

“We have a much healthier outlook than usual, as many customers are looking at ways to reduce cost of their IT operations. We even transition & takeover people from these customers, thereby preserving jobs & talent.”