"Emaar Is Truly A People-First Company," CHRO Emaar India
Real Estate as an industry is bolstering and taking shape and will soon become a significant contributor to India’s GDP. However, since the real estate sector is developing and becoming larger in its magnitude, it has an inherent challenge of retaining & attracting new talent.
Madhuri Mehta, Chief Human Resources Officer at Emaar India, is providing in-depth insights into the company's developmental journey, effectively addressing high attrition rates and achieving significant positive outcomes within a brief timeframe.
1. The attrition rate is significantly high in the real estate industry, how have you overcome the challenge and what is the current attrition rate at Emaar India?
Emaar is truly a people-first company, and therefore our HR strategies have evolved and now employs a dual approach of short-term and long-term initiatives aimed at improving Emaar’s operational efficiency and market competitiveness.
In the short term, the existing policies were analysed to understand the evolving need of our workforce. We modified & launched the new attendance, leave, travel, separation, employee insurance, employee asset, referral, cafeteria, telecom, medical check-up and advance policies, benchmarked with best employees’ engagement and benefit strategy across industries. In the long term, strategies are being formulated to remain scalable and adaptable to future requirements, with effective management strategies to facilitate smooth transition and widespread adoption. We have developed various tools for manpower planning & budgeting, streamlined the compensation benchmarking process and introduced ‘Legacy incentive policy’, to encourage and reward (HODs) in resolving issues effectively. One such program is our flagship ‘Lakshya’ training program that primarily focuses on building leaders to take up future roles in the organisation and build a successful sustainable organisation. Through ‘Lakshya’ we developed a succession planning exercise in partnership with Deloitte & created a CXO development journey in collaboration with Korn Ferry for leadership employees.
The combination of short-term process improvements and long-term strategic investments yielded not only immediate improvements in operational efficiency, cost savings, and customer satisfaction but also paved the way for sustainable growth, market expansion, and enhanced competitive advantage for Emaar India.
This positive trend allows us to attract and retain top talent, driving better productivity and results. These factors are crucial for handling the increased project volume we aim to achieve by 2024 through our Emaar 2.0 strategy plan.
2. What is the Lakshya program, and how does it identify and groom Emaar India’s future leadership?
EMAAR India successfully launched ‘Lakshya’, a middle management leadership development program to build leaders of tomorrow. This program was commenced in partnership with one of Big 4 - Deloitte to identify our top critical positions and select middle management employees who after going through 12-month long development journey be groomed for future leadership roles at Emaar India.
We have also curated Leadership Development Programs like ‘Beyond Limits’ - A CXO Development journey being undertaken in partnership with Korn Ferry for 20+ leadership employees to make them capable of excelling in an ever-changing macro environment & shine for Emaar.
3. How have the top achievers at Emaar India been able to advance their careers more quickly? Can you please elaborate on the role of Garuda program in facilitating this process?
Emaar India launched a fast-track career program called ‘Garuda’ which aimed at providing top young leaders a chance to accelerate their career trajectory and help them develop & advance quickly in their careers. ‘Garuda’ is designed to conduct an assessment program followed by a targeted development journey using the competency and potential frameworks. The focus of the assessment Center is to identify HI-POs with the help of the 9-box grid and reports will be used as an input to design their development journey.
4. What initiative is Emaar India taking to prioritise their employee wellbeing?
Emaar India’s key focus lies on the quality, safety, and health of the workforce. We understand the importance of holistic wellbeing and therefore launched wellness initiative ‘Sampoornam’ for all, which encompasses Mind, Body and Soul related monthly activities. Under its ambit we have curated
We take pride in investing in our employees over all wellbeing by, conducting regular medical-health checkup camps and weekly training on healthy diet and mental wellness.
Even for our blue-collared work force we organise Safety Harness Contest, and confer awards, quality and safety certifications for best performing workforce and supervisors to induce a sense of achievement and to instil a sense of camaraderie.
‘Ujaala’ is our CSR program aimed at bringing ‘Light into the lives of others’ and includes activities through various platforms for giving back to the society. Ujaala has been instrumental in organising many drives for giving back to others.
5. Being a people-first organisation, what steps has Emaar India taken for employee recognition?
Emaar India prioritises its most essential assets, which are its people. We realise how important it is to put our people forward, beyond offering competitive compensations compared with the real estate industry.
We have also re-designed & launched the new Reward & Recognition framework of Emaar India. Instituted ‘Manager’s Gift Basket & Great Work card to be used for on-spot appreciation of employees. Created the Quarterly CEO’s Excellence Awards – used by HODs to award exceptional objective performers of each quarter. We have also created the coveted, ‘Annual Uttkrishtta Awards’ to felicitate the best performing employees who are judged by our external partners and judges on the basis of their performance & achievements.
6. How does Emaar India foster a culture of employee innovation and entrepreneurship to drive business growth?
We orchestrated an initiative ‘Navkalpana’, a pioneering platform designed to nurture employee entrepreneurship and innovation. This innovative initiative serves as a launchpad for employees to showcase their practical ideas capable of generating tangible business impact within Emaar. By fostering an environment that encouraged creativity and initiative, we have been instrumental in promoting entrepreneurship within the organization. This initiative not only empowers employees to contribute actively to Emaar's growth but also facilitates the implementation of innovative solutions that could drive the company forward. ‘Emaar Group Top Talent program’, was another groundbreaking initiative launched by us, which focused on leveraging the collective expertise and creativity of top talent across different departments, the initiative aimed to foster a culture of entrepreneurship and empowerment among young and talented performers at Emaar. Through this platform, employees were encouraged to think outside the box, develop practical solutions, and spearhead initiatives that could propel Emaar's success to new heights.
7. How has Emaar India been able to contribute to their employee’s overall success beyond compensation?
While we offer competitive salaries, our commitment towards employee success goes beyond compensation. We strongly believe in investing in recognizing and rewarding our high performers as well as comprehensive programs designed to equip potential leaders with the skills and knowledge which they need to thrive in today's dynamic business landscape.
Programs like ‘Lakshya’, ‘Garuda’, e-certifications & strong engagement programs are a few examples of how we invest in our people and show appreciation for their hard work and dedication. We invest in our workforce by fostering a culture of continuous learning and development, celebrating all milestones to bring Emaar, fraternity together.
Another groundbreaking initiative – ‘Emaar Group Top Talent program’, was launched for all employees across Emaar’s international operations. By leveraging the collective expertise and creativity of top talent across different departments, the initiative aimed to foster a culture of entrepreneurship and empowerment among young and talented performers at Emaar. Through this platform, employees were encouraged to think outside the box, develop practical solutions, and spearhead initiatives that could propel Emaar's success to new heights.
