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    IBM looks to transform work culture with entrepreneurial thinking among employees

    Synopsis

    The technology company, for the last few years, has been putting in place policies and programmes to reward and recognise employees with an entrepreneurial bent of mind.

    ET Bureau
    BENGALURU: Building upon the millennial culture and its penchant for looking at things differently, IBM India is targeting an internal culture transformation.

    The technology company, for the last few years, has been putting in place policies and programmes to reward and recognise employees with an entrepreneurial bent of mind, and going forward is placing greater focus on driving entrepreneurship among the workforce, said HR head DP Singh in an interview with ET.

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    “The transformation has been an ongoing one, recently gathering momentum. Now, we want all employees to have in their DNA the ability to recreate and reimagine things for the benefit of our clients. The entrepreneurial thinking we are driving within IBMers is focused on responding quickly to clients’ needs and having elements of design thinking,” said DP Singh, vice president and head - HR, IBM India/South Asia.

    At every fourth desk across IBM workplaces sits an entrepreneur, said Singh, with almost 20 per cent of the workforce today made up of millennials.

    “We are looking at entrepreneurship among employees as a new way to find solutions to problems,” said Singh.

    In January this year, IBM rolled out the ACE programme, bringing together ways for appreciation, coaching and evaluation all within the same agile platform.

    It is available as a mobile app or by using the desktop application, and is part of the company’s ongoing focus towards embedding a culture of instant feedback, leading to higher performances and outcomes.

    The new employee-designed performance measurement programme - called Checkpoint - enables employees to seek feedback from managers on goals and activities, and build a continuous engagement.

    “Checkpoint and Ace are part of our culture of giving and taking feedback. Listening becomes really important in this context, and we are driving awareness sessions on how listening better can drive stronger entrepreneurial skills,” said Singh.

     
    IBM is also changing its workplace design in tune with the thrust on entrepreneurship. Employees can now work out of ‘garages’, use various technologies and platforms all within the same space, and collaborate across teams on ideas.

    “We want to give employees the chance to sit together and brainstorm on ideas. The collaborative workspaces are still in a nascent stage and we expect this to pick up more momentum in the coming months,” said Singh.

    The garages are expected to encourage employees from diverse backgrounds and teams to join forces in an informal and fun environment and generate new innovative prototypes.


    The Economic Times

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