News: For India Inc, it's time to create huddles

(DNA 18/03/2007) Mumbai - After footballers, it's the Men in Blue who are being used by the tech industry to inspire employees and enhance their performance at work. IT companies in Bangalore are busy with a host of cricket-related activities - from setting up giant LCD screens in offices to organising quizzes and tournaments, all in the name of improving camaraderie among workers. "The World Cup is an excellent opportunity to create excitement among employees," says Tapan Bhat, vice president, HR, Talent transformation and Strategic Resourcing at Wipro. The organisation will have a contest on the eve of every match to "encourage bonding" among workers, and also reiterate Wipro's credo of working hard and playing hard. According to Sanjay Kamlani, co-founder and chief executive officer of Pangea3, a legal Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company in Mumbai, contests at his company include predicting the World Cup winner and runners up, the highest runs-scorer, the best bowler and the 11 batsmen who will rack up the maximum runs. The winner will be rewarded with a free dinner for two at Moshe's and Salt Water Grill. Intelenet Global Services, Wipro, Office Tiger, Hutch, Infosys, Genpact and Sulekha.com are all getting into the World Cup game, by naming office teams after participating nations and hosting intra-office meets. "Cricket is almost a religion in India," says S Nagarajan, co-founder and chief people officer of 24/7 Customer. "To simulate the World Cup, our client teams have been divided into groups and named after participating nations. They even wear the team's colours to work on days their team is playing." Office Tiger in Chennai, with over 800 employees, has begun an intra-office tournament with 29 teams. The companies have, however, not rescheduled their work hours around the matches. "People who are always at work tend to become lethargic, and World Cup is the right time to infuse some energy into the teams," says Benny Dayal of the welfare and events team at Office Tiger. Infosys BPO is putting up a giant screen on the common floor. Sulekha.com has its Chennai office decorated with World Cup paraphernalia. Definitely smells like team spirit in ITs hallowed halls.