Tata Consultancy Services, Bharti Televentures and National Thermal Power Corporation, Proctor and Gamble and GlaxoSmithkline Consumer were named the top five best employers in 2004 by the Hewitt Best Employers Study among 272 companies covering 75,000 employees in India. TCS has moved up from the 10th rank in the 2003 study to the first position this year while P&G which was at top last year has slipped to the fourth position. 

Bharti, Satyam, Tata Motors, Intel and NTPC are the new entrants to the top 10 list while American Express, Tata Steel and Wipro have slipped down from the top list. The study pointed out that the best employers have changed their opinion towards talent management and are investing more in developing the talents of the employees. They are also focusing on building high performance work environment, and using rewards as the differentiating tool. 

“More importantly, the best employers are focusing on leadership development and are positioned to build a strong leadership pipeline,” Smita Anand, Hewitt’s India head of consulting added. Hewitt also included the blue collar workers in the study, and based on their inputs a new category called ‘Best Managed Workforce’ has been introduced this year. Godrej Consumer Products, IFFCO, Parry Confectionery, The Leela Palace Kempinski and Jubilant Organosys have been chosen as the 5 companies with best managed workforces. 

This year, there are two more categories called the ‘Best People CEO’ and ‘Most admired HR department’. Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Televentures has been elected Best People CEO while Proctor and Gamble has the most admired HR department. The Study said that the focus on the evaluation of performance targets is high at all organisational levels in the best employers. About 88 per cent of the best employers use market data to determine fixed pay pre-evaluation, while 24 per cent are willing to pay without regard to compensation band or grades.