Best companies to work for 2012: How American Express addresses the need of Gen Y employees

For Nicholas Morri, the birth of his baby girl last year was a time of immense joy as well as increased responsibility. Luckily for Morri, the work-life flexibility programme offered by his employer American Express gave him the opportunity to balance his work with his childcare duties.

American Express offers workplace flexibility solutions, such as flexible locations, time flexible schedules and reduced working hours. With a workforce of that comprises more than 40% women, pregnancy care and wellness programmes are well established.

This year, American Express started a new initiative, Dil Se, a parental care programme that adopts an innovative approach to employee benefits. Preferred employers traditionally extend benefit coverage to family members, such as spouse and children.

This initiative takes it a step forward and addresses the need of Gen Y employees where many of them have parents as the only dependent. "Many of our policies and initiatives are formed on the basis of feedback from employees," says Jyoti Rai, VP - HR, American Express India.

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But the work life initiatives aren't limited to just wellness. Diversity spanning age, culture, ethnicity, nationality, physical and mental capabilities and other differences, are seen as positive business assets. American Express employees are empowered with a formal issues resolution procedure if they feel discriminated against in everyday work.

Issues, of course, range from promotions, performance appraisals and work schedules. Dissatisfied employees even have access to an ombudsperson for discussion. American Express has also designed various channels in the organisation to which an employee can reach out to-HR Relationship leader, leader, skip level leader or business leader.

It recently introduced the 'Employee Relations' team in India, which is yet another formal channel by which employees can raise their issues-apart from handling employee-related concerns, the team liaisons with different stakeholders to ensure a fair outcome. "One by one, we make each other and our company more successful. One by one, we make our business, our personal communities and our families stronger.

And so we work hard to give back to each and every one of them," says Sanjay Rishi, President, American Express India. The company's freedom to work from home falls under 'Blue Work', an initiative to optimise the workspace experience. Employees can opt for a compressed workweek, reduced working hours, or scheduled days to telecommute.

And, if the office gets too monotonous, there's always the 'Family Day' to have the kids visit the office! Rai says that the HR team has worked hard to deepen its understanding of concepts such as 'gender intelligence' and 'sponsor effect'. “That has helped us build better appreciation for our diverse workforce and also enables sponsorship for diverse talent," she says.