Best companies to work for 2013: American Express has one of the strongest retention rates in financial sector

The American Express campus occupies a fourth of a swank cluster of mid-rises on Horizon Drive, Gurgaon, with 20-somethings striding in and out of a fortress-like structure that formidably sits on site. Among them is RavikantOjha, who signed up with the global financial behemoth in April, in the World Services Division.


On the face of it, the 26-year-old Ojha's job seems as run-of-the-mill as that of any executive's in an offshore contact centre. But when he took part in the ‘pre-hire orientation program', apart from the famed ‘blue box values' that his company cherishes, Ojha learnt his job wasn't merely transactional but based on "interaction with the client". That, he says, was a huge motivating force as he gazed at the horizon of his career.

It is no secret then that Amex has one of the strongest retention rates in the financial sector with an attrition rate in the low-teens. "No longer is the title of the position important, it is the content of the work, the opportunities for learning, the flexibility, the fun element and also the realization that it's not the company's job but my job too," says Sanjay Rishi, President, American Express India.

Indeed, that's a far cry from Rishi's induction moons ago when the job was all about, well, THE job. Today, his vice president-HR, Jyoti Rai, is striving to change the suffix in work-life ‘balance' to ‘integration'. "For an individual today, there is significant overlap between personal and professional life…we cannot think of engagement with the employee just within the workplace," she points out reasoning the change in nomenclature.

Perhaps it's that integration which drives finance exec Preeti Khurana to work daily. She can't stop praising the ‘AHA! Kids' program that was centered around promoting active lifestyle around children. The company called a child nutritionist and a psychologist who took about 5 sessions with her four-year-old son. "Along with getting an idea of what a healthy balanced meal looked like, it made me a more aware parent and connect with my child better," she says.

Similarly, Ashish Khokha, who manages the back office for global travel business, is enamoured by the ‘Parents@Amex' initiative for it taught him "guilt-free parenting". Khokha claims that his session with a child psychologist arranged by the company enabled him to manage time better and focus hard equally on work and home. "It opened my window to very basic things, like managing TV time and keeping my Black-Berry off at home," he recalls.

As Jyoti Rai puts it, the initiatives at Amex are all about well-being and extending them to the employees' personal relationships and health. And since 60% of the employees live with their parents, the ‘Dil Se' program is a huge hit wherein the company provides security and medical cover to the parents of its employees.

Though there is a dollar value to most of the benefits offered to the employees, Rai contends that the long-term gains of the benefits mitigate the cost. The company has even stepped up the wellness quotient for its people. Its ‘Fit Hi Hit Hai' program, for instance, hones the physical fitness of its employees.

On campus, the ‘elevation zone' bears testimony to this. "It's not a gym," Rai is quick to clarify, but a platform that promotes mental relaxation, with puzzles, Nintendo games, an Xbox, iPods, and interestingly, a tread desk— a treadmill with a workstation so that if the employee is on call, s/he can exercise alongside.

In step with all such initiatives, Rai's biggest focus in HR remains in development. "Since there's a lot of skill-shift taking place, we as an organisation are transforming ourselves into a digital workplace and therefore it becomes pertinent to develop our employees according to the new environment and its requirements." From Horizon Drive, Amex sure seems poised to deliver on overdrive.