Pros
Having worked in the organization for more than 3 years, and with prior experience from the Big 5 of the Indian IT industry, I must concur that Hitachi has created a different niche for itself in terms of employee engagement and interaction. The organization has created a differentiation on 3 major levels to ensure the quality and brand, which are 1. Employee engagement & Expression Freedom, 2. Cultural Differentiation 3. Management Principles
Employee engagement & Expression Freedom: The one major area where we can gauge the Employee First principles of an organization is in the way resource voices are being heard while they are deployed in project. I have seen, employees having a huge say in terms of project engagement and deployment and on frequent occasions, resources have expressed their desire to be not part of one project or another and the demand have been respectfully considered. Movement, across projects and departments have been also very fast – something which took months in Indian IT companies. Onsite opportunities are available and without much of queue.
Cultural Differentiation: While there had been blatant following up, of US culture and strict mechanistic code of conduct in the Indian IT sector, it is a relief to see a flexible culture in Hitachi having selective Japanese influence of ethics and appreciation of others’ time. Off-course, the Indianness is there, but it is more on the lines of flexibility on office hours as well as ease to work from home. No dress code is an added advantage!
Management Principles: I believe, this had been crucial for the above two parameters. A big reason for employee dissatisfaction we have seen in this sector is due to inflexible and inefficient middle management creating a hurdle to reach to the senior management – which generally are sensitive to the concerns, at least as per my experience. Here, the middle tier being slim, creates a lot of flexibility and sensitivity. The senior management also follows an ‘Open-Door’ policy, which is actually being followed! The top-down culture had been a reason why employee suggestions had been incorporated within month, at times and then there are frequent town-halls in all the locations where the senior management interacts directly with employees
Overall, and simply put, the organization is consciously working on to be a unicorn in the industry, from both technological innovation (India has a Center of Excellence, part of global CoE) as well as from employee engagement perspective. Recommended for a long-term career growth and opportunities
Cons
Nothing in specific to mention.