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Pepsico India Holdings Pvt Ltd
You've got mail: How CEOs connect with employees
Wipro founder Azim Premji, in his New Year letter, asked employees to find common ground and increase their commitment to others and to values to guide their actions in 2017.Brinda Sarkar | ET Bureau | January 13, 2017, 10:16 IST
BENGALURU: Every week at Pepsi-Co India starts with a letter from CEO D Shivakumar to employees. These letters almost unfailingly reach by 8am on Mondays, and on the rare occasion they're delayed, employees wonder what went wrong.
"My letters outline the learnings from the past seven days and summarise my meetings with customers, industry stalwarts and ecosystem partners. I've written more than 150 letters so far," Shivakumar, who joined the company a little over three years ago, told ET.
At Infosys, the country's second biggest IT company, CEO Vishal Sikka writes regularly to employees. In his New Year letter, he stressed the importance of automation and operational excellence. He also warned against a "lackadaisical" attitude towards greater value creation. "The letters we receive from our CEO have a dual purpose: they not only summarise key events for the company, but they're also a great medium for him to reinforce his thoughts," said an Infosys employee who requested anonymity. "Sikka's letters are a great way for us to know the focus areas going ahead and very inspirational in the framing of his vision for the company."
Company leaders are turning to their keyboards many times during the year to communicate directly with their employees, not just on occasions, but also when they need to drive home certain messages. Internationally, there are many such CEOs. Last November, top Silicon Valley CEOs wrote to their employees after Republican nominee Donald Trump emerged victorious in the US presidential election. eBay's Devin Wenig, Apple's Tim Cook and LinkedIn's Jeff Weiner all wrote letters to address the unrest after the election.
At home, Wipro founder Azim Premji, in his New Year letter, asked employees to find common ground and increase their commitment to others and to values to guide their actions in 2017. When Flipkart-owned Myntra acquired rival Jabong last year, CEO Binny Bansal welcomed Jabong to the group by writing to employees.
Engaging Millennials
Shivakumar's mails are typically about 600 words long. "Millennials don't really want to read extensively long pieces, so I try to keep the letters relevant, authentic and genuine," he said.
Employee engagement at PepsiCo has gone up and Shivakumar said the letters receive a healthy number of replies and comments. "As the corporate world evolves and organisations seek to become agile, chief executives can bridge the gap between themselves and their employees by writing letters. This ensures that employees are better able to connect with their leaders through targeted and relevant communication," said Ray Titus, professor of marketing and strategy at Alliance School of Business in Bengaluru.
At IT company Mindtree, employees receive 15-20 letters annually from CEO Rostow Ravanan. The latest one, sent in the last week of December, announced two awards won by the company and wished employees for the New Year.
"There's always an impression that millennials may not respond well to letters because they have supposedly short attention spans, but I've found that the highest engagement brought about by my letters has been from our youngest employees, who're always the quickest to respond," said Ravanan.
CEOs need to communicate as regularly as possible with employees, said Pallavi Jha, managing director at Dale Carnegie Training India in Mumbai. "Employees want to understand what's going on in a leader's head and letters can be very motivating."
Any organisation, if it is to succeed, must have employees closely aligned with its values and vision -and CEOs' letters are a great way to achieve that, said Mervyn Raphael, managing director of global human resource management consulting firm People Business in Bengaluru.
"Leaders do need to make deeper and more meaningful gestures to create a significant connect with employees. Regular town-halls, webcasts and meeting with selected employees while visiting different locations are good ways to achieve this. Finally, Twitter is a great way to personally engage with employees, especially millennials, who appreciate direct contact with leadership," said Raphael.
Tags : Strategy & Management, Wipro Limited, Pepsico India Holdings Pvt Ltd, Infosys Limited, Vishal Sikka, PepsiCo, Jabong, Flipkart, D Shivakumar, Binny Bansal, Azim Premji, Mumbai
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