In an exclusive interview with BW People, Rajiv Bhalla, Managing Director, Barco India talks about the best organizational strategies, crisis management, employee initiatives and welfare at Barco India.

1. Has your vast experience in various industries helped in making better strategies for your company?

Having worked with technology majors like Microsoft, Intel and NEC, certainly helps in better decision making and building better strategies. Having said that, I believe, every business is different.

My previous experiences have helped me build the right teams and hand-pick the right people from the industry. For me, employee satisfaction is very important as their steady performance is one of the strongest pillars of success for any business. Keeping the team motivated and giving them a sense of direction is ever more critical in today’s competitive day and age.

Hence, at Barco, we have a very clear and focused people strategy. For us, the key to well-being in the workplace is ‘Sustainable employability’. By appreciating and stimulating talent, by encouraging our people to learn and develop themselves, by motivating them and by keeping them healthy – both physically and mentally –, we want them to feel strong, valued and fit. Moreover, we focus on their ability to proactively anticipate change, evolution and trends so they are ready to face the challenges of an ever-changing world – either within or outside our company.

2. What innovative approaches have you adopted for solving problems in your company?

At Barco, we strive to combine our zeal for innovation with a strong focus on execution and a clear commitment to outcome-based solutions. That is the new DNA we are now embracing.

The cornerstone of this ambition is to instill a say-do mentality in our company culture; inspiring our people to ‘do what they say’ and ‘say what they do’.

We aim to make this continual focus on transparency, problem-solving and execution a key element of our collaboration, and of our growth as a company.

This will complement the Barco DNA with a powerful capability to translate innovative ideas into bright outcomes for every Barco stakeholder.
We believe in transforming the way people approach their work. Be it technology implementation for the workforce, engagement activities or enabling a workplace for the future, we are leading the transformation journey for our people. We are focussing on the integration of data metrics, where we can use the data from all sources and analyse them to come up with decisions that can reduce our manual efforts, drive growth and keep our employees satisfied. We also use an inside-out and outside-in approach in evaluating our company’s work Lastly, we are partnering with employees and business leaders to come up with processes and policies that make sense to them.

3. What are the various initiatives that you have undertaken for employee engagement?

At Barco, we believe that there needs to be the right balance between fun and work. To achieve this objective, we created the You+ program which has various activities under it.

* B inspired – Training & personal development

At Barco, we cherish talent and actively help it to grow and flourish. To make sure our people feel happy in their professional roles, we provide them with a series of tools to help them self-manage their careers. Through Barco University, a dedicated training platform, we seek to empower our people, ensuring that they are flexible, agile employees while encouraging them to think about how they want to contribute to our company, today and tomorrow. It includes multiple custom-made programs to help our employees expand their skillsets and foster their potential.

* B engaged – Engaging all employees in the Barco journey

We are all part of the same Barco team – OneBarco – with one mutual goal: achieving operational excellence in order to maintain and strengthen Barco’s global leadership position. That’s why we want everyone to understand and actively contribute to our strategy and vision. We encourage our employees to ask questions, provide feedback, share ideas and become truly involved in our operations.

* B energized – Providing a healthy, safe and energizing workplace

Barco keeps investing in a healthy and safe work environment. Every year, we launch a series of initiatives to energize our employees and improve their mind and body balance. Besides encouraging them to keep healthy and fit, we launched a series of initiatives to promote their psycho-social well-being and offer additional support when required.

4. How do you guide or vision your employees towards achieving organizational goals?

Our employees, apart from focussing on the organizational goals, focus on their own personal performance goals; this helps them to be aligned with their achievements while still being a key contributor to the organizational goals. At Barco, employees don’t compete with each other for the top spot; instead, they take on challenges together to excel in harmony. We motivate our employees to work with an agile yet spontaneous mindset.

We identify those who have the mindset closest to our ideals and enable others to be inspired and follow suit. Alongside that, we are beginning to focus on continuous learning; even the employees working for years are always learning something new every single day.

5. Do you think digital marketing has somehow reduced the cost of marketing and is better?

Digital marketing has certainly changed the way marketers look at communicating about their brand as it enables brands to have the flexibility to put their money where they can get the best ROI of brand equity-building. Digital marketing has helped organizations to target the right customers with the right message, and with great accuracy. That is the reason why from startups to large organizations, digital marketing is becoming the first choice to ensure smarter and effective marketing returns. But it is not just marketers who are getting the advantage of this large base of audience, even hiring managers are getting benefitted. Social media is playing a crucial role in the hiring process today with over 94% of recruiters using LinkedIn to recruit new candidates. 

From helping businesses in boosting their online branding to enhancing the overall hiring experience of the employees, digital marketing is aiding in managing talents in a more structured and result-oriented way. The coming times will see a surge in the usage of new Digital Marketing strategies for HRs in various functions such as finding the best talent available, employee training, employee engagement as well as employee retention.

6. What are the key features or qualities you look for in an employee?

Drive to innovate and to never give up. Over the years, I have seen many different types of employees. Some are driven by their work and see it as the most essential part of their lives. Others are looking for a challenge that can keep them engaged in the mundaneness of life. Most of them are simply looking for a way to define them and establish their image. But the ones that I look for in every employee is the hunger for innovation, ability to challenge status-quo attitude whilst simultaneously driving change In today’s challenging business economy, where the pressure to perform is so high that most people would simply give in, these are the people who would pull up their socks and try every angle possible to come up with solutions. These employees are the backbones of any company and are made to thrive regardless of the situations at hand.

7. Has Barco done anything for the welfare of its employees and especially women?

Today, Barco India employs more than 500 people and we care about every single associate. That is why we work hard to ensure a healthy, safe and motivating workplace where everyone is treated fairly and with respect and where it is fun to work.
In addition to maintaining necessary compliances on POSH, Maternity benefits etc., Barco has also worked on several processes to ensure equal opportunities for both men and women.

* We have a hygienic and safe crèche facility for the children of our employees.

* We conduct special health and wellness sessions for our women employees – like awareness-building sessions on Cervix and Breast cancer, organizing Yoga sessions.

* We celebrate the International Women’s day with fervour every year. Various experience sharing sessions are conducted where women employees share their life experiences and challenges.

We believe in building a workplace where everyone is giving their best and is excited to be at work every day.