B2E : Business to Employee, The recent buzz word

The latest, addition to the glossary of new economy terms is B2E and what is it? B2E is business-to-employee, an approach in which the focus of business is the employee, rather than the consumer (as it is in business-to-consumer, or B2C) or other businesses (as it is in business-to-business, or B2B). The B2E approach grew out of the ongoing shortage of information technology (IT) workers. In a broad sense, B2E encompasses everything that businesses do to attract and retain well-qualified staff in a competitive market, such as aggressive recruiting tactics, benefits, education opportunities, flexible hours, bonuses, and employee empowerment strategies.

It is about Business to Employee, with the former empowering the latter with the help of technology like Intranet. Bijay Sahoo, General Manager, HR, Wipro Technologies and Hema Ravichander, Senior Vice-president, HR, Infosys shed more light on this at the E-HR conference organised by the Bangalore chapter of NHRD, on Nov 1-3, 2011.

For a similar reason, the HR functions in Infosys was also globalized. Hema pointed out that the HR had to globalize, scale up and handle employees who wanted more information about the organisation and beyond. She said, "People are critical to any organisation and if they are well informed they are happy and happy employees are the best brand ambassadors of the company."

The Wipro Intranet, "Channel W" bonds 9500 Wiproites across the globe. It addresses all the areas that an employee needs - community, collaboration and care. The portal has affinity clubs, message boards, chat, Intranet search, personalisation engine and even a space for Wiproites to buy and sell stuff. It however is not just for fun alone. As a knowledge-intensive company, which is growing at a rapid pace, it knows it must use the technology to manage and share this knowledge. The portal provides a framework that encourages and facilitates Knowledge Management. One section of Channel W is devoted to internal corporate communication, white papers, articles and knowledge and idea sharing.

"Cafe HR" intranet where Maxites reach the HR spoke regarding their leaves, salary processes, message boards, news boards etc in Max New York Life.

"Sparsh", the Intranet where Infoscions get in touch with other, answers all FAQ's on income tax, company policies or security. "An employee can easily navigate to other department portals for information on training or leadership programs without as much as moving out of his cubicle", Hema said. There is also help available online to learn how to do things in the company. The 'Employee Data Sheet' allows the employee to update his personal information online. The 'Request Tracker' is an application where an employee can request for information or service. 'Connect Infy' is a referral-hiring scheme, which allows the employee to refer a candidate who he knows will fit the role.

Highlighting the benefits of an employee portal, Hema said portals were a big source of Knowledge dispersion. Bijay noted that, "A portal can provide employee self-service solution, act as a binding force across various HR initiatives and result in a clear, orchestrated and powerful HR strategy."

For the third time in four years accounting firm KPMG has topped this year's list of the 20 best big companies to work for. Whoever thought being an accountant was mind numbingly dull might want to think again. The People's man of KPMG shares his views on various employee engagement initiatives like locational transfer policy, extended maternity leaves, continuous learning programmes, round the year technical and non technical training programs. It seems that working for one of the Big four firms, that includes Pricewaterhouse Coopers (dropping five places to number 11 in the list), Deloitte (number nine, up three from 2008) and Ernst & Young (fails to make an appearance), you could well be one of the 73% of employees who find their work stimulating, or who feel empowered and taken seriously.

In his concluding remarks, Bijay further espoused the advantages of the B2E initiatives. He said, "Since the focus of HR has shifted from administrative to value added services, the B2E portals aid HR executives of the company to be available to employees and strategise. It reduces operating costs, improves awareness, employee feedback and communication". Hema, however pointed out that, "IT should enable HR, but HR should not lose it’s human face."