Diwali bonus:   one month salary plus US $200
By Ronan Reeves

‘It’s probably the toughest Diwali in the history of HR industry’ quips one HR Manager. As though retaining employees was not difficult enough, now comes the challenge of making them work on India’s most sought after festival season.

Different companies have adopted a plethora of ways to try and coax employees to sign in on that day.

Convergys, for example, has already announced that employees working on D-day will be compensated twice over; in addition there will also be DJ Party, Pooja, Carnival and a host of on-campus activities.

Infovision employees on the other hand can take a compensatory off in-lieu. But there is a party as well. Just in case you forget…. But only for employees.

Apollo Group of companies is giving various festival coupons in association with leading retail brands so that employees can shop till they drop.

Souvenirs and Sweets are a must default for all the companies it seems. IT parks like Ascendas are hosting special diwali parties for all the companies operating out of their premises.

Infocomm, a Chennai based US Recruitment Company has announced that Diwali placements will be given 5 times the normal incentive.

Irix Solutions is offering a one month salary bonus to all its employees and also offering employees who sign in on the D-Day a USD 200 bonus.

Thought that only the BPO segment was going out of the way to make their employees, it seems that even automotive giants like Maruti is giving 50% of the variable pay of employees as a special Diwali bonus.

Though BPO operations uptimes are driven from the Client side requirements in US and UK, it is a good time to connect with employees, say HR managers.

This Diwali has yet again set a bar for the corporate extravaganza! More the merrier.

Techgoss reporter Vijayashiv adds: “Cognizant has gifted IPods, laptops and other electronic gizmos as Diwali presents to key performers.  TCS and WIPRO have distributed sweets and chocolates to their employees”.

Techgoss contributor Pulkit Sharma reports about Aegis BPO, Hyd diverting some of its Diwali funds towards educating poor children.   They have also allowed NGO Hyderabad Deccan Round Table 189 to sell fire crackers at the Aegis premises to raise funds to upgrade the infrastructure at a local Government school.  Worthy cause indeed.