|
WORKCULTURE:
Nucleus Software Exports
“We
are blessed with a very supportive top management who take care
of every HR need and participate in all HR activities, so that an
employee has an enriching and memorable experience with the company,”
says Mita Ray Brahma, Head-corporate HRD, Nucleus Software Exports.
These words are pointer enough to the people-centric spirit of the
company, where the concern shown and contribution made by the top
management is a driving force.
Established
in 1986, the core business focus of the company has been the banking
and financial services sector. Nucleus is involved in providing
innovative and pioneering products and customised software solutions
for the last 14 years. These solutions are for retail banking systems,
credit card systems, relationship banking, telephone banking, customer
activated service terminals, ATM networks and personalised sales
and marketing systems. With offices set up in India, USA, Japan
and Singapore, the company has also in recent times expanded its
marketing operations to Canada, Africa, Gulf and other SAARC countries.
Nucleus has offshore development centres at Chennai, Bangalore and
Singapore. After conducting business worth Rs 39 crore last year,
the company plans to close its books at Rs 70 crore in this financial
year. “From consultancy and services to the creation of innovative
solutions, the transformation of Nucleus Software into a products
company, has been a deliberate and much thought-out process,”
says Brahma. According to her, it has been however a smooth progression.
“With
a dream to become a dependable world-class organisation, the company
believes in fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship through individual
development. There is a continuous effort to be a trustworthy, customer-oriented
organisation and provide an open and warm environment where everyone
is respected, given a patient hearing, encouraged to excel and actively
create and explore opportunities for the growth of our customers
and our organisation,” she adds.
To
make this vision a reality there is a lot of emphasis on commitments,
ethics, family values and making HR as the prime concern area. Brahma
points out that since beginning the company had a belief that it
is not the magnitude of investments and the number of years of existence,
which make an organisation a success story, but, the “people”
who dream about reaching new horizons.
 To
ensure direct communication, employees can give their suggestions
through the suggestion box, the Nucleus magazine, etc. Brahma informs
that expansion of business has also led to many challenges in terms
of communication, which the company plans to solve by making the
best use of web and video-conferencing facilities. “As the
HR department has to continuously work towards establishing a perfect
synchronisation between various departments and also spread the
company’s values across the organisation, our effort is to
make the best use of technology for a smoother information flow,”
she says.
The
company is very proud of its internal communication, which is mostly
done online, with each department having their own separate e-groups.
Presently, there are 15 e-groups. For quality processes Nucleus
had initiated the Software Quality Program last year and plans to
achieve the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) level 3 certification
in this quarter.
Recently,
the company conducted a day-long workshop in which each individual
was asked to define their understanding of the company’s vision.
“We realised that though we had joined at different times and
came from different places, each of us were in line with the company’s
vision,” says Brahma. On account of the low average age of
their employees, the focus of the HR department is more on training
and personal development. The company generally prefers to take
engineers or MCAs, with an experience in the banking and finance
industry.
Another
core strength of Nucleus is their training expertise. They recently
started ‘train the trainer program’, which looks into
the criticalities of providing training by these trainers and is
an in-house affair. Brahma says that this acts as a means of encouraging
the spirit of entrepreneurship among the employees, as these trainers
could be having just one to two years of experience.
 It
is understood that this program is popular with the employees and
has helped in bringing them much closer. Another program on these
lines is CAPS (Communication, Assertiveness and Presentation Skills)
and is used by Nucleus to help the business development team gain
expertise in presentation skills required to handle clients.
To
take care of the career and personal development of the employees,
Nucleus has recently started the ‘Personal Development program’,
which it plans to run on a six monthly basis with the group meeting
every two months. Meant for project managers and project leaders,
the vision of this program is to help them learn and examine their
leadership style and acquire good people management skills. The
program is conducted by an external faculty.
The
company gives awards to encourage achievers. These awards are—‘Professional
excellence award’, ‘Rookie of the year’, ‘Customer
delight award’, ‘Service and Technical Excellence award’,
‘Trail blazer award’ and the ‘Best Debut of the year’.
However, ‘Nucleite of the month’, is the most coveted
prize.
“The
purpose of these awards is to enhance the capabilities of Nucleites
who show sustained high performance with Nucleus, and are a role
model to the younger lot,” says Brahma.
Besides
this, the company also lays a lot of emphasis on curricular activities,
which according to Brahma, have become a part of life and helps
in the overall development of an individual, besides enthusing a
‘bond’ within the organisation. So, there are lot of group
activities, Nucclub Activities, get-togethers, freak-outs, movie
shows or parties to energise the spirit of all Nucleites!
|
