How HCL’s employee-led culture drives innovation and empowerment

India and Sri Lanka have a long history together. This relationship has grown over the years with collaboration and cooperation in the field of development, education, culture, health and now Information Technology. 

Our efforts are focused on creating employment and we plan to establish a very large presence in Sri Lanka. We recently completed our first year milestone in Sri Lanka of 1000 plus employees. 

We are committed to cultivating and preserving a culture of inclusion and connectedness. We can grow and learn better together with a diverse team of employees. 

HCL’s employee-led culture, dubbed ‘Ideapreneurship’, is centered on client success, resulting in a win-win situation for all parties involved. Our Ideapreneurs lead the charge in identifying and implementing solutions and ideas.

Ideapreneurship is the self-sustaining, self-inspired, innovation engine that drives HCL forward. It is a unique innovation culture in which every employee gets the opportunity to ideate, and where these everyday ideas set a new business paradigm. 

Employees at HCL are taking the lead in finding solutions and ideas, and then bringing them to fruition, thanks to ideapreneurship. The foundation for this grass-root, business-driven, customer-focused environment was laid by HCL’s ‘Employees First’ values which collectively enthuse, empower, and encourage employees across the organization to come up with innovative solutions to operational and customer business challenges.  

While technology enables innovation, the ideapreneurs create transformations that bring great value to HCL and our customers. This innovation and collaboration culture has given rise to four key enablers:

Value Portal is a one-of-a-kind grassroots innovation platform that allows employees from all levels of the organization to contribute their ideas. The app collects employee ideas and allows for internal review, approval, and implementation for our customers.

MAD Jam is a critical component of HCL’s innovation engine, recognizing and celebrating outstanding, employee-led customer innovations. It’s a centralized platform for recognizing and celebrating successful business ideas. With over 50,000 unique votes, the platform has grown in popularity and interest within the organization.

The Good Practices Conference provides a powerful platform for demonstrating HCL’s ideapreneurship culture’s power and ensuring institutionalization across practices. Essentially, this conference encourages employees from across HCL to contribute to the company’s business improvement by allowing them to submit suggestions in the form of discussion papers. The shortlisted ideas are shared in an annual conference and the contributors are recognized and rewarded.

Intellectual Property monetization is a one-of-a-kind platform that encourages our ideapreneurs to submit innovative ideas which they believe can be patented. Employees are rewarded at two stages, initially when the patent is filed and again when the patent is granted. 

At HCL, you’re no ordinary employee. Our vibrant culture motivates every employee to rise to the challenge of being an Ideapreneur and allows them to change the business landscape and deliver positive outcomes.

Explore what it is like to work and grow at HCL and experience the pulse that powers our commitment to deliver beyond the contract.
(The writer is Vice President, Enterprise HR, HCL Technologies)