The best way to understand the work we do and the way we do it is to speak to some of our clients and we would be pleased to organise this for you. The next best option is to read the sample client stories that follow:

	Using a qualitative employee sensing study to understand what employees really want
	Undertaking a diagnostic study to bring about a cultural shift in one of the divisions of a large multi-national Manufacturing organization.
	Communication of values across the organization through extensive workshops for a e-publishing company

Using a qualitative employee sensing study to understand what employees really want

Context:

One of the business verticals of India’s top IT services firm had been conducting employee surveys regularly. However, the leaders felt that they needed much greater insight about what exactly employees were saying in the survey than what was available from the survey report.

Design:

Given the limitations of traditional surveys, totus consulting with extensive expertise in applying qualitative research techniques to employee sensing worked with the organisation in conceptualising, designing and launching a qualitative employee sensing exercise covering employees across levels. The survey used focus group discussions and in-depth interviews.

Read along with the traditional surveys, the qualitative sensing exercise helped the organisation not only to validate areas of concerns but also help identify areas of strength. This led to identification of meaningful strategies that could help enhance engagement levels.

Impact:

totus brought significant value to the engagement through:

	proven expertise in interpreting employee views and opinions
	applying insights from ongoing research into the macro HR challenges impacting the industry and
	a deep understanding of HR systems and processes

Undertaking a diagnostic study to bring about a cultural shift in one of the divisions of a large multi-national Manufacturing organization

Context:

The business leaders of one of the Divisions of a large multi-national Manufacturing organisation were concerned about the reactive approach to employee relations at the site. The lack of appreciation for the need for flexibility among the workmen and union leaders especially in long term settlement discussions was certainly a cause for worry in planning for the future. The Business Leaders saw this as an indication of lack of alignment and buy-in for the Organisation’s ambition among the workmen and Union representatives.

totus was invited to undertake a diagnostic study and help bring about a cultural shift.

Design:

The specific deliverables of this engagement were to validate the Mission of the Company and evolve a roadmap to get there through a series of workshops.

A Future Search Community consisting of about 43 members was created and their role was to be fully involved in every aspect of this Future Search effort.

The entire initiative consisted of 4 phases:

The Discovery Phase

totus conducted indepth interviews with about 51 members including 46 members of the Future Search community and 5 members of the Union Committee. These interviews helped to clearly understand their current level of thinking and their perception about current reality as well as the efforts needed to achieve the Mission or Ambition as the organisation called it.

totus also invited Business Leaders and practitioners from other organisations to share their insight and experiences about similar change situations. This was meant to help enhance the awareness levels of the Future Search Community.

The Dream Phase

In this stage, the participants arrived at the strategic initiatives that the organisation will need to work on in order to achieve the Ambition.

The Design Phase

Once the strategic initiatives were identified, participants envisioned the way in which the results in each initiative would be evident and measurable and came up with the measures of success for each of the strategic initiative areas.

The Action Phase

The last phase of the workshop focused on the immediate Actions that needed to be taken to start working towards accomplishing these initiatives.

Impact:

Through a rigorous and comprehensive process, the initiative helped build buy-in for the organisation’s Mission and got the entire organisation rallied around it. The engagement also helped concretise specific actions that would help the organisation achieve the Mission.

Communication of values across the organization through extensive workshops for a e-publishing company

Context:

This e-publishing Company set up over eleven years ago has grown to over thousand employees. The founders were concerned that as the organisation grew in size, the values and culture that had helped get the organisation to this level were not being shared by the newer breed of employees. While in the earlier years these values were imbibed informally, with a larger workforce, it was felt that there is a need to communicate the values to employees. This was the context of the engagement.

Process:

totus first undertook extensive fieldwork to identify and articulate the Values that were so intrinsic to the organisation. Based on this fieldwork we came up with five values defined as behaviours. The five values were captured in a framework called the Panchasilas (5 habits).

To communicate the Values across the organisation, totus designed a very innovative format of workshops called the Panchasila Express. Played as a game for two and a half hours, the program used fun as a means of learning the values. A room was made to resemble a Railway Station with all the props and the five values were five stations that the train would have to successfully go through to complete the journey. A group of internal trainers were trained and over a period of four months in successive batches of thirty every single employee of the organisation was inducted into the Integral Way of Life – the Panchasilas.

Impact:

This initiative helped the organisation communicate its values very effectively and rally the whole organisation around the Panchasilas.