Day 1

Day 1 finished with my tie off, my cuff links in my pocket and a pint of Guinness so that must be a good sign. The day was centred on a number of standard induction presentations, but the most useful meeting was at the end of the day with the guy I am going to be replacing. Understanding exactly what he does has given me a super insight into what the future has in store for me.
We had presentations on the overall company structure, key HR policies, process and quality management (the third session of the day if you can believe that), IT management, Facility Operations and Finance. The Legal and Compliance guys didn’t turn up but I wasn’t too concerned about that.

I was impressed by a number of things including how structured some of the information was; how Wipro tries to keep all employees on the same page via quarterly “in sync” sessions; an international SOS blue card in case of emergency (somehow I just know I’ll be using that at some stage); how client focused the IT department was (they were able to say which key clients were supported in which countries and they even have a group that is focused on responding to client RFPs); how all of the key applications are online; how easy it seems to be to submit expenses; and even an internal website where eligible Indian bachelors can look for a wife (fantastic!).

In general I was struck by how similar things were to Accenture e.g. a portal, a thorough performance management process, a look up tool, the different types of projects that are performed, the focus on training, Office Communicator, key methodologies, a Knowledge Management tool and the supposed flexibility in choosing where your career goes. I was also struck by the fact that 70% of the 100,000 employees are Indian and that there is a concerted drive in Europe to create a localised workforce – moving from a 20/80 split to a 60/40 split in terms of locals compared to Indians; but the most striking thing was when the guy said that they were in the middle of a brand makeover and that they wanted to be considered in the same way as, yes you guessed it, Accenture. The grass is always greener it seems....

Certain things were however a touch disappointing e.g. a rather shabby office in a dingy London suburb; some of the other people in the induction session who seemed desperate to tell everybody they were Dr. This or Dr. That; awful soggy sandwiches and possibly the worst quote of the day from the Operations manager, “there are two fire marshals, one is me and the other is myself” (worse still was the fact that it was only me who picked up on that faux pas).

The next big meeting is with my direct boss on Wednesday so hopefully things will become even clearer after that. Thanks also to those of you who sent text messages or emails today – I really appreciate it.