What makes for a good workplace in India? | Top firms and HR heads share best practices and pointers

Discover how companies in India are addressing toxic workplace culture and prioritising employee well-being for better productivity.

When Neela Badami moved back to her hometown Bengaluru in 2009 and interviewed with a law firm, she had one question for them: “Is this the kind of job that will allow me to go to the gym every day?”

The answer was yes and Badami came home to colleagues who understood that there was life beyond the office.

“In big law, I could not even say good morning when I walked in to the office,” she recalls. “It was almost as if, if you were happy and cheerful you didn’t have enough work. Everyone had their stressed face on by 9 a.m.” Badami says her company continues to draw “boomerang” employees or those disillusioned by the practices of bigger firms.

A searing last-days account by a grief-stricken mother recently revived the conversation around toxic workplace culture. After her 26-year-old daughter Anna Sebastian Perayil died due to work stress, Anita Augustine urged Ernst & Young chairman Rajiv Memani to reflect on the work culture in his firm. “Anna would return to her room utterly exhausted, sometimes collapsing on the bed without even changing her clothes, only to be bombarded with messages asking for more reports,” Augustine wrote in a widely-shared letter, narrating the life of an overworked, overburdened employee.

One junior Ernst & Young employee told me that after Perayil’s death, managers had “eased up a bit” and scheduled calls to “assess our well-being”, but that’s exactly the kind of knee-jerk reaction that companies with good work practices will tell you they strive to avoid. The 2024 Gallup State of the Global Workplace report reveals that 86% of Indians feel they are either “struggling” or “suffering”. The survey finds nearly half the workforce is “not engaged”.

That a happy employee is a productive employee is borne out by reams of research, and the efforts of some to question the efficacy and effectiveness of 70-hour work weeks, floated by a handful of corporate idols as the Indian ideal. Toxic workplaces may increasingly be the norm, but some companies stand out for the efforts they make towards employee welfare.

At LinkedIn India, Susan Mathew, director-human resources, describes an annual year-end shutdown that stretches from Christmas to New Year, offering employees the chance to “fully switch off and reset”. The company’s ‘PerkUp!’ programme allows employees the flexibility to use their allowances on anything from elder care and pet care to house cleaning and student-loan repayments. Other initiatives include a fortnightly dialogue with leadership and a day every month when people can team up to focus on personal passions, learning or community service.