The 25 best employers in India

Aon Hewitt, the global human resource consulting and outsourcing business of Aon Corporation, has announced the results of its 7th Best Employers in India 2011 study.

Aon Hewitt said that 200 companies from various industry segments -- banking and financial services, manufacturing, it, telecom, Hospitality, FMCG and pharmaceuticals -- registered for the study.

The study involved 3 key stages:

1. Data gathering through various diagnostic tools;

2. Onsite Audit (for random sampled organisations); and

3. Judging of companies by a panel of independent judges

A five member panel of judges evaluated 'masked' inputs to select the 25 Aon Hewitt Best Employers in India. The company names were not shared to ensure' blind' judging.

The judges evaluated a wealth of data that provided a 360-degree view on each organization -- view of employees, leaders, as well as insights into its HR practices.

The study received opinions from more than 40,000 employees.

NOTE: Some of the big names do not appear in the list as these companies did not participate in the study.

So which are India's best employers? . . . 

1. Hindustan Unilever Ltd

Hindustan Unilever Ltd is India's biggest fast moving consumer goods company. It's parent company -- Unilever -- has a 52 per cent stake in the Indian operations.

It was ranked as the best employer in India.

Headquartered in Mumbai, the company employs more than 15,000 people directly and provides indirect employment of more than 50,000 people.

Earlier called Hindustan Lever Ltd, the company was rechristened Hindustan Unilever Ltd in June 2007.

Top executives: Nitin Paranjpe (CEO and managing director), Harish Manwani (chairman).

Employees: Over 65,000 direct and indirect employees.

. . . 

2. Aditya Birla Group

Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational headquartered in Mumbai.

The group was ranked as the nation's second best employer.

It has operations spread over 25 countries with interests in metals, cement, fibre, yarn, apparel, chemicals, fertilisers, financial services, telecom, BPO and IT services.

It is a$30 billion conglomerate.

Top executive: Kumar Mangalam Birla (chairman).

Employees (worldwide): 130,600.

. . . 

3. LG Electronics India

LG Electronics is a Korean multinational headquartered in Yeouido, Seoul. It is the parent company of LG Electronics India.

LG is the world's second-largest manufacturer of television sets and third-largest producer of mobile phones.

The study ranked LG Electronics as India's third best employer.

LG India is currently drawing up strategies which will help it become a $10-billion corporation in India by 2015, making it the second largest market after the United States, ahead of even its home market, South Korea.

Top executive (in India): Soon Kwon (managing director).

. . . 

4. Godrej Consumer Products

The Godrej Group was founded in 1897 and is headquartered in Mumbai.

It has interests in real estate, FMCG, industrial engineering, appliances, furniture, security and agri care, with revenues exceeding $2.7 billion.

Godrej Consumer Products was formed in 2001 after the demerger of Godrej Soaps Ltd which has been rechristened Godrej Industries.

Top executive: Adi Godrej (chairman).

Employees: About 10,000.

. . . 

5. Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel is an Indian telecommunications multinational firm. It has operations in 19 countries across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands.

Airtel is the world's fifth largest telecom operator in the world and also India's largest cellular service provider.

Sunil Mittal, chairman of Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel, is the 9th richest Indian and ranks 87th in the world.

Top Executive: Sunil Bharti Mittal (chairman).

Employees: Over 25,000.

. . . 

6. NTPC

NTPC is India's largest power-generating public sector unit, with the government's take in the company at 84.5 per cent.

The power major currently generates 34,194 MW electricity and has plans to ramp up power generation to 75,000 MW over the next six years.

Top executives: Arup Roy Choudhury (chairman and managing director).

Employees: 26,000.

. . . 

7. Becton Dickinson India

Becton Dickinson and Company is a USA-headquartered medical technology and equipment giant.

The products it manufactures include medical devices, high precision instrument systems and reagents.

Top executives: Manoj Gopalakrishna (managing director), E J Ludwig (chairman and CEO, worldwide).

Employees: About 30,000 worldwide.

. . . 

8. Aircel

The Aircel Group began life as a result of an alliance between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia (74% equity) and Apollo Hospital Enterprise Ltd of India (26% equity).

The Aircel Group, formed in 1994, offers mobile services to a vast subscriber base in India. It is India's seventh largest GSM mobile service provider with a subscriber base of over 52 million.

Top executives: Sandip Das (CEO); Gurdeep Singh (COO).

Employees: About 1,000.

. . . 

9. Wipro

Wipro is India's third largest IT company with headquarters in Bengaluru.

Just recently, the IT major realigned its organisational structure to accelerate growth. Wipro started the process earlier this year by deciding on a single chief executive officer instead of the earlier joint model with an aim of creating a 'simpler organisational structure'.

It appointed an insider, T K Kurien, as CEO of the information technology business from February 1. The company has created six strategic business units from the earlier seven.

These are energy and utility; manufacturing and hi-tech; media and telecom; retail, consumer packaged goods, transportation and government; pharmaceutical, healthcare, life sciences and services (pharma and HLS); and finance solutions, which comprises the banking, securities and insurance divisions.

Top executive: Azim Premji (chairman).

Employees: Over 120,000.

. . . 

10. Marriott India

Marriott India is the Indian division of the Marriott International chain of hotels. The US-based chain came to India in 1998. It's first hotel -- Goa Marriott Resort -- came up in 1999. Since then the hotels major has spread to many more cities in India, providing excellent service and top-of-the-line experience for its clientele.

Top executives (worldwide): J W Marriott, Jr (chairman and CEO); William Shaw (vice chairman); Arne Sorenson (president and COO).

Employees (worldwide): Over 155,000.

. . . 

11. Kotak Mahindra

Mumbai-headquartered Kotak Mahindra group is a financial major established in 1985. This year it was ranked as India's 11th best employer.

It was previously known as the Kotak Mahindra Finance Limited, a non-banking financial company.

In February 2003, Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd, the group's flagship company was given the license to carry on banking business by the Reserve Bank of India.

Kotak Mahindra Finance is the first company in the Indian banking history to convert to a bank.

Top executives: K M Gherda (chairman); Uday Kotak (executive vice chairman and managing director).

Employees: Over 20,000.

. . . 

12. Scope International

Scope International Pvt Ltd provides back-office processing services.

The company offers wholesale and consumer banking operations, HR services, finance and accounting services, software development and maintenance, and IT service and helpdesk support services.

Its banking operations comprise transaction processing in the areas of secured and unsecured lending, wealth management, and private banking; and wholesale banking services in trade, payments, credit operations, message centre, payments and securities services, foreign exchange, money markets, fixed income, and derivatives.

Top executive: Edwin Nevis (CEO and group head of banking operations).

Employees: 6,500.

. . . 

13. Dr Reddy's Laboratories

Dr Reddy's Laboratories was founded by Dr K. Anji Reddy in 1984. It is currently India's second largest pharmaceuticals manufacturing company.

Top executives: Anji Reddy (chairman); G V Prasad, CEO.

Employees: About 14,000.

. . . 

14. Whirlpool India

Whirlpool, right from its inception in 1911 as first commercial manufacturer of motorised washers to the current market position of being world's number one manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances, has always set industry milestones and benchmarks.

Its parent company is headquartered at Benton Harbor, Michigan, USA with a global presence in over 170 countries and manufacturing operation in 13 countries with 11 major brand names such as Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Roper, Estate, Bauknecht, Laden and Ignis.

Whirlpool acquired Kelvinator India in 1995 and marked an entry into Indian refrigerator market as well.

Whirlpool is one of the most recognized brand in home appliances in India and holds a market share of over 25 per cent.

Top executive: Arvind Uppal (managing director).

Employees: Over 2,500.

. . . 

15. Maruti Suzuki India

Maruti Suzuki India is the nation's largest car maker, and enjoys a market share of about 45 per cent in the Indian automobile sector.

Top executive: Shinzo Nakanishi, managing director and CEO.

Employees: About 7,000.

. . . 

16. Canon India

Incorporated in 1997, Canon India Pvt Ltd. is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Canon Singapore Pte.Ltd; a world leader in imaging technologies.

Canon has offices in more seven Indian cities. The company sells a large range of digital imaging products, like digitalcopiers, multi-functional peripherals, fax-machines, inkjet and laser printers, scanners, all-in-ones, digital cameras, digital camcorders , dye sub photo printers and multi media projectors semiconductors, card printers, etc.

Top executive: Kensaku Konishi (president and CEO).

Employees: 850.

. . . 

17. Ford India

Ford India is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company.

The auto major's India headquarters are in Chennai. The company is India's sixth largest car maker.

Top executive: Michael Boneham, president and managing director.

Employees: Over 10,000.

. . . 

18. Tata Teleservices Ltd

Tata Teleservices Ltd is a subsidiary of the Tata Group headquartered in Mumbai. It operates under the brand name Tata Indicom.

Japanese telecom giant NTT Docomo bought a 26 per cent stake in Tata Teleservices in November 2008  for $2.7 billion.

The company provides mobile services under three different brand names: Tata Indicom; Tata DoCoMo; and Virgin Mobile.

Top executives: Ratan Tata (chairman); Srinath Narasimhan (managing director).

Employees: Over 34,000.

. . . 

19. MindTree Ltd

MindTree Ltd, headquartered in Bengaluru and New Jersey (USA), is an international information technology consulting company.

It has operations across the world, especially Asia, Europe and the United States.

Top executives: Krishnakumar Natarajan (CEO); Subroto Bagchi, vice chairman; S Janakiraman, president.

Employees: Over 9,500.

. . . 

20. NIIT

NIIT Ltd, a leading global talent development corporation and Asia's largest IT trainer, offers learning and knowledge solutions to over 5 million students across 40 countries.

Rated among India's Business Superbrands 2008, NIIT's individual learning business offerings include industry-endorsed programs for students seeking careers in IT: GNIIT, Edgeineers and Global Net Plus for IT professionals.

NIIT has provided computer-based learning to over 15,000 government and private schools.

Top executives: Rajendra S. Pawar (Chairman), Vijay K Thadani (CEO), P Rajendran (COO).

Employees: Over 4,800.

. . . 

21. Tata Steel

Tata Steel is the world's seventh largest steel company with an annual crude steel production capacity of 31 million tonnes.

It is part of Tata Group. Tata Steel is also India's second-largest and second-most profitable company in private sector. Its largest plant is in Jamshedpur.

Top executives: Ratan Tata (chairman); B Muthuraman (vice chairman); H M Nerurkar (managing director)

Employees: Over 35,000.

. . . 

22. Jubilant Foodworks Ltd

Fast-food operator Jubilant Foodworks Ltd, which runs the Dominos Pizza chain in India, may soon launch Dunkin' Donuts in the country.

Dunkin' Donuts, owned by private-equity firms Carlyle Group, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, is the latest in a series of US restaurant chains to tap into the booming demand for fast food in India.

The Indian fast-food sector is growing at roughly 30 per cent annually as an economy growing at over 8.5 per cent.

Top executive: Ajay Kaul (chief executive officer).

Employees: Over 5,000

. . . 

23. Cognizant Technology Solutions

With 50 global delivery centres, Cognizant combines a unique onsite/offshore IT delivery model infused by a distinct culture of customer satisfaction.

A member of the Nasdaq-100 Index and S&P 500 Index, Cognizant is a Forbes Global 2000 company and a member of the Fortune 1000 and is ranked among the top information technology companies in BusinessWeek's Info Tech 100, Hot Growth and Top 50 Performers listings.

Top executives: Francisco D'Souza (president & chief executive officer); Lakshmi Narayanan (vice chairman).

Employees: over 104,000.

. . . 

24. FirstSource

FirstSource is a provider of business process outsourcing services headquartered in Mumbai.

It provides customised business process management to customers in the banking & financial services, customer services, telecom & media and healthcare sectors.

Its clients include Fortune 500 financial services, telecommunications and healthcare companies.

FirstSource has operations in India, America, Britain and Philippines. It was formerly called ICICI OneSource.

Top executives: Shailesh Mehta (chairman); Ananda Mukerji (vice chairman); Matthew Vallance (managing director and CEO).

Employees: Over 24,000.

. . . 

25. Aegis Ltd

Essar Global Ltd, the parent company of Aegis, is a business corporation with a balanced portfolio of assets in the diverse manufacturing and services sectors of steel, energy, power, communications, shipping ports and logistics, and construction.

Privately owned and professionally managed, Essar has judiciously invested in the commodity, annuity and services business segments. It is a $15 billion group operating from 20 countries.

Key executive: Aparup Sengupta (managing director and global chief executive officer).

Employees: More than 41,000.