It was my first HARP (Harjai Appreciation and Rewards Programme). When I reached the client site, I met the bright smiling faces of our employee relationship team, which had started from Mumbai early in the morning. They were carrying beautifully framed certificates with them. I saw the citations were different for each employee – some were getting rewarded for their out-of-the-box thinking; others for making a key difference in the project with their technical prowess; and others for showing exceptional team-leading capability. On being asked, I learned that the project manager had selected the winner from his team and had personally written the citation, explaining the reason for choosing him as the winner.
Before the awards ceremony, the ERM (employee relationship manager) team, conducted fun games and quizzes. Everyone participated with full enthusiasm. There was excitement, laughter, and cheers and everyone was relaxed and smiling by the end of it. The winners were smiling ear to ear, jubilant at winning the games/quiz, and holding their prizes proudly.
Then began the HARP awards ceremony. The awards were handed to the employees by their project manager. The bond between the two was evident as they smiled happily posing for the special picture. Their friends clicked the picture for them, ensuring the best phone of their friends’ group was used to click the special picture.
One winner’s project manager was in a meeting, so we suggested he take his award from another, which he did, though his face fell. As we were close to giving the last of the awards, we saw him coming in with his project manager. He requested the award to be presented again by his project manager and happy faces beamed at the camera. It was a special moment. There were those who were receiving awards twice or thrice in a row. The pride was evident in their faces. The client managers also enjoyed the event and mentioned how these events helped the motivation and engagement level of the employees.
HARP is conducted biannually for each client. There are also annual lunches for the employees. This HARP was followed by the annual lunch at Absolut Barbeque. The huge group started happily moving to the lunch venue. This was followed by happy photographs, friendly jokes, and loads of good food. IT had been a wonderful day.
