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Preeti Mehra

The ``Gimme 5'' internal campaign comes with a colourful logo, T-shirts, banners and motivational prizes. It is the company's effort to push forward its five phases in process development to achieve SEI-CMM level 5 certification by July 2004.

New Delhi , Sept. 25

INVITATION cards, customised logos, foyer banners, desktop signage, power-point presentations, T-shirts — no, this is not a brand focussed campaign to woo the customer, but an internal brand building exercise to motivate employees, increase involvement levels, reduce attrition and enhance productivity.

For software development company, Techspan India Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Techspan of the US, internal brand building is as important as keeping clients satisfied.

It is an active HR tool that the company uses for every internal process, including recording hourly time-spent on work, leave accrued, employee resumes, staff sourcing and so on.

The HR division launches its sub brands through eSpan, its `branded' global portal that allows employees access to information even at client sites. The sub brands help in several activities including delivering information, involving staff in recruitment and knowledge gathering.

For instance, take its ``Gimme 5'' internal campaign that comes with a colourful logo, T-shirts, banners and motivational prizes. It is the company's effort to push forward its five phases in process development to achieve SEI-CMM level 5 certification by July 2004. Internal branding is used not just during the good times. In 2000-2001, when the IT industry chips were down, the HR unit launched `Let's Celebrate' to perk up employees and make them realise that even now there was enough to celebrate.

And while other companies may be wary of allowing birds of a feather to flock together, at Techspan its brand `Buddy-gets-Buddy' is designed to help the company meet its large recruitment needs, while saving it hefty recruitment costs. Branded, logo-ed and highly based on incentives, `B-g-B' encourages employees to bring in software professionals similar to themselves in terms of profile, calibre and attitude.

"Thirty-five per cent of employees with us have come through this route. It has reduced our spend to external recruitment consultants and the employee who brings in his buddy gets a B-g-B bonus between Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 or even a TV, VCR, microwave and so on. The biggest advantage is that we get new people in the image we already have, plus we have a 250- strong team looking out for others who fit the company,'' explains the Managing Director, Mr Harsh Singh Lohit, as he emphasises the "power of internal branding" and reels off other internal brands such as the weekly `Tequila Meet' and the `Family Day' that goes beyond the employee to involve his or her family as well.

Techspan, with 500 employees worldwide and 60 per cent of them in India, works in the country from three locations, two in Delhi and one in Bangalore. More than 40 per cent of its $35 million turnover comes from the IT securities business where it works with transport companies, both airline and road.

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