AGNITY Global, Inc.
Fremont, CA
Grade: A+
Summary: A great tech culture which shows the value placed on workers from training to empowerment, excellent corporate vision communications, perks and solid worker communications. |
Intro: The value proposition for working at the company has to do with getting to work in environments such as hospitals and Tier 1 carriers allowing workers to enhance their skills. In addition, a flexible work environment with a focus on work/life balance is provided – as well as great training, compensation and advancement opportunities. |
Impact statements:
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Advancement Opportunities:
AGNITY believes in creating leaders who are self-motivated, accountable, and responsible. The whole essence of work delegation and accountability helps in developing the required skills at AGNITY. AGNITY provides a sound foundation for anyone aspiring to rise up the growth trajectory. In addition:
AGNITY provides a good platform for people to innovate and take the lead. |
Role and context switching helps in the development of knowledge and expertise. |
Flat, transparent work culture helps to identify the key role players and provide them an opportunity to grow and take ownership. |
The Job Rotation policy is open for all the employees allowing them to explore their area of interest and grow in that field/domain. |
Employees are given on-site opportunities allowing them to get real-world experience. |
Training opportunities: These include product, technology, quality, process, miscellaneous tools, soft-skills, on-site and healthcare. In addition there are the following:
- Technology hour: One topic is picked every week and an expert on this topic transfers knowledge to everyone in the company and drives and moderates the meeting. This way every week employees learn one new technology.
- Product hour: One product is picked every week and an expert on this product discusses with everyone about the product and drives the brain storming discussion. This makes employees aware in depth about the product and also challenges their creativity for product enhancements. Many significant suggestions came though such meetings.
Medical benefits:
- All employees are eligible to take unlimited sick leave.
- They may also take paid Maternity and Paternity leave. Female employees can extend their maternity leave and still be on the AGNITY payroll.
- The medical expense up to a pre-defined limit is reimbursed on the production of medical bills.
- AGNITY also provides insurance coverage to every employee immediately after joining the company.
- AGNITY also offers Medical insurance to its employees. The objective of the Mediclaim Insurance is to compensate the costs incurred due to hospitalization and maternity.
- AGNITY also provides the personal accidental insurance to its employees that takes care of the disability costs and accidental deaths of the employees.
Community service/charitable causes:
Cause |
Organ Donation awareness programs |
Blood donation camps |
Old clothes donations to the needy |
Donations to needy children |
Measuring satisfaction:
Employee surveys |
Manager feedback |
Peer feedback |
HR interaction |
Employee/manager discussion |
Employee/company head discussion |
Email and meetings with management |
Group meetings |
Creative meeting places:
If you like travel to India, you will love these past meeting places:
India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, India |
Best Western Resource Country Club, Gurgaon, India |
Essex Farms, New Delhi |
Stellar Gymkhana Club, Greater Noida, India |
Perks:
- Hot buffet lunch at provided daily at the company facility.
- Free tea, coffee and snack round the clock
- Food vouchers from Shoppers Stop and Sodexho
- Membership of the top restaurants of New Delhi, NCR such as Radisson, Park Royal, Welcome
- Group Hotels, Asia Kitchen, Ancient Barbeque, etc.
Fun:
- Employee Birthdays are celebrated by cutting the cake
- Employees can indulge in different sports activities like carrom board, chess, table tennis,
- Games, tambola, etc.
- Employees can be part of the karaoke club (AgnITarang) and learn to sing
- Employees can participate in the team building exercises
- AGNITY Foundation day is celebrated annually
- Release and cutover celebrations happen very frequently
- Surprise Ice-cream parties happen very frequently
- Family involvement through get-togethers and picnics
- Celebration of all the festivals in the office premises
- Celebration of Women’s day in the office
Collaboration tools:
Altassian Confluence provides a place where all product, project and customer related information is kept in an organized way for quick anytime access from anywhere. As a culture AGNITY recommends to have less email communication and more collaboration and information sharing through confluence. There is a dedicated space on confluence for each product. This page has all user documents related to product, product roadmap, product backlog, product training material etc.
In addition, there is a dedicated page for all the projects with related information such as the project plan, requirement and functional specifications, resource plans etc. Finally, the system allows for training material as well as links to public resources.
Another tool, Jira is used for AGILE project management. Also, the company uses, Test Link for test planning and test management as well as Microsoft SharePoint as well as internal conferencing applications.
How corporate vision is communicated:
- All Hands Meetings: These meetings are conducted regularly and addressed by the CEO/MD of the company. The company vision, policies, customer pipelines, revenues, etc. are conveyed to all the employees at the corporate level.
- Focused Group Meetings: The focused group meetings are also conducted by the MD of the company with his next level of Directors. The MD briefs the Directors/Managers about the company vision and policies. The top level managers get an opportunity to discuss and plan an implementation strategy for achieving the corporate goals.
- Team Meetings: The Engineering Managers and Team Leads also conduct meetings for their teams. The whole objective of these meetings is to create a transparent work environment where the corporate ideology is conveyed to the individual teams. The team members also get an opportunity to brain storm and clarify their queries in these small forums. This helps in bridging the communication gap, if any.
- One to One Meetings: The team leads conduct monthly one-to one meetings with their team members. This enables them to discuss the personal agenda aligned with corporate vision.
- Monthly Newsletters: A monthly newsletter “AGNISENSE” published that has column written by the CEO of the company. The CEO tries to reach the employees through this monthly newsletter.
- Emails: The top management shares the corporate vision and policies by writing mails regularly on the corporate alias.
Team Building:
Scrum meetings |
Project planning |
Code reviews |
Use of collaboration tools |
Mentoring and coaching |
Trainings |
Recreational activities |
Empowering employees:
Empowerment is a key function of leadership. Good leaders always have faith in their employees and empower them to take decisions. At AGNITY, we also follow this approach. Project leads are selected and empowered to take decisions. The roles and responsibilities defined at each level help them to perform their duties and make the best use of the powers given to them. They are allowed to take end to end ownership of the project. They are closely monitored and mentored by their leaders. At the completion of the project, appreciation is also extended to the deserving employees.
Ensuring well-being:
The top level managers are open to hearing the personal problems of the employees. The company values the confidentiality of the information and takes possible measures to help the employees. Special counselling sessions are also conducted for the employees. The company conducts stress management programs, recreational activities, and special talent improvement programs.
- The company takes extra steps to protect the female employees. The female employees are provided late evening cabs and are encouraged to work from home, whenever required.
- Motivational mails are sent by the HR department every day.
- Quality related mails are sent by the TQM team every day.
- Employee birthdays are celebrated in the office and the HR department sends the birthday mail on the corporate alias.
- Health check-ups are done.
Longevity:
Almost all the core members of the management and engineering teams have stayed with the company since its inception.
Closing company statements: AGNITY provides excellent work culture. AGNITY provides freedom, free flow of ideas, and transparency. For the deserving candidates, it provides a platform to:
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