Mastek's signature practices have evolved and customised over the years to meet changing business and people expectations. Yet they continue to manifest the core values of Mastek. It is these core values that form the bedrock on which Mastek as an institution stands.

Let us walk you through some of Mastek’s key practices that differentiate us from most other IT companies.

The Annual Run Time

The Annual Run Time is a Mastek institution, when Mastekeers and their families to get together in an informal environment. All of them -- from the highest to the lowest level in the hierarchy -- participate jointly in this event! This event is a reflection of the value of teamwork.

The logistics for the huge event and the management are all done by cross-functional teams, and there is a festive atmosphere at all offices one month ahead of Run Time.

The participation of families is to build long-term relationships, which we value at Mastek. It's our way of showing our appreciation for the support the families provide to Mastekeers when they put in long hours to deliver projects.

Buzz At Mastek

Mastek reinforced its open culture by allowing employees to express themselves on a wide variety of topics through Buzz At Mastek, an interactive tool on the intranet where employees can have a dialogue with one another. This is perhaps the only one-of-its-kind 'unmoderated forum' provided to employees. Mastekeers have used this tool to make their voice heard on several subjects.

Buzz at Mastek is not restricted to the intranet alone. The concept has been extended to the Quarterly Meeting in the form of 'Buzz with Leadership' panel discussions, where senior leaders chat with Mastekeers.

The initiative has received a great response from employees, and many policy decisions have been taken based on the feedback received from this tool.

Anytime Promotions

Mastek has introduced a new system of promotions, under which employees can seek their own promotions. Employees can be promoted any time during the year if they meet the eligibility criteria.

What is unique about the system is that employees are encouraged to take responsibility for their own promotions. Employees seeking promotion have to present their case to a promotion committee, comprising the immediate manager, reviewer and two other managers.

The deeper message of this initiative is 'Take charge of your life'. You decide your goals, you take a call when you feel you have reached them and you present your case.

Manager Assessment

As part of the appraisal ratings for project managers, the HR team assesses them in terms of the people processes they use to manage and administer their teams. They are reviewed on a number of parameters including meeting HR related timelines for the work required of them that will benefit their team members, as well as attrition management. This makes them accountable and ensures the proper management of their teams.

Design School

Design School is focused on building "Design Thinking" capability within the organisation. To face constant business changes and challenges - mergers, outsourcing, new distribution models, new product innovation, opposing demands of increasing value for all stakeholders and still keeping cost as low as possible - current working models of "learning once and keep doing many times" will not work. What is required is ability to think in a new way and still deliver solutions that are pragmatic, implementable and deliver the desired results.

Design School plays two major roles in the organisation. First, that of an Innovation Lab that is focused on facing market challenges and building solutions and knowledge assets to address these challenges. The Lab works closely with the customer in the form of consulting or pre-sales engagement. This helps us to stay realistic and connected to market.

The second role of design school is the diffusion of this knowledge. Multiple intervention models are designed for this. This involves conducting courses such as:

    * Graduate programs for junior designers / business analysts to develop solution architecting and business analysis capability

    * Executive programs for senior architects to develop consulting and deep client engagement capabilities

    * Several introductory workshops in open forum format for general Mastekeers.

We provide support to project teams with a focus on developing capabilities in team members in area of high end solution architecture.

We also built and continue to sponsor first Pan India Solutions Community. This community helps us to deepen our industry collaboration and provides platform for solution architects/business analysts across the industry to learn from each other.