People-centric policies

T Radhakrishna
05 December 2002

Hyderabad: Sierra Atlantic, the fully owned subsidiary of Sierra Atlantic, a Silicon Valley-based application networks company, has come out with an HR Declaration for overall development of the organisation.

Founded in 1993, Sierra Atlantic is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in Chicago, New York, Singapore, Indonesia, and India. Sierra Atlantic has over 275 customers, including Fortune 1000 companies.

Col (Retd) R Gowrishankar, director - training and human resources, shares his views on the company's HR policy in an exclusive interview with T Radhakrishna.

What are the key initiatives taken up by Sierra in effective HR management?
The most important initiative is the HR Declaration. The HR Declaration is the "Corporeal Bible" of Sierra Atlantic and the Centres of Excellence (CoEs). Its main objective is to provide equal learning opportunities for all employees in order to hone their skills, both materially and intellectually.

Sierra believes that HR is at the centre of all CoEs, providing the basic inspiration and motivation spirit for all employees. The declaration places the HR department at par with all other divisions and departments.

In Sierra, there is no such thing as a “first among equals“. All are well and truly equal.