What makes a best employer

The first class or 2 session talked about “What makes a best employer “
Major insights and learning.
Best employers are not necessarily the best pay masters but they meet other important requirements of an employee which is aligned with their overall business strategy, the need of ownership (discussing the financial goals with the employees), the intellectual needs (continuously engaging, rotating and upgrading the quality of work and skills), the culture fit and the job fit, the need of innovation and social networking. That’s why these days the companies sell to their prospective talent by highlighting the work-life balance because at the end of the day a happy employee is a productive employee. It has been proven that such endeavors/tools result in brand enhancement and improvement in financial performance eventually.
It is easier for a best employer to attract and retain best talent and there by reducing recruitment costs.
Employee referral is used to
1> give more reasons to the employee to stay in the company and create a social ecosystem and 2 > to bypass placement agencies services and their fees.
Likewise flexi-work arrangement or work from home option is the need of the hour because 1> It allows employees to take a break and do other imp works at home and thus creates a sense of responsibility which is mutually beneficial 2> saves on costs – a company with 100 employees may just needs seating space for 60-70 employees if on an average 30 employees work from home.
The video – talked about a product design company and their culture. Quality of work, job-fit and company’s culture has to do a lot with the inner motivation of employees and determines the
success of a company in long run. IDEO used to promote the idea of be yourself, don’t follow any set rules and standards, be wild and weird and listen to employee needs. "You do and ask for forgiveness rather than ask for permission and run the risk of not doing it."

The Hewitt survey "Best Employers in Asia Survey" can be found here
http://www.hewittassociates.com/Intl/AP/en-AP/Default.aspx

For some more reasons Great Place to Work institute is a good source.
http://www.greatplacetowork.com/gptw/index.php

here is the link to IDEO : The website is unbelievably cool
http://www.ideo.com/

Here comes a new course - HBO

Its Monday 1:30 am and we have classes starting at 9:30 am after 1 week break( or 9 days). Time flies at AIM but we have always kept the spirit of AIM on. Whatever the work-load and stress level we ( around 20-25 people ) always find time to relax ( read drinks ) . This week we have a new subject HBO . I am expecting some really good discussion because from the looks of it I can feel that more no of people will find it within their comfort zone.
I ll be posting my class experiences and other links and important materials which I feel could be pertinent to the classroom discussion or act as a source of research for my fellow classmates. Lets see.
I have also added an image which I found very touching.