Here’s how Swiggy has helmed an innovative approach to enhance managerial effectiveness in line with the organisation’s talent management philosophy of being a Sports Team with a Heart.
“The Swiggy’s Way of Managing People is one of the best programs designed for people managers. The problem-solving approach through case studies helped me understand the various nuances of multiple tenets. With the skills I have learned, I am confident that I will be able to troubleshoot various problems with appropriate solutions.” This is what Swiggster Baskaran Gangadharan, General Manager – Food Safety & Quality, has to say about Swiggy’s revamped managerial excellence program. Read on to uncover the journey that shaped Swiggy’s Way of Managing People.
At Swiggy, we believe managers are the captains of their sports teams, striving for a collective win by enabling a culture rooted in merit and care. It takes great managers to create more like them in the future. To make it happen, Swiggy brought about an innovative shift in the best practices to enhance managerial effectiveness across levels. This gave rise to Swiggy’s Way of Managing People (SWMP) – a set of shared goals and behaviours that communicate the desired conduct for all managers within the organisation.
Identifying the best ingredients – The SWMP Recipe
“At Swiggy, we wanted to drive home the fact that managerial excellence isn’t just about managing people. It also involves strengthening domain expertise, having balanced interactions with the team, planning work properly, and setting the right expectations. The SWMP program takes it a step further, crafting a leadership narrative that aligns perfectly with our values and goals. Apart from training managers, we’re also empowering them to become champions of our ethos, making sure their impact is felt in daily work,” says Thomas Henry Mathuranayakam, Head of Learning & Development at Swiggy.
“To establish the principles surrounding overall managerial capabilities, we researched extensively on what the best management and leadership books were saying, what the Millennial workforce wants from their managers, and what would make a manager successful at Swiggy,” adds Thomas.
Arriving at the guiding tenets and behaviours for Swiggy’s managers involved a three-pronged approach backed by detailed industry study and benchmarking. The first step was to conduct an external millennial & Gen Z workforce study to identify the key behaviours that millennials outside Swiggy expect from their managers. This helped in forming the standardised definition of each behaviour under the SWMP framework.
The second part of the research involved identifying the behaviours that Swiggsters seek from their managers. For this, the Learning & Development team conducted focused group discussions across multiple cohorts that involved managers and skip-level managers at Swiggy, the Swiggsters reporting to them, and HR leaders in the organisation.
The third and final element involved gaining more insights into the expectations of millennials & Gen Zs from their managers globally. For this, the team conducted an exhaustive literature review spanning sources such as book references, research papers, and competency frameworks.
After gathering a large volume of observations, we shortlisted the most significant behaviours using appropriate analytical techniques. These behaviours were then summarised under the seven guiding principles of Swiggy’s Way of Managing People. These principles are not only easy to understand, recall, and apply for Swiggy managers at work, but also translate to guiding behaviours beyond work.
Finalising the mix: The Seven Principles
In line with Swiggy’s Sports Team with a Heart philosophy, the seven guiding principles were coined by closely analysing the functioning of teams across sports like cricket, football, and Formula One racing. Let’s have a look at the key traits of successful Swiggy managers.
1. They inspire and motivate their teams by establishing shared and aspirational goals.
Every sports team thrives on a purpose and a desire to win. Managers at Swiggy are expected to align the team’s goals with the organisation’s vision and strategy. They must infuse a sense of purpose by being transparent while tracking and assessing individual goals.
2. They define, communicate, and align their teams to a well-defined roadmap to achieve objectives.
A well-thought-out game plan differentiates successful sports teams from the rest. Similarly, managers must drive alignment by breaking down goals into smaller, manageable tasks, prioritising critical tasks for their teams, and leveraging technology to monitor progress.
3. They encourage their teams to improve and cultivate their unique strengths and skills.
Captains bring the best out of their teams. Following this thought, managers must provide constructive feedback to teams, assign projects that help them grow professionally, and give them the freedom to make decisions.
4. They pause, reflect, and listen actively. They provide constructive feedback, identify potential issues, and make quick decisions to address problems proactively.
In sports, pit stops are short breaks during a game for teams to regroup, recharge, and reform their strategies. Mastering similar pit stops at work, managers must conduct regular check-ins with their teams to review progress, discuss issues openly in team meetings, and use data to make informed decisions.
5. They solve problems within their work streams by providing subject matter expertise, and sharing domain knowledge.
When facing a tough opponent, sports teams need to overcome various obstacles and difficulties on the way. To counter challenges at work, managers must seek diverse perspectives while helping team members identify the root cause of a problem. They must also share technical and domain know-how to resolve challenges.
6. They seamlessly collaborate across teams and stakeholders
The best captains keep their teams together by fostering a supportive environment. Likewise, managers must promote collaboration within the team and with external stakeholders.
7. They prioritise achieving the end goal as it signifies the outcome of a team’s work.
Sports teams do whatever it takes to cross the finish line. They fulfill their ultimate purpose only upon completing a race or match. The final principle guides managers to back their teams, take ownership of results, and remove roadblocks to achieve end outcomes.
What elevates the above principles from good to great is a humane, care-driven, and empathetic touch to each of them. From ensuring the team’s physical, mental, and social well-being to attacking the problem and not the person when things go wrong, these additional attributes allow managers to be objective, grounded, and humble throughout their journeys.
Inspiring managers, instilling behaviours: SWMP Framework in Action
The SWMP framework was introduced by Swiggy’s Head of Human Resources, Girish Menon in October 2023. To allow for a better understanding and absorption of the behaviours associated with all the seven principles, several masterclasses, gamified simulations, and reflection sessions were organised for all eligible managers at Swiggy.
Malini Sengupta, Director of Human Resources at Swiggy, who played a key role in the orchestration of the Managerial Excellence program, shared her insights and observations on the processes and learning interventions that were carried out. “We plugged the Swiggy’s Way of Managing People framework in our traditional ‘Step Up’ and ‘Level Up’ programs for first-time managers and senior-level managers respectively,” says Malini, who along with her team, made sure the program appealed to and was adopted by the eligible Swiggsters.
“These two programs had three masterclasses each which took place once every month. From case studies simulating real-life challenges for managers in business teams like Instamart to adding gamified elements under certain demystifications and reflection circles, the aim was to provide a practical learning experience to managers,” adds Malini.
Owing to Swiggy’s Blended Ways of Working policy, most of the masterclasses and interventions had to be planned online. “Initially, we handled logistics and communication for online sessions. To boost remote engagement and participation, we added sports themes and concepts to our masterclasses. For example, Step Up sessions followed a Formula One-based theme, and Level Up interventions were inspired by a cricket league,” adds Malini.
The curtain raiser for the SWMP launch event featured the former captain of the Indian Women’s Cricket Team, Mithali Raj, who shared her views on SWMP’s seven principles. “Tying it back to Swiggy’s Sports Team with a Heart talent management philosophy, inviting an inspiring personality like Mithali multiplied the value addition in the program because she shared not just her accomplishments as a player, but also the vulnerabilities and failures that she endured throughout her career,” adds Malini.
Through innovative ways of disseminating knowledge, the revamped managerial excellence programs paved the way for encouraging results. “We also rolled out managerial excellence surveys for Swiggsters to rate their managers. The scores from these surveys indicate a significant improvement in their performance. Also, the net promoter scores for feedback on our masterclasses and interventions are on the higher side,” says Malini. “We recently appreciated managers embodying the SWMP principles through the 10X Manager Awards, and they have also shared their achievements on social media,” adds Malini.
Geetha Ramakrishnan, OD & TM expert, shared her observations from the program. “From the dynamics in breakout rooms to the keenness that participants showed in learning from each other, I observed that people love to learn in interactive and practical ways,” says Geetha, who coordinated with the facilitators of the masterclasses to ensure there are practical domain-based challenges shared in each one of them.
Swiggy managers who participated in the masterclasses shared their experiences from the program. “The gamified experience was a huge hit, allowing us to understand all the behaviours and techniques. I was entertained and engaged throughout the sessions,” says Swiggster Susanna Dsouza, Assistant Manager – Product Support.
“The SWMP program has been incredibly beneficial, especially for someone like me who wants to get better at team management and goal setting. It has vastly contributed to my professional growth, and I am sure it will help us collectively achieve our goals more effectively,” says Shivakumar P, Manager – Finance & Accounts.
With a positive response from the initial cohorts of Swiggy’s Way of Managing People program, the focus is now on streamlining and improving it further. “We look forward to forming close-knit groups of managers across diverse business units to allow for peer-to-peer exchange and cross-pollination of ideas and perspectives,” adds Geetha.
“We are also restructuring the surveys to collectively monitor team-wise performance, along with enhancing social learning platforms as a part of the SWMP program. The end goal is to make managers the key promoters of Swiggy’s values and help them become their best version,” says Thomas as he outlines the program’s future scope.
As we move onwards and upwards with this one-of-a-kind initiative for Swiggy managers, we are sure to have countless moments of knowledge coupled with fun. Here’s to always being curious and excited to learn more.
