Photo finish

When companies are down in the dumps, they do many innovative things to boost morale. But by any standards, the HR department of Sistema Shyam Teleservices, which operates the MTS brand in India, has displayed unique ingenuity in its efforts to strengthen employee engagement. Sistema is set to lose its telecom licence in January, a fallout of the telecom allocation controversy, which leaves the future of the company’s 3,500 employees in India and Russia in a state of uncertainty. To keep them going while the Supreme Court considers a curative petition the company has filed, Sistema has announced that it would produce a calendar for 2013 with photographs of destinations in India and Russia that employees have taken during the year. Entitled “My MTS Travelogue”, the calendar will display selected pictures by its employees on each of the pages with details of the photographer.