From doing well to doing good

Not only are many Indian companies doing well, they are also emphasising on the all-round development of their employees and their families. The belief now is that productivity and employees’ welfare are two sides of the same coin, says Taru Bahl

The post-World War II corporate scenario saw the emergence of a new model of enterprise. Survival and growth became the two driving factors which made profits and soaring turnovers an obsession. As the competition hotted up and the bottomlines got squeezed, companies were forced to turn a Nelson’s eye to employee welfare, since every penny-pinching initiative would add to their steadily growing net worth and shareholder value. Today, 50 years later, the wheel has turned full circle. It is now suicidal for corporates to ignore employee welfare and exist in that time warp.

The idea of heralding in the new millennium with a work force sans moral values, job loyalty, discipline and pride, is not a profitable thought. Companies now brainstorm on how to add value, structure and crystallise their new philosophies by narrowing down options to the loaded 3 Ps — people, products and profits — in that order. This is why in the last decade - and - a-half, one saw the sudden sprouting of visible resource departments, which identified and implemented strategies that looked good not just on paper but also went down well with the employees.

While most companies saw sense in investing in the skills and technical abilities of their managerial work force, hoping it would ultimately step up productivity and profits, there were others who saw sense in extending welfare schemes to shop-level workers, factory supervisors and the mass of uniformed but faceless non-management cadres.

The Tatas pioneered the concept at Jamshedpur where housing colonies, schools, welfare schemes, family counselling and hospitals brought about a rare camaraderie between the workers and the management. The net result: the Tatas haven’t had any major labour problems, strikes or lockouts since 1958. The Tata example is what inspired P.K. Verma, Executive Director (HR) of one of the biggest producers of tractors in the country, to go that extra step forward and add a compassionate, humane dimension in the lives of the 4,000 plus industrial workers engaged in the company’s five tractor units. "Our objective was not to enhance productivity, or lower absenteeism and control disciplinary problems. We wanted to create a sense of belonging in our workers, a feeling of pride."

What the tractor company has been doing for the last few years in their mother plant at Mohali is to put their workers through a Self-Development Programme. As many as 650 of the 1050 workers have been covered. A 15-day module with 30 participants was worked out. Sessions of two hours each were held on health and personal hygiene, housekeeping, maintenance of domestic and factory equipment/machinery, fire fighting, safety, accident prevention, first aid, family budgeting, post-retirement savings, social evils, moral and ethical values and yoga. Before moving on to the other factories, exhaustive research is going to be undertaken, this time involving families with whose help core areas would be identified for the follow-up programme. Since most workers have already put in 15-20 years of service in the company and have grown-up children, one area which they plan to address is that of vocational and career guidance. Another is the high level of substance abuse which is a cause for concern.

Can a short programme, or a few hours of counselling help cure workers of their ills? Surely, investing 30 hours, even if they be structured quality time, isn’t enough to bring about radical attitudinal or behavioural changes. This then is a sensitisation exercise. When Veena Dutta, a faculty member and ex-Director, Worker Education, Chandigarh, takes her lecture on social evils, she knows that she cannot hope to "cure" all those who are alcohol-dependent, or who are potential throat cancer victims. What she does know is that she can trigger off a spate of introspective feelings which may motivate a person to at least try kicking the habit. She feels, "We all are aware of social ills, yet we perpetuate them. These lectures, in their unobtrusive way, reinforce forgotten messages."

So, when a faculty member talks in a non-judgmental manner, relating incidents to the listeners’ life, something stirs within these hearts, empowering some of them to free themselves of the constricting tentacles of orthodoxy. "When you provoke them to think, talk amongst themselves and share these inputs with families and friends, I think the purpose gets served".

According to Verma, "sessions like ‘Know Your Company’ were particularly relevant since workers were oblivious to what the tractor company was all about,its standing in the market and the fact that they were manufacturing a product which was comparable with the best in the world. The response of the workers made us realise that we should have done something like this much earlier."

Kapil Dev Sharma, general secretary of the workers union, is an articulate English-speaking graduate and is in his third consecutive year as an office-bearer. He finds that the "work atmosphere has become amiable and the workers no longer react to the slightest of provocations. They think, and then act. The talks which mostly drew from emotional stories and examples from real life have touched a chord somewhere. It has had a cooling effect, mellowing much of their rashness."

B.S. Padda, who is an employee in the training department, found himself implementing a number of suggestions. He says, "in most of our homes we live like kings the first week following the pay day. By the time the curtains fall on the last week, we are taking small loans to see us through our dal-roti. The sessions on budgeting gave us practical tips, enabling us to make realistic allocations. Most of us have guided our spouses on maintaining a daily accounts book".

Manjit Singh, who has been with the company for 22 years, said "the programme bridged a gap between the management and the workers. It made us realise that for every small thing we don’t have to route our demands through the union."

But do workers always realise what is in their self-interest? Any exercise like this, howsoever laudatory, meets with scepticism and apprehension, more so when it means putting in extra hours and no tangible benefits (read that as monetary) forthcoming at the end of it. Even at the tractor unit, it was after the third batch that people started coming in without any preconceived notions about the management’s intent. At the Mohali-based wiremeshing production plant, a unique literacy programme found workers taking off on unpredictable jaunts to the village, breaking precious linkages in their own academic progress.

According to Jagjit Singh, general secretary of Mohali Industries Association and managing director of the ISO 9000-awarded wiremeshing company, "seeing our totally illiterate workers now functionally literate has been a thrilling experience. And not having spent a princely sum is what has made the initiative doubly attractive." Although the company had no history of employing uneducated workers, in the period January ‘97-July ‘97, about 35 illiterate persons some how joined the company. "When I discovered this, my first reaction was disbelief and shock since we were supposed to be working on ISO 9000 which has to adhere to certain systems and procedures. Once the fact sunk in, I knew we had to take this on as a mission-centred challenge. Three of our engineers were sent to Panjab University’s Resource Centre for a brief training and orientation programme. This plus the CII’s literacy package helped us put forth a plan which has, after a year, succeeded in setting a group of people on the path of knowledge and learning."

Satnam Singh, manager, administration, and chief facilitator for the literacy programme, says that before learning could commence, the worker-student had to undergo an unlearning process. What is interesting is that in spite of there being no fancy auditoria, teaching aids and other paraphernalia, workers look forward to their daily 50-minute class and eagerly collect little titbits of information to share with their colleagues.

To make sure that this isn’t one of those whimsical measures launched by temperamental company heads, Jagjit Singh has already drawn up action points on his literacy agenda. He feels that the time, effort, manpower and resources spent on this initiative in no way impinges on their performance and output. "If at all, it enthuses us to work that extra hour, walk that extra mile", says an ebullient Satnam. Adds Jagjit Singh: "Our facilitators should be confident of handling additional groups by early next year. That is when I plan to approach neighbouring industrial units to adopt our tried and tested literacy package, and allow us to train some of their people as facilitators. After this we plan to adopt a nearby village and reach out to the uneducated youth. I feel it is by far easier to locate illiteracy in factories and industries and to do something constructive about it. Something, which will make a difference."

It may take time for the workers to grasp the message of their employers in its entirety but once they are convinced that the management has their best interest in mind, they shed their bias and cooperate. Instructions were also sent from the top to the shop-level supervisors and department heads not to detain ‘students’ for work during their classes. Workers vividly narrate parts of the lectures and stories which, if strung together, can easily form an Indian version of the hugely famous Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

There are companies which have strong HR policies extending beyond the confines of the HR and personnel departments, becoming part of the organisational ethos. Jagjeet Kaur, assistant manager, personnel and administration of a large company based in Parwanoo, echoes her company philosophy when she says, "We strongly believe that if you improve the skill of the workers, it helps not just the organisation but society as a whole." With a strong in- house training cell, rest assured the 600-odd workers in the unit find both their professional and personal interests well looked after. Training programmes like those on PC awareness, values, trust, discipline, J-I-T (the Japanese just- in- time credo) help them develop a broader perspective of life. Then community programmes like regular health camps, vocational guidance, family planning and AIDS awareness benefit not just workers and families but also other residents.

To help each worker realise his full potential, both the management and the worker have to synergise. For, organisations by themselves cannot change their values as these are part of its core. Individuals can serve the purpose by bringing together other individuals who can strengthen the company and create a positive culture. And for this, signals from the top must reassure employees down the line that the old- world creed of honesty, hard work and compassion is not yet outdated. This need not be through money-pumping philanthropic initiatives, but by being more transparent, accessible and employee-friendly. Afterall, companies should also have a social conscience.