GHCL has been recognized as a ‘Great Place to Work- Certified Company’ by the Great Place to Work Institute.What makes it a great company? Rajesh Tripathi, VP & Head-HR, GHCL shares his thoughts about the strategy behind it and more

GHCL has been recognized as a ‘Great Place to Work- Certified Company’ by the Great Place to Work Institute. What has been the strategy?

GHCL is creating a niche place for itself in the market; and can be witnessed by the accolades in the recent past which stands at its epitome. “The Great Place to Work” certification added an unprecedented and phenomenal accreditation to our work environment.

As a company, we ponder about traits which keep our employees happy which would be a complex mix of vision, values, culture and strategy. By putting core values at the forefront we shifted our focus from looking at employees not as resource but as a human first and invest more on spiritual, psychological, emotional and physical fundamental needs. This makes employees self-sufficient to bring in the best of them to work every day. Our prime focus remains on continual improvement of trust, respect, compensation, camaraderie, internal communication, training, and diversity.

What can be done to bring parity in employee appreciation and make them feel comfortable in the workplace?

Our belief system promotes "Let the Ideas Trump Seniority". The office culture is designed in a way that individuals feels that the organization cares about them and wants them to thrive, be it a meeting room or lunch time gathering at the canteen premises. This sentiment of parity is felt across the board and communicates loud about the transparency as desired by employees. Organization has required policies in place for employee appreciation which ranges from on the spot awards to exemplary awards irrespective of hierarchy.

What are you hiring intentions? What are the areas you looking to hire from?

It is only through continuous innovations in our products, technologies and services that we can keep up with the momentum of growth & success. Hence, we have taken a giant leap towards building a great team through “Right people at Right Place”. We are continuously hiring people and strengthening our talent bandwidth. As GHCL operates in heavy chemicals, textiles and consumer durables sector our major focus would be to tap best of the best talent in these domains. The hiring process will be online in the coming months.

Job market across different sectors and places is looking low? When do you see it improving?

As per Monster Employment Index 2017 report, manufacturing  sector (down 23%) has recorded the steepest year-on-year decline in 2017.Taking an in-depth insights into employment conditions, skills in demand, sector trends and salary benchmarks for set industries the sluggishness towards recruitment can be perceived taking in account the ongoing global slowdown compounded by talent scarcity for niche skills & competencies. This reiterates the need for upskilling amongst talent pool to remain relevant and agile amidst changing business landscape. Let's be hopeful as the plunge seems to be temporary and should soon revive.

Are there any disruptive HR policies that you have recently adopted? What has been done for employee welfare?

Culture is by far the biggest sustainable advantage an organization can have in a business today, because it is near to impossible to replicate or imitate. GHCL feels that the policies that we have in place are very employee friendly and provides an environment for employees to thrive & flourish. We have re-engineered our approach towards policy making. We bring in quick policy changes whenever we see a need and scope for it. GHCL has very effective and robust policies including health insurance, accidental death, leave, higher education, advance loan system, car lease, club memberships, flexi working hours, training of your choice and financial planning education.

How do you keep employees engaged, and keep employee morale high when the hiring is low?

It is significant to keep our employees mind de-cluttered and free from distractions. We hold leaders & managers responsible as well as accountable for treating our employees with utmost respect and care at all times. We also encourage them to regularly recognize significant contributions employees make.

We make sure our talents are geared well to take up the opportunities coming their way through on-the-job training programs and taking up cross functional projects and reinforce them with proper mentoring and coaching. We have created an environment that encourages our employees to focus on their most important priorities without interruption, including long-term projects and more strategic and creative thinking. We believe it’s worth an organisations time to make this kind of investment in our people.