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Jewellery maker Gitanjali has dramatically cut its recruitment and
training costs by hiring differently-abled people at its Hyderabad
facility
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In today's economy, employers know they have to get their hiring
decisions right. Each hire brings costly and time-consuming tasks of
orientation, training and indoctrination. One bad hire can interrupt a
smooth-running operation and cost a business in more ways than one. Just
the replacement cost can pinch: research shows it costs an average of
two and a half times an individual's salary to replace an employee who
doesn't work out.
So what does a company involved in a business that requires highly skilled artisans do when it is mulling setting up facilities outside its home market? Not only is the market new, the kind of skill-sets the job requires may not be readily available. What if a seemingly good hire becomes a discontented troublemaker? What if the overall team's performance becomes a casualty of high turnover?
These were some of the questions Mumbai-based Gitanjali Group faced when it was looking to step out of its stronghold in Gujarat and explore a new market in Hyderabad in the mid-2000s. What it did was something it hadn't tried before: it decided to hire a bunch of differently-abled people to be part of the unit. While the company was not sure how things will work out in the beginning of its experiment, its decision of hiring such workers has paid off handsomely - the company has reduced employee turnover by 50 per cent and cut down the staff training costs by about 20 per cent over a three-year period. This at very little extra investment. What's more, the company has come to be regarded in its industry as some sort of a front runner in diversity hiring.
How it all began
In 2006, while setting up its eighth jewellery manufacturing unit in Hyderabad, Gitanjali realised that getting skilled diamond cutters and polishers in that region was not going to be a cakewalk. While this southern Indian city is famous for its mastery over the delicate art of pearl drilling, Gujarat is the hub of diamond processing. As a result, Hyderabad had skilled pearl handlers and few diamond artisans. Left with little choice, for next two years, the company spent a bulk of the investment earmarked for the southern sojourn on training local hands in diamond cutting and polishing and making diamond jewellery.
Two years on, the company's chairman and managing director Mehul Choksi was to lay the foundation of Saksham, a CSR initiative, which would eventually turn out to be its best bet in tackling the rankling HR issues of high attrition and higher training costs.
The Group didn't really have a road map to begin with. As part of the pilot project, eight disabled people were identified with the help of local NGOs to work at its Hyderabad unit. The pilot batch, with three people with hearing impairment, started training around January 2008. The result of this programme made the company wonder if the whole model could be scaled up. Says Madhusudhan Reddy, vice-president, HR, Gitanjali Gems, Hyderabad, "We found out that the output of these people was as good as any able-bodied worker." What's more, "people with disabilities are loyal and resilient," adds Choksi, "and the training and hiring costs pay for themselves quickly as their attrition rate is lower than the other sections."
Not that it was a great surprise; it's just that no one at the company had thought about it seriously before. Jewellery making is an art that requires extreme precision but does not require a lot of moving around. The main responsibility is that of concentrating long and hard on the piece at the work table. The company realised that while vision impairment would be a serious handicap for such work, people with disabilities of lower limbs or other problems would have no trouble getting the work done.
There was no pre-requisite in terms of educational qualifications - the company decided it was going to provide skill training over 90 days to take care of all the needs of the job. The age requirement for the trainees was set between 18 and 30 years. Besides a monthly stipend of Rs 1,500, the company offered them food, accommodation and travel expenses during the training period. The trainees were also taken through sessions on personality development. Says Choksi, "Saksham is about capacity building for a sustainable livelihood. The initiative brings these individuals into the mainstream and helps the company meet its business objectives."
The success of the pilot programme gave the company all the cues on scaling up and broad-basing the programme to include other job profiles. By 2010, 110 disabled people had joined the Hyderabad factory filling vacancies for positions like data entry operators, dispatch clerks, quality controllers and hostel wardens. By then, the training period had also been extended - to six months in some cases.
Standardisation was the next step. A group of 10 students was assigned one trainer. A 'buddy system' was put into place to break the ice between the trainee and existing employees. Special interpreters were hired to facilitate communication with hearing impaired trainees.
Interestingly, there's hardly any difference in the cost of training of an able-bodied worker and a differently-abled worker. While Gitanjali spends around Rs 12,000 over 90 days on a differently-abled candidate, the same comes to Rs 10,000 for an able-bodied candidate. "As attrition came down, we were able to save up to 20 per cent on the training cost," says an executive. After completion of the training period, both sets of workers start with a monthly salary of between Rs 4,500 and Rs 6,000 per month (excluding provident fund). The incentive-based pay structure allows an employee to earn more on meeting a daily target of 18 pieces of jewellery.
How it was scaled up
While the upfront investment was a little higher, the extra investment on differently-abled people has fostered great loyalty. Consider this. The Hyderabad factory alone has 1,050 able-bodied and 250 differently-abled people. While the attrition rate in Gitanjali's manufacturing units is about 15 per cent for able-bodied workers, it is less than 2 per cent for differently-abled workers at the Hyderabad unit. Says Reddy, "Disabled workers tend to be less distracted and more focused on the job."
That apart, while absenteeism is as high as 18 per cent among able-bodied workers, the same is less than 2 per cent for differently-abled workers. Also, the loss of man hours is negligible when it comes to the less-privileged workers. "They spend less time on tea breaks and office gossip sessions," says a company executive.
The spirit of competition is soaring at the Hyderabad facility of Gitanjali. "When differently-abled workers become star performers it creates a positive pressure on every worker in the factory to do better," adds Reddy. Gitanjali plans to increase the number of disabled workers at its various facilities to 1,000 in the next five years. "The biggest benefit of an integrated workplace is that all employees now enjoy a more compassionate workplace," says Choksi.
The business world has understood the benefits of out-of-the-box thinking - be it in managing people or products - for a long time because of its single-minded approach to market competitiveness and survival. At least one company in an industry not really known for cutting-edge thinking has figured that hiring for diversity is not just the right thing to do. It is the smart thing to do.
So what does a company involved in a business that requires highly skilled artisans do when it is mulling setting up facilities outside its home market? Not only is the market new, the kind of skill-sets the job requires may not be readily available. What if a seemingly good hire becomes a discontented troublemaker? What if the overall team's performance becomes a casualty of high turnover?
These were some of the questions Mumbai-based Gitanjali Group faced when it was looking to step out of its stronghold in Gujarat and explore a new market in Hyderabad in the mid-2000s. What it did was something it hadn't tried before: it decided to hire a bunch of differently-abled people to be part of the unit. While the company was not sure how things will work out in the beginning of its experiment, its decision of hiring such workers has paid off handsomely - the company has reduced employee turnover by 50 per cent and cut down the staff training costs by about 20 per cent over a three-year period. This at very little extra investment. What's more, the company has come to be regarded in its industry as some sort of a front runner in diversity hiring.
How it all began
In 2006, while setting up its eighth jewellery manufacturing unit in Hyderabad, Gitanjali realised that getting skilled diamond cutters and polishers in that region was not going to be a cakewalk. While this southern Indian city is famous for its mastery over the delicate art of pearl drilling, Gujarat is the hub of diamond processing. As a result, Hyderabad had skilled pearl handlers and few diamond artisans. Left with little choice, for next two years, the company spent a bulk of the investment earmarked for the southern sojourn on training local hands in diamond cutting and polishing and making diamond jewellery.
Two years on, the company's chairman and managing director Mehul Choksi was to lay the foundation of Saksham, a CSR initiative, which would eventually turn out to be its best bet in tackling the rankling HR issues of high attrition and higher training costs.
The Group didn't really have a road map to begin with. As part of the pilot project, eight disabled people were identified with the help of local NGOs to work at its Hyderabad unit. The pilot batch, with three people with hearing impairment, started training around January 2008. The result of this programme made the company wonder if the whole model could be scaled up. Says Madhusudhan Reddy, vice-president, HR, Gitanjali Gems, Hyderabad, "We found out that the output of these people was as good as any able-bodied worker." What's more, "people with disabilities are loyal and resilient," adds Choksi, "and the training and hiring costs pay for themselves quickly as their attrition rate is lower than the other sections."
Not that it was a great surprise; it's just that no one at the company had thought about it seriously before. Jewellery making is an art that requires extreme precision but does not require a lot of moving around. The main responsibility is that of concentrating long and hard on the piece at the work table. The company realised that while vision impairment would be a serious handicap for such work, people with disabilities of lower limbs or other problems would have no trouble getting the work done.
There was no pre-requisite in terms of educational qualifications - the company decided it was going to provide skill training over 90 days to take care of all the needs of the job. The age requirement for the trainees was set between 18 and 30 years. Besides a monthly stipend of Rs 1,500, the company offered them food, accommodation and travel expenses during the training period. The trainees were also taken through sessions on personality development. Says Choksi, "Saksham is about capacity building for a sustainable livelihood. The initiative brings these individuals into the mainstream and helps the company meet its business objectives."
The success of the pilot programme gave the company all the cues on scaling up and broad-basing the programme to include other job profiles. By 2010, 110 disabled people had joined the Hyderabad factory filling vacancies for positions like data entry operators, dispatch clerks, quality controllers and hostel wardens. By then, the training period had also been extended - to six months in some cases.
Standardisation was the next step. A group of 10 students was assigned one trainer. A 'buddy system' was put into place to break the ice between the trainee and existing employees. Special interpreters were hired to facilitate communication with hearing impaired trainees.
Interestingly, there's hardly any difference in the cost of training of an able-bodied worker and a differently-abled worker. While Gitanjali spends around Rs 12,000 over 90 days on a differently-abled candidate, the same comes to Rs 10,000 for an able-bodied candidate. "As attrition came down, we were able to save up to 20 per cent on the training cost," says an executive. After completion of the training period, both sets of workers start with a monthly salary of between Rs 4,500 and Rs 6,000 per month (excluding provident fund). The incentive-based pay structure allows an employee to earn more on meeting a daily target of 18 pieces of jewellery.
How it was scaled up
While the upfront investment was a little higher, the extra investment on differently-abled people has fostered great loyalty. Consider this. The Hyderabad factory alone has 1,050 able-bodied and 250 differently-abled people. While the attrition rate in Gitanjali's manufacturing units is about 15 per cent for able-bodied workers, it is less than 2 per cent for differently-abled workers at the Hyderabad unit. Says Reddy, "Disabled workers tend to be less distracted and more focused on the job."
That apart, while absenteeism is as high as 18 per cent among able-bodied workers, the same is less than 2 per cent for differently-abled workers. Also, the loss of man hours is negligible when it comes to the less-privileged workers. "They spend less time on tea breaks and office gossip sessions," says a company executive.
The spirit of competition is soaring at the Hyderabad facility of Gitanjali. "When differently-abled workers become star performers it creates a positive pressure on every worker in the factory to do better," adds Reddy. Gitanjali plans to increase the number of disabled workers at its various facilities to 1,000 in the next five years. "The biggest benefit of an integrated workplace is that all employees now enjoy a more compassionate workplace," says Choksi.
The business world has understood the benefits of out-of-the-box thinking - be it in managing people or products - for a long time because of its single-minded approach to market competitiveness and survival. At least one company in an industry not really known for cutting-edge thinking has figured that hiring for diversity is not just the right thing to do. It is the smart thing to do.
ROOM FOR ALL
The service industry seems to be at the forefront when it comes to employing the differently-abled
The service industry seems to be at the forefront when it comes to employing the differently-abled
-
Cafe Coffee Day has been hiring hearing impaired candidates as
brewmasters in Bangalore since 2005. Till date, 150 people have been
recruited
-
Costa Coffee employs 100 hearing impaired people across its stores in
India. It plans to have at least three such employees in every store in
two years
-
In India, BPO company Aegis has employed 376 people with disabilities- 1.4% of its Indian workforce
-
Over 6% of the workforce at Lemon Tree Hotels comprises people with
disabilities. It plans to increase this figure to 10 per cent (250
people in all) by FY14 end.
Source : Business Standard , 15th July 2013
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