Sanjeev Dixit-Chief People Officer, ABD SPEAKS
1: As a leader at ABD what are some of the recent initiatives you have taken in making sure that your people remain fully "productive", "engaged" and also boost their morale?
At ABD, we all are driven & inspired by our vision “To be the most admired spirits company”. In order to live our vision in letter & spirit, we have envisioned our People vision “To be most admired Employer” which resonates with our company’s vision. Taking cue from our People vision, we have taken 360 degree & all round initiatives to impact & influence Heart, Head & Soul of our employees so that they admire ABD as one of the most important stakeholder. In order to achieve the same there have been concerted efforts in the last many months & years to provide professionally enriching work environment to our employees which enable swift decision making and give a sense of empowerment to them, we have supported them with transparent & objective people processes and policies in order to enable them to develop self and their team members and facilitated regular communication on our Values oriented behavior so that employees achieve success within ABD by lead by example through demonstrating those behaviors which are in sync with the overall organizational values and goals. We aim to convert the values into behaviour, behaviour into measureable objectives and a sense of pride eventually into admiration.
We strongly believe in the philosophy that “employees come first”. The provision of a conducive work environment where everyone has an opportunity to get value added exposure and learn and develop each one’s potential. These factors are softer issues that bind a company.
In Jan 2010 the ‘Core People Vision’ was designed keeping in mind that the HR function would become a Strategic Business Partner and act as a key contributor to the business growth agenda of the company.
Our focus is on developing three key strategic intents:
Some of the Key initiatives we have initiated since last year include the ABD Future Leader Program for talent pipeline building, ABD Academy for enabling the capability building of all employees in sustainable manner, ABD Value Star non monetary reward & recognition for felicitating values oriented exemplary behavior and LOVE (Living Our Values Everyday) ABD for institutionalizing Values oriented behavior across organization. We believe that these initiatives have a soothing & positive effect on the work environment and enable engagement of employees.
2: Organizations these days are facing high rate of attrition. What steps and policies have you put in place to ensure that the rate of attrition is substantially reduced?
The various initiatives like ABD Academy, ABD Value Star, and ABD Future leader program mentioned above in line with our people vision “To be most admired employer” have gone a long way in reducing attrition. From 22.86% in 2008-09 the overall attrition has come down to 11.4% in 2010-11.There is a real feel good factor across the organization about the positive communication and movement in people engagement and development area, which is also reflected in the kind of companies from where Talent has joined us in the last two years.
The role of HR is similar to doing farming wherein we had first plough the field consisting of old systems & practices and enable the fertile soil to come up which is to leverage the best in the existing systems and seeding new initiatives. This is followed by watering & adding fertilizers with lot of care and genuine communication which is where we helped the employees to focus on their goals and provide them with the necessary resources and work environment to flourish. The seeds are eventually converted to a plant where the employee is confident to get the job done.
We are confident that these initiatives will eventually grow into full fledged self sustainable Trees which will bear fruits of further effective People development and contribution in the business growth in the coming the next 2 years.
3: How ABD is building itself as a promising Employer Brand?
Hiring within the spirits industry has it’s own challenges & opportunities like any other industry.
In the last few years we able to attract good talent from good organizations including blue chip MNCs in FMCG, alcohol beverages, consumer durables etc across levels which suggest that ABD is moving up in the positive perception about itself in the Talent market because of its USPs.
The USPs of ABD which makes it unique is its aggressive and sustained growth, dynamic and talented leadership team, swift and nimble footed decision making work environment and values oriented culture besides being innovative & great marketing organization.
Our Campus hiring program, regular interface with Staffing & learning partners and participation in external HR forums helps in our Employer Brand positioning and reinforcement.
Like every industry even we look for a particular skill set, which can meet our requirements. We have ambitious plans and our looking to grow at a CAGR of 32 percent. We invest in hiring and capability building based on the requisite skill inventory.
We have created an ABD Competency Framework, which serves as our DNA for hiring and competency building. This framework helps us look for specific behaviors’ across functions, which can be measured and observed.
We also undertake several organizations related branding activities that helps position us favorably in the eyes of the talent market. We showcased our good practices & USPs at Asia’s Best Employer Brand awards held in Singapore in July 2011. ABD was the proud recipient of the ‘Best Practices in talent management award’ and ‘Best HR Strategy in line with Business award’.
These awards are testimony that we are heading in the right direction.
4: Apart from material incentives what is the single non-tangible factor, which ensures loyalty of employees towards the organization
It’s our “Living Our Values” in our day-to-day working resulting into very informal, open, friendly work environment where teamwork is alive and kicking. We make sure that we keep the work environment exciting for the employee. There is a positive buzz around due to our growth activities and new brand/products launch. The workforce is charged as they see these new developments & product launches as opportunities to prove them and grow.
While compensation is a hygiene factor, it is not the sole determinant for employee engagement & Talent retention. The key parameters, which ensure long-term employee engagement, are: exposure to learn and grow and a transparent work environment with opportunity to say, be heard and openly communicate.
5: What strategies and policies have you introduced to ensure that there is a smooth complimentary functioning of Gen X and Gen Y?
We have not had any problems between Gen X and Gen Y. We have a lot of newcomers who join us as part of the ABD Future Leader Program and other sources/routes. At ABD we encourage senior managers to coach & mentors their younger professionals & team members. The old employees are respected for their long contribution in the building of the Organization and Gen Y employees for their fresh ideas, new outlook and eagerness to learn and prove themselves.
There is complete free flow in communication and we make sure everyone is accessible to each other easily. Gen Y folks tend to be very energetic, have a shorter attention span and want to achieve more in less time. These attributes need to be addressed non defensively .We make sure we give them the right training and exposure by getting them involved in key meetings and industry forums. The idea is to empower them so that they know that the company values them.
The ultimate approach is to leverage the inherent strengths of both set of employees and maintain a optimum balance of both set of employees in the overall composition.
