Jitendra Sharma, the President HR of Wilmar International Shree Renuka Sugars Limited, shares insights in conversation with ET Edge on how to create employee wellness in an organisation.
How do you keep your staff motivated?
We, at SRSL, follow the ‘PEOPLE–FIRST’ approach by adding purpose and meaning to the work, wherein, the culture creates a sense of accountability and responsibility. The HR department is consistently working to nurture the Organisation, to sustain and progress as a meaningful place to work.
We ensure that our employees stay motivated by the following mantras:
Create an environment for employees to excel in their job areas and ensure everyone is provided with proper space and mentoring for growing to the next level.
Encourage employees to be respectful, honest, and supportive and believe in keeping our practices and systems transparent, establishing mutual trust.
Recognize our employees for their excellent performance and design the Benefits, Welfare, and Reward programs in such a way that they feel Contented and develop a deeper connection to the business.
Monitor employee performance regularly, which enables us to see if employees can manage existing responsibilities well and are prepared for taking over bigger roles.
Nurture employees for success and enable them to perform to their best, through continuous learning opportunities including knowledge management.
Train them for additional responsibilities, which in turn, saves our time in hiring new talent while helping employees for role elevation/ promotion readiness. This also helps us in enhancing employee satisfaction and building Organization culture.
Employees are treated and made feel valued, through our consistent actions, primarily by making them aware of the fact, that “We capitalise on our employees — the most important asset of the Organisation.”
How can you build a workplace where people feel appreciated and motivated to do their best work?
A workplace is only as good as its people! Being valued at work increases more than just an employee’s job satisfaction. The influence of recognition and appreciation has a profound impact on the entire organisation.
In order to create a meaningful workplace following essentials need to be in place:
A modern work environment: The Organization should have a Contemporary transparent environment to make the people work with joy and pride.
Express clear Organisation goals: Employees must understand the bigger picture and where they fit into the Organisation.
Setting measurable goals: Goal setting needs to be designed critically so that people are clear on the work, and they understand the vision better and can execute more strongly and feel proud and celebrate their accomplishments.
Recognise great work: Appreciating great work, expressing gratitude, and celebrating the success of employees is the basic requirement for creating a more positive workplace culture.
Celebrate careers: This is not just recognising their number of years of service, but also valuing employees in the workplace with respect to their experience, insight, and expertise they have gained, this encourages them to function at the best of their Potential.
Team cohesiveness: Teamwork is one of the keys to boost employee motivation. Working as a team ensures – everyone feels valuable and plays their part in achieving the team’s collective goal. It also means you can share ideas, solve problems, and plan and achieve together with colleagues.
Employee well-being: Create wellness programs for employee health, which shall help them to stay in a perfect form – mentally and physically, contributing to the success of the Organisation.
Has COVID-19’s effect worn off? Also, can agro-based industries look forward to better times?
COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the way businesses operate in agro-based industries. However, we were fortunate enough to row out of it and march towards excellence. Agri-commodities-based companies observed a disruption, both in demand and supply chain in the market. Now with changing perspectives from the government, the industry looks forward to a new era of growth and opportunity.
