Smart Hiring

In this world where there is a dearth of skilled labour, employee attrition rates are rising high and training costs are burgeoning, retaining skilled workers at an optimum cost is a challenge for the Human Resource (HR) managers. As per a research, it costs an average of two and a half times an individual's monthly salary to replace an employee who doesn't work out. The companies know that they have to get their hiring right.

In mid-2000s, Gitanjali Group had made an epochal effort of hiring a bunch of differently-abled people to be a part of the unit. It was not really a choice, but they had little options. As a part of their pilot project, eight disabled people were identified with the help of local NGOs to work at their newly established Hyderabad unit. 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 Mehul Choksi, the company’s chairman and managing director, "and the training and hiring costs pay for themselves quickly as their attrition rate is lower than the other sections." In 2008, Mehul Choksi laid the foundation of Saksham, a CSR initiative, which focused on the empowerment of People with Disabilities (PWD’s) through training and employment. The goal of the project is to create conditions for their rehabilitation and integration into society and also helps the company to meet its business objectives.

Not that it was a unique strategy; 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 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.

Interestingly, there is 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 on a differently-abled candidate, the same comes to Rs 10,000 for an able-bodied candidate. As attrition comes down, they are able to save up to 20 per cent on the training cost. 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.

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. Disabled workers tend to be less distracted and stay more focused on the job.

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.

They have an interesting story to tell and we have a reason to learn how little changes can translate into significant steps towards smart management. Is that what we call Out-of-the-box thinking?