Human Resource Management in Sugar

Factory

Sugar Industry – Agro based Industry having 2500 tons crushing capability.Sugarcane – Basic Raw MaterialIndustry location –located in and around Sugarcane Producing regionsHighly Regulated – Politically Sensitive Product – Price regulation in both input and output

Industry Profile

• Sugarcane-crushing season is operational from November to April/May migrate to the lush sugarcane belt.• Contractors/Agents bring labourers in toils or groups. Each toil consists of 30 to 100 labourers.• Factory management makes advance payments to these agents, who in turn give advances to the labourers. Agents get a commission from the wages of the labourers (approx 15%).• A typical migrant household usually earns between Rs. 15,000-25,000 in the migration period ( six months) and cuts 1.5 to 2.5 tons of sugarcane a day.

Industry Profile

• At their native village they do agriculture, labour work, and participate in various drought relief schemes. They avail of the facilities of the Public Distribution System as they all have ration cards. When they migrate, they bring with them bulls, buffaloes, goats, vessels, wood, clothes, grains and some necessary household articles.

• The Labourers are not covered by any insurance scheme.

• Departmentation - basis of functions – Dividing large Functional Organization on the basis of small and flexible administrative units.

• Various Departments are :Production, Purchase, Stores, Administrative, Finance, Accounts, Sales, Engineering, Cane, Power, Distillery.

Organizational Structure

• Admin Office controls and monitors activities of time office, security personnel and personnel dept.

Administrative Department

• Recruitment and Selection – Statutory Obligation - Advertisement of Recruitment via. leading news papers – Appoints trainee through Applications received – Unskilled, Semi Skilled, Skilled Workers – Fulltime and Contract Labourers – Seasonal Production• Equal-Opportunities Employment• Recruitment at Gate• Sugar Industry being a seasonal industry has different staff (non-management cadre) strength during season and off- season. Private company, which is not over-staffed in spite of political pressures and other constraints.

Personnel Department

• Semi/Unskilled and Skilled• Technical, Clerical, Managerial• Sales Executives are mainly from B.com, BBM and MBA• Technical generally are Diploma, ITI, Engineers• Engineers mainly are – Chemical, Mechanical, Production and Electrical• Unskilled – Labourers are mostly seasonal and are on contract basis

Skillset of Employees

• Training Programs and Management Development Programs are conducted to educate the employees and to enable them to discharge their duties with panache and aplomb.• Imparting Skills to new recruits – Necessary in Production, Mechanical and electrical – On the Job Training in most of plants – Training is provided to all level of employees on specific tasks related to jobs and also on various other broad aspects – Up gradation and Post Graduation – In house trainings of Operation, Maintenance, Instrumentation, Electrical, Finance and IT throughout the year – Executives - Awareness Programs on Internal Quality Auditor training.– Shop floor training is imparted to workers to hone their skills – Workshops are conducted for the benefit of employees to educate them on preventive maintenance. – Services of experts are summoned to help educate the workers. – Employees are continuously guided about industrial safety and safe industrial practice.

Training and Development

• Wages - On the basis of hours worked, tonnes, piece rate – Minimum piece rates are fixed by the authorities. However individual factories can give more if they wish. – Piece rates differ according to categories of labourers.

• Salary to Management Personnel as per industry standards – Shifts – 8 hrs, 3 shifts a day – Fringe Benefits:

• Canteen, Transportation, Housing, Electricity, Health Card, Workmen Compensation Policy – Salary details of various designations – payment dates and payments made are recorded and also incentives are maintained – Software Systems like SAP are used in top firms.

Compensation and Wages

Compensation of Key Personnel

• General Office Time – 8.30 am to 5.30 pm• Lunch – 1 am – 2 pm• 4 Leave in a month• Weekly 1 Leave• Holidays – All Government Holidays• Workers work in 3 shifts – 6 am - 2 pm – 2 pm – 10 pm – 10 pm -6 am

Office Time

• Check on in – out movement of people• Record of material, repair material.• Protect factory from theft

Security

• Line and Staff Organizational Structure• MD is responsible for QMS and Overall Growth• Plant Heads – look after day to day activities• Span control of 10 – 20 members in particular section• Values : Integrity, Honesty, Commitment, Teamwork, Leadership, Passion for Excellence• Rewards and Recognizes Standard

Staff Activities

• Combination of Authoritative, Democratic, Participative Leadership is used• Major Decisions are taken by Top Management – Partly Centralized and Partly Decentralized• Regular meetings and updates are sent across – Vertical Communication is strongly prevalent.• In private sector policies are made on the basis of suggestions and feedback from employees.• Each Department has the power and responsibility to make decisions• Internal Control Procedure Manual to ensure proper procedures are followed by all departments.• Unions are common in sugar industry. All companies try and work around so as not to face strikes and protests. • Cordial and friendly Industrial Relations with employees and the Unions

Administrative Style

• Continuous Inspection of every worker to assess their performances• Better scope for hard workers• Promotion is based on Qualification, length of time worked and experience• Indian Sugar Industry has so far treated the human resource as an adjunct to industrial relation and worker welfare matrix.• Private Players focused on the development of human resources and pooling of intellectual capital to attain increased productivity.

Promotions and Career Growth

• Admin department are mostly computerized. Other departments still run by Manual basis• Communication is through telephone and internet• Factory machines are more or less old• Due to shortage of labour – cutting and crushing are being mechanized and automated

Technology Development

• Total Productivity Management to reduce the breakdowns of the machines.

• Company has implemented the 5S concept of Sorting, Systematizing, Sanitation, Standardization and Self – discipline, – which makes the work place, i.e. the plant a better place to work, thereby improving operational efficiency.

• Awards like ISO 9001:2000 certification for Quality Management System pertaining to manufacture and supply of ‘Plantation – White Sugar’ from International Certification Services (ICS) accredited by Joint Accreditation System of Australia and New Zealand.

Management of Quality

• Aims at: – Giving a sense of direction and challenge to the individual and their team through role clarity – Helping different functions and departments to go beyond targets and benchmarks and take quantum jumps – Creating a supportive and empowering culture in the organization

– Providing information for annual increments-incentives, promotions, job-rotation, identifying training needs etc. – Identify talent for succession planning – Identifying employees with long term growth potential – Identifying employees performing below expectation and what inputs are required to improve their performance – To ensuring growth of employees for organizational perpetuity

• Creating of Total Quality Environment through enhancing the commitment of people in terms of productivity, quality, technology, structure and systems

Performance Management

• Mechanism is two - fold. – 360 degree performance feedback is provided to each employee by his supervisors, peers, subordinates, internal and external customers on his attitude towards work, planning/work management, controlling and coordinating, team work and collaboration, supervisory and leadership behavior, change management, strength, weakness, opportunity and threats. – It provides insights into the strong and weak areas of the employee in terms of effective performance of roles, activities, styles, traits, qualities, competencies, knowledge, attitude and skills, impact on others and the like.

• Supervisors, peers, subordinates, internal and external customers of each employee evaluate the achievement level of targets associated with predetermined and mutually agreed upon Key Result Areas. Targets and Key Result Areas are dynamic and are modified each year in response to the organizational challenges. A weightage is attached to each Key Result Area accordingly. This evaluation leads to rating of the employees which has several linkages.

• Employees are encouraged to participate in management and a suggestion scheme is in operation.• Strengths and weaknesses of each employee are critically evaluated.• Career planning and job enrichment of each employee is an ongoing• Series of measures aimed at providing comfortable housing and other amenities to the employees.• Incentive based technique for Motivation• Employee Counseling• Family – Employee and Family Support• Vocational Career Guidance• Investment and Insurance Guidance• Post retirement guidance

Labour Welfare Activities

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