The strategic human resources plan of our company focuses on the unskilled to the highly skilled workforce

Widely known for its Goldstar brand of shoes, Kiran Shoes Manufacturers, is the leading producer of footwear in Nepal. A part of the Universal Group, the company has been producing several popular brands of footwear since the mid-1970s. The company manufactures products for the domestic market and exports shoes to India and other foreign markets. 

As a manufacturing firm, the company has to manage a large workforce of 2,500 people. Gaurav Basnet, Head, Human Resources at Kiran Shoes Manufacturers, attributes efficient people management to the company’s success. In a conversation with the HRM, he talked about people management practices in the company, challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the company’s approach to providing opportunities to fresh graduates, among other topics. Excerpts: 

There are people from factory workers to corporate staff working at Kiran Shoes Manufacturers. How is the company successfully managing this workforce? 
We have a workforce of more than 2,500 employees of different age groups and cultural backgrounds. Some of our members value teamwork, others are motivated by challenging goals, good pay, good working environment and some are more analytical. Considering these differences, we align the entire team to understand their own behavior and that of their colleagues, teams and leaders. Hence, we consider motivation, leadership, teamwork, learning and development, culture, and communication as key areas for efficient and effective people management.

In accordance with the employee profile and their perception, we motivate by providing financial incentives, performance rewards, support and inspire staff, career path, challenging goals and exposures. In addition, we invest to thrive improvements in the organizational environment to make it more comfortable, flexible and creative.

Leadership in any organization plays an essential role in people management. Our leadership values human resources, labor management and industrial relations, and has initiated many human-assets approaches in the organization. Similarly, Learning and development is the key pillar of our organization. We train and hire unemployed, underprivileged, marginalized, and women through an on-the-job traineeship. We go through the analysis of employees’ knowledge and skills. For this, we have the skill matrix assessment for factory workers and objectives and key results (OKRs) for corporate staff. Similarly, talent identification, competency mapping and succession planning are essential for us in staff development. By aligning all the development measures, the organization can identify strengths and areas for improvement, formulate strategies to improve productivity and make Kiran Shoes Manufacturers a great work culture.

We follow an open-door policy and have a grievance handling mechanism that makes communication clear, objective and accessible, and an effective solution to grievances. Hence, fair income, security in the workplace, social protection, better prospects for personal development, freedom to express concerns, equal opportunity and treatment for all women and men abiding by national and international best practices are the mantras for successfully managing a workforce of more than 2,500 people.

How has people management played role in the success of Kiran Shoes Manufacturers?
We are better equipped to choose the right candidate at the right place, motivate and develop the teams, manage conflict in the workplace and to be able to make effective decisions on time. In addition, managing people in the company has strengthened the employer brand, organizational objective alignment and a good working environment. As a result, our company has been able to attract and retain great minds, align organizational and individual goals and maintain a great organizational climate. It is important to note that we are one of the biggest manufacturing companies in Nepal in terms of the number of workers, and we have been able to manage people and labor unions in such a way the company has not halted operations even for a single day over the last 10 years.

What changes have been there in people management at Kiran Shoes Manufacturers over these years? 
We are adapting to an ever-changing business environment, diverse workforce and technological advancement. As a result, there have been many changes in people management over the years in our organization. Better prospects for personal development, social security, freedom to express concerns, gender equity and social inclusion, equal opportunity for men and women, employee engagement, digitization in HR, proper performance management system and flexible work arrangements are some of the key changes in people management that have taken place.

Technological platforms like Primalogik (a Canadian HR software) are used for OKRs, employee satisfaction surveys, journals and 360-degree performance appraisals, because we value systematic, regular and paperless feedback systems.

Highlighting our value proposition, we provide equal opportunity to men and women, we have more than 60 percent women employees in the services with more than 90 percent women in leadership positions in some of our units. We are investing more in learning and development, employee engagement, and security in the workplace for a highly motivated, productive and skilled workforce. We recognize employees as the most important assets of the company, and that puts us in a situation where we rigorously thrive in robust measures in people management.

What are the key focuses of the company in people management to increase staff productivity?
Firstly, we focus on employee surveys to discover roadblocks impeding productivity and employee satisfaction. Based on the employee feedback analysis and studying people management trends, we formulate the strategy to identify key focuses for the productivity of staff. Some key strategies we use are employee engagement, systematic and transparent company career ladder and promotions, balanced work and home life, flexible work options and a good communication channel.

In addition, we’ve made technological upgrades like SAP, SHL(pre-employment assessment & competency mapping), and Primalogik for integrated enterprise resource planning. Driving skilling, reskilling and upskilling OJTs and employees through employee development and engagement programs are also the key focus. We are a manufacturing company and trade in Nepal and export to India and third countries. This makes our company a sensitive and challenging environment to work here which gives an excellent opportunity to those aspirants who love challenging goals. So, we believe in challenging objectives, rewards and recognition in people management.

How does your company ensure that employees are happy and satisfied?
We are the leading shoe manufacturing company in Nepal with its high and pioneer brand value admired over three decades in Nepal, India and other countries. All the credit for this success goes to happy and satisfied employees. We create a positive environment through open communication, promote healthy work relationships and offer equal opportunities. We keep appreciating, recognizing and rewarding the employees from time to time. Best performers, innovation in the production and maintenance process, female employees, star performers, and rising stars are rewarded and recognized to build employee morale, productivity and overall employee satisfaction. Similarly, the actionable steps we follow for a work-life balance are one-to-one interaction with employees, we provide flexible work hours for employees depending on the nature of their jobs, and engage staff in productive and wellness programs. In addition, proper career paths, and equal learning and development opportunities are ensured for every employee.

The company values human assets, employee well-being & organizational culture through HR policies to make a better work environment by spending resources on transparent policies, selection procedures, career mapping, satisfaction surveys & performance reviews.

As a manufacturing entity, what challenges were there for the company in managing people after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic? 
We adopted safety protocols such as personal protective equipment, increasing sanitation measures, social distancing guidelines, and work-from-home enforcement through Covid policy to ensure the safety of employees. With the spread of Covid-19, many employees had been forced to take time off work due to illness or quarantine. This made it challenging for our company to maintain staffing levels and production schedules.

As one of the biggest challenges, the pandemic had disrupted supply chains and caused a shortage of raw materials, making it challenging for us to maintain production level and our business followed by the great challenge, of whether to retain or lay off the workforce.

How did Kiran Shoes Manufacturers respond to these challenges?
The most critical focus we did was protecting the workforce. To achieve this, we had to deploy a comprehensive set of policies and guidelines, including personal protective equipment, increasing sanitation measures, physical distancing and of course, maintaining the livelihood of an employee. The HR department conducted awareness programs on different phases of covid through mail, training and posters.

Similarly, we introduced guidelines for enhanced health surveillance, restrictions on communal areas and tools, regular sanitizations with periodic deep cleaning of the whole workplace, and policies that ensured employees could stay home if they felt unwell. HR had to provide counseling services to the employees returning after prolonged quarantine and during the transition.

How is the company fulfilling its workforce needs? How do you observe the availability of people in the manufacturing sector at present?
The strategic human resources plan of our company focuses on the unskilled to the highly skilled workforce. Being the leading footwear manufacturer, the type of workforce we need is very hard to find. The company needs highly skilled staff from footwear technology, lab, chemist, design and development backgrounds, and our country does not have a single educational institution or a technical school with these courses. We hire unskilled aspirants from educational institutes, technical schools and from the general public, then our job is to train them in our technicalities and culture. Similarly, we hire high skilled workforce from India.

One of the challenges manufacturing industries faces is a lack of skilled manpower. The era of great resignation and millennials’ nature of doing their own business and entrepreneurship have adversely impacted manufacturing companies. The brain drain, the emigration of trained and qualified people from our country, is a major issue that I personally feel is a matter to be addressed by the concerned authority as soon as possible.

How is Kiran Shoes Manufacturers collaborating with educational institutions to provide jobs and other opportunities to fresh graduates?
Today’s graduates face immense challenges upon leaving colleges, so we need to ensure that they are ready with the minimum skills needed in corporate organizations. We have been collaborating with educational institutions for Work-Integrated Learning. Fresh graduates get to learn from experiences in both an educational and practical setting. We provide on-the-job traineeship, management traineeship and graduate traineeship to the graduates which ultimately results in job opportunities for successful aspirants.

We have signed MoU with educational intuitions with an aim to collaborate on research, case study, and in internship programs. We provide an opportunity for colleges and fresh graduates to provide solutions to skill gaps between students and manufacturing organizations. In addition, the collaboration works in many forms including guest speakers, work placements and workshops on individual graduate strengths and development needs.

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