Society. We Care.

Employees…..Our Building Blocks

Human Resources (HR) at Ambuja Cement plays a vital role in realising business objectives by coordinating organisational change, fostering innovation and mobilising talent to sustain the organisation’s competitive edge. Our HR function has undergone a paradigm shift from being a support function to a strategic business partner that is often the game-changer. The philosophy of our HR function is that people are the foremost factor in the success of an organisation; as a result, it constantly evolves and transforms itself to remain in tune with the changing world.

The Company’s people strategy, systems and processes aim to make Ambuja Cements Limited an employer of choice. Its HR policies and other welfare measures are designed to enhance all aspects of the ‘employment experience’, integrating all HR processes for overall organisational effectiveness.

Efforts to provide a congenial work environment with innovative recruitment and retention practices continue. Both management and non-management employees are offered continuous learning opportunities for growth and development. The Company provides a congenial working atmosphere, free from discrimination and harassment including sexual harassment, along with equal employment opportunities to all its employees. Ambuja Cement has a zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment at the workplace in line with the provisions of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 and the rules therein. This extends to permanent employees, contractual and temporary staff as well as trainees. An Internal Complaints Committee has been set up to redress complaints about sexual harassment.

In 2015 we moved from a region-based organisational structure to a function-centric structure to enable faster and expertise-led decision-making at all levels and reduce our response time to external environmental challenges. The new structure achieved better functional excellence and resource mobilisation. Our manpower productivity improved by 19% in 2015 over that in 2014. In 2016, our core manufacturing productivity improvement went up by 16% while our overall productivity improvement rose by 9%.

Building Culture

The spirit and practice of ‘I Can’ is the core philosophy of Ambuja Cements Limited. We believe that culture-building is a continuous process; to this end, several awareness workshops were conducted across locations to familiarise all our employees with LafargeHolcim’s new values: CRISP (Customers, Results, Integrity, Sustainability, People); and ACE (Agility, Collaboration, Empowerment). Both these philosophies have a strong connect with our ‘I Can’ values. Employees were encouraged to internalise these values through continuous communication that helped create common understanding. ACE has four strategic pillars: commercial transformation, cost leadership, asset-light approach and sustainability. ACE also reflects LafargeHolcim’s new vision that our work should make a difference, ‘so the world builds better’. The four behavioural pillars that have been identified to make this possible are: agility and simplicity; collaboration and trust; and empowerment, accountability and transparency.

Talent Management

The Company upholds its competitive edge by honing talent and carving out leaders through various initiatives for managing, developing and retaining superior talent. Leadership skills are developed through structured talent reviews supported by individual development plans (IDPs) and crossfunctional and cross-location assignments. These initiatives have begun to show results. While we maintain a healthy external talent intake, senior positions are now increasingly being filled internally. Succession planning has created a talent pipeline for key positions and a growth avenue for our developing leaders.

Ambuja Cement Limited’s core values stipulate the need to develop and build leaders who will keep the organisation on the path of high performance. With this in mind, the STEP (Sustainable Talent for Enhanced Performance) programme was institutionalised in 2012 along with other talent management initiatives. The prime objective of STEP is to develop a sustainable pool of leaders with essential leadership skills and the capacity to be internal coaches. The training includes formal, informal and interactive components that hone coaching skills and bring about greater engagement. The STEP-I programme was completed successfully by 96 managers in 2014. Thirty five of the top certified participants from STEP-I became effective ‘people coaches’. STEP-II was launched in January 2015 for more than 60 managers and concluded in 2016. Besides creating a fresh pool of ‘people coaches’, Step-II ensured that the Step-I coaches were able to apply their learning skills on employees across the organisation.

Employee Benefits

Employee benefits in the form of contribution to Superannuation Fund, Provident Fund managed by government authorities, Employees’ State Insurance Corporation and Labour Welfare Fund form our defined contribution plan. Retirement benefits such as gratuity, post-retirement medical benefits and death and disability benefit are considered as defined benefit obligations; they are provided on the basis of actuarial valuation, using the projected unit credit method. Contribution to Provident Fund is managed by a trust set up by the Company. For more details please refer to the Annual Report. GRI 201-3

Local minimum wages rules are followed and employees are paid above the local minimum wages. The ratio of the standard entry level wage as compared to the local minimum wage at significant locations that include all our operating plants is about 1.57. Merit is the main parameter for recruitment, but preference is given to local hiring. GRI 202 (1, 2)

There is only a marginal difference in few of the benefits for full-time employees (FTEs) and temporary or part-time employees (PTEs). Healthcare, disability and invalidity coverage are available to both categories, unlike life insurance, parental leave and stock ownership. Retirement provisions are almost similar, barring a few schemes like superannuation which is not available to some categories of FTEs and all PTEs. Medical benefits are standard for full-time employees but are not provided to temporary or parttime employees. All these benefits are irrespective of location. Women employees are entitled to maternity leave. In 2016, one women employee availed of maternity leave. She remained employed for the rest of the year after resuming work. A minimum of three weeks’ notice is provided to employees and their elected representatives prior to the implementation of significant operational changes that could substantially affect them. This is specified in the Industrial Relations Act, 1947. GRI 401 (2, 3), 402-1

We are an equal opportunity employer providing equal remuneration for women and men. However, due to the low number of women employees in a manufacturing industry like ours, the ratio of the basic salary of women to men falls in the range of less than 1 to about 2 in different management grades, considering all locations of our operations. GRI 405-2

We have recognised trade unions, representing blue collar employees, affiliated to INTUC/AITUC/BMS at different locations. About 25% of our permanent employees are members of a recognised employee association. GRI 102-41

Employee Learning and Development

Workforce development is vital for strengthening our workmen and ensuring safety; as part of this initiative, productivity and quality training was provided to our workmen. The ACC ACL Leadership Academy (AALA), a joint academy of ACC and Ambuja Cements Limited, was started in February 2012 to provide technical, leadership, procurement, sales and marketing training for employees and the field force of both companies in order to build capability and competence. Robust training modules emphasising quality and effective application at the workplace have been developed. About 50% of staff time at the academy is spent in understanding and inculcating strong work practices during training. AALA aims at using innovative training methodologies to deliver best-in-class quality training and partners with reputed management and technical institutes like the Indian School of Business (ISB) and IIM – Indore to build competence in areas where internal expertise support is required. Every effort is made to make these programmes engaging and effective. Training is aligned to the business needs of the Company. In 2016, AALA was transformed into a full-fledged technical training organisation to align with India Manufacturing Transformation (IMT) and to leverage our training infrastructure and standardise our approach to technical training and capability building. GRI 404-2

Enhanced Employee Engagement

Ambuja Cements Limited strives to build a culture of merit and appreciation. We have a Rewards and Recognition (R&R) programme that recognises efforts and rewards employees’ achievements. Awards are decided by awards panels, with spot awards, monthly awards, quarterly awards and annual awards in individual and team categories; they take the form of appreciation letters, certificates, gift vouchers, hall of fame photographs, and sponsored stays at resorts. In 2016 we had 509 employee nominations under various categories of awards; 365 employees from across locations and functions were rewarded under the programme. Employees who spent more than a decade with the organisation are felicitated with ‘Long Service Awards’.

A new initiative in 2016 was the setting up of ‘focused group discussions’ (FGDs) across various locations to determine the level of employee engagement, gauge employees’ perceptions on various organisation- and work-related matters and to draw up a meaningful action plan to improve employee engagement. A team of internal facilitators with varied functional expertise assisted in open and participative FGDs at 12 locations.

Our people strategy, systems and processes are aimed towards making us an employer of choice with sustainable talent and concrete action plans to enhance employee engagement. In 2015 Ambuja Cements Limited achieved an employee engagement score of 81% compared to the average benchmark of about 60% and best employer benchmark of 80% (based on the Aon Hewitt model). The response rate for the employee engagement survey was 96.5%. The previous model followed since 2009 was the Gallup model. Our employees also participated in LafargeHolcim’s Group-wide Pulse Survey Wave 2 in November 2016. The survey throws light on how they feel about the Company and their work. The survey was undertaken online through Mercer.

Employee engagement takes place through functions, celebrations, functional meets, gate meetings, town halls, etc. In 2016 four town hall meetings were held across different locations where Top Management engaged with employees on issues related to Company performance, future focus areas, health and safety, etc.

All eligible employees received a timely and regular performance and career development review during the reporting period. In 2016 we launched a new Performance Management System (PMS) which places increased focus on setting of team objectives and periodic reviews. Frequent individual dialogue between managers and employees is encouraged. These discussions enhance alignment with Company objectives, explain clearly our business direction and aid in individual target achievement. The new PMS is designed to involve managers and employees and together raise levels of performance through collective ownership and responsibility. This aspect was further highlighted at the FGDs. The Board reviews the performance of the senior management (ExCo) employees through the Nomination and Remuneration Committee; and the ExCo reviews the performance and development of the other executives as per the process followed by HR. Our mandatory key results areas (KRAs) for all categories of employees give health & safety 30% weightage and commercial transformation 25% weightage. GRI 404-3

The year 2016 saw the Company forge ahead on its HR transformation journey with the setting up of the new shared services centre, OneIndia BSC. We adopted the new model; all high-transactional HR processes were moved to OneIndia BSC. This shift will help us focus on strategic areas and improve our overall work efficiency with real-time solutions. Improved or new technologies for employee-related services empowered employees to espouse a self-service culture.

Along with HR transformation, we have also embraced digital transformation. A big step towards this is the ‘Workday’ system, which is a cloud-based global HR system, initiated by LafargeHolcim. ‘Workday’ supports effective talent management through an online real-time master data source. Our parent company, LafargeHolcim has put in place many global and local initiatives to build the Group.