|
Letters written to some 7500 Workers / Managers /
Union Leaders, following a period of strike / Go slow / Murders (1979 -
1987), at Mumbai factory of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. This direct / open /
honest communication led to a remarkable atmosphere of trust between
Workers and Management, which, in turn, increased productivity at 3% per year
(ave).
|
4 Mar 1985
To:
Labour Officers in Powai
A
MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION
Absenteeism
Reduction Drive
-
We measure
absenteeism by Calendar Year. Two months of 1985 are over.
- You have set a target for yourself to bring this
down by 1% point in your respective areas.
- For
this each one of
you must
have devised your
own strategy and action plan (with
target dates for carrying out
specific activities).
e.g.
- Completing
inquiries
- Issue of Punishment letters
- Group/individual counselling
- Asking foreman/PWD to
counsel
- Displaying graphs on shop floor depts./units
- Showing films
- Issuing
"Congratulation" - letters of
various kinds.
- Telling
him/family how much
more he would have earned had he
not absented.
- Visiting
and "talking" to Doctors who keep issuing
certificates.
- Compiling last 5
years SL
data (as
Mr.R.V.Kadam did
for PMA).
- Find
out his indebtedness
(2 year take-home salary projection as compiled by PRL recently
for 8/10 PF loan defaulters). I have
requested LDP to compile this
on computer for 500 worst-cases.
Please follow-up with him to find out how soon he can give you this data.
- Persuading
Credit-society not to grant
him further loans until his
absenteeism improves upto a certain point.
- Talking to
foreman/manager not to give him O/T till he
improves.
- Calling
concerned Shop-Rep/Jt.Secretary and speaking
to concerned worker in their
presence/in the presence
of foremen.
- Educating
all Shop-Supervisors on when to
grant leave/
/when not to grant
- How to
handle medical certificates submitted late.
- When and why to refuse "REGULARISATION"
- Provisions/Quotas
- Unwritten
practices (Pl. attempt to compile from all over
Powai and write them down).
- When a "misconduct/when not Short Leave
- Leave to attend court-cases (always LOP)
- Improving leave records/leave cards for fast/accurate data -base.
- Telling
Supervisors how to use "Hot-Stove" principle (burns the moment you touch). i.e. demanding
explanation the very next day and
forwarding notes to concerned Personnel Officer at
once to take action where required.
ACCENTUATING
POSITIVE MOTIVATING FACTORS
1. Better physical working conditions (you must point out in writing, like an
auditor - after
taking personal rounds of each
and every work-station).
This means
you must make exhaustive notes.
2. Improving Supervisor/Worker Human Relations. (give
each Supervisor, a complete bio-data of all
the family-members of each and every worker in his dept).
Encourage
Supervisor to inquire about the family-problems and
help wherever he can. You will be amazed how much
can be helped, between you
and the Shop-Supervisor '. From ration-card, to bank accounts to getting a gas cylinder to admitting a child in a school etc. etc. - each man has a hundred problems ! And these weigh
heavily on his mind resulting in
- frustration
- anger
- insubordination/defiance
- bad discipline
- bad human relations
- poor productivity.
Even if you manage
to solve one problem each, of 5 employees each day, it will go a long way '. And even if
you are unable to solve, just plain listening will make him feel good. Try and see !
I have
spoken to you on many occasions, about the NEW ROLE
of a Personnel-man.
In Puranas, we have heard of the roles of
Brahma - the Creator - God
Mahesh - the
Destroyer-God
Thirty-eight years
after Independence, our
mentality has remained slavish
(in shackles) and
the traditional Labour Officer is still carrying-on his role of the
"Destroyer" - the man who issues
charge-sheets and dismissal letters!.
At best, a
few valiant "Personnel
Officers" are donning the garb of
Vishnu - and trying to
maintain industrial-relations
just below the boiling-point. They
follow a policy of "Containment".
But,
alas !
THERE ARE NONE TO ASSUME THE
ROLE OF Brahma - the Creator
of good-will, creator of new order. Creator
of new industrial-man !.
Last
week, I circulated an article
on Industrial-relations in Japan
(get your copy if you have not
and make sure that every
Supervisor in your group has read the same).
This article
narrates the story of 2 personnel
officers of Toyota company
who visited families of workers every
night (3 families each night) for
more than 3000 nights -spread over 10 years!
The
idea was not to
set some kind of a record to
get into the Guinness-Book
-of Records!
There
was an ABSOLUTE single-mindedness of purpose -
to remove misunderstanding between workers and management.
When I read
this, I was reminded of our own Arjuna of 5000 years old. After teaching him archery,
when Guru
Dronacharya asked him to look at the small bird in the far-away tree and aim for its eye, Arjuna was the only
disciple who replied
"I can
see nothing but the eye!"
In life, all
of us must have an obsession - any obsession at all - and
it is entirely up to each one of us
to make that magnificent.
No comments:
Post a Comment