Eyes on the Star-bucks

Earlier this month, the nearly 200-member strong union in Chile launched Starbucks' first strike at company-owned stores, seeking pay that keeps up with inflation, a $100 monthly lunch stipend, as well as other benefits.

The Seattle-based company operates roughly 17,000 cafes in more than 50 countries around the world. The vast majority of its cafes are not unionized.Union workers account for roughly 30 percent of Starbucks' overall work force of nearly 700 in Chile. Despite the strike, the Starbucks' cafes  have remained open in the country.

Starbucks maintains that its pay and other compensation in Chile -- which includes stock awards, merit increases and comprehensive health coverage for full- and part-time workers -- is "above and beyond" what is offered by the coffee chain's peers in that market.

However as per reports, a Starbucks Corp executive sent a memo to company leaders late on Tuesday, saying the company would welcome back striking workers and that it hopes for an amicable resolution to the ongoing labor dispute.

It will be intresting to note the developments considering that Starbucks is a global brand and given the fact that it is known for its focus on employee engagement.

Back in 2008 when Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz took over as CEO he was was blunt, telling analysts the company had lost sight of its mission and would rededicate itself to "laser-like focus on the customer experience."Schultz strongly believed that respect for employees will translate into better customer service, which ultimately leads to a stronger bottom line. He brought in a belief that engaged employees—those who are committed to the vision and values of their organization—generate higher sales and customer loyalty. Schultz had gone on record to say - "We're in the people business. Of course we sell coffee as a product, but we're in the people business. It's all human connection. We've been able to crack the code at creating an environment where people are treated well, they're respected, and they're valued. Customers come in and can see it's a different kind of environment, almost an oasis."

Watch-out this space for more.

SHRM/Globforce Employee Engagement Survey, 2011

While companies are investing in employee recognition, majority lack proactive strategies to increase engagement and retention

Globoforce^®, the world’s leading provider of SaaS employee recognition solutions, recently announced the results of the 2011 SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Tracker Survey, a new semi-annual survey on the state of employee engagement and recognition conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). With responses from more than 700 HR leaders and practitioners, the survey provides critical insight into the current engagement and recognition practices, perspectives, and challenges for today’s leading companies.

'According to the SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Tracker Survey, nearly all HR leaders surveyed (99 percent) anticipate employee engagement being a key challenge they will face, yet non-strategic engagement and recognition programs continue to pervade companies. In fact, while 86 percent of companies track employee engagement scores, a startling 71 percent of those same respondents track engagement levels via employee exit interviews. This means companies are only learning about engagement issues at the time employees voluntarily leave the company. In addition, only 37 percent of HR leaders said they tie employee recognition programs to corporate values while less than half (43 percent) recognize employees based on performance related to the organization’s financial goals. These low percentages indicate an enormous missed opportunity to drive performance and manage culture through a strategic recognition investment.
“The SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Tracker Survey provides HR leaders with key insights into their peers’ engagement and recognition practices and strategies,” said Eric Mosley, CEO of Globoforce. “Our first survey shows companies put engagement at the top of the priority list yet fall short in aligning these programs at the strategic level. Measuring recognition adds a level of accountability for all employees, and is ultimately how behaviors change and culture is actively managed. It’s also how today’s HR leaders can gain the much-needed support and investment from senior management for strategic engagement and recognition programs.”
Key findings from the survey include:
Employee performance and acknowledgement remain disconnected

• 54 percent of HR leaders do not think managers and supervisors at their company effectively acknowledge and appreciate employees
• 69 percent believe employees are not satisfied with the level of recognition they receive at work
• 44 percent of respondents do not think their employees are rewarded according to job performance
• 42 percent state multi-source (manager, senior leader, peer) ongoing feedback is the most accurate appraisal of employee performance; yet, 61 percent believe annual performance reviews are an accurate appraisal of employees’ work

Engagement remains a priority, yet practices remain passive and reactive-based

• 86 percent of HR leaders track employee engagement; however, 71 percent said they monitor it in employee’s exit interviews while 65 percent relate it to employee retention rates
• Differing generations among employees is the top workforce management challenge, with 85 percent calling it “very important” or “important,” followed by multiple cultures (84 percent); harnessing social networking technologies (72 percent); and global diversity (62 percent)
• Employee engagement is the most critical HR challenge in the next three to five years with 99 percent of HR professionals listing it as “very important” or “important,” followed by culture management (96 percent), employee recruitment (96 percent), and employee retention (95 percent)

Evaluating the success of recognition programs is a black hole for HR leaders and CEOs

• 87 percent of companies do not currently track the ROI of their recognition program
• 68 percent said they find it difficult to measure the effectiveness of their recognition program
• Nearly 1/3 (32 percent) of CEOs invest no time (and may not even be aware of) employee recognition programs
• 49 percent of responding companies track their programs by unit/department – making it hard for senior management to get a full view of recognition efforts and effectiveness companywide
• When asked the reasons for the challenge in measuring ROI, the top three were:
  • “Our metrics of success keep changing, making it impossible to consistently report on ROI.” (32 percent)
  • “The recognition program cannot be linked with our talent management or performance management systems, giving us no insight into how recognition affects key metrics such as performance improvement or retention.” (32 percent)
  • “The recognition program is not designed to deliver improvement in metrics that our executive leadership (CEO/CFO/COO/CHRO, etc.) finds valuable.” (22 percent)' 
    
    ( Source: Reuters)

Myopic Mantras

Some comments of Mr. Som Mittal President Nasscom and Mr. Rajendra Pawar Chairman Nasscom in the ongoing Nasscom HR Summit -

Mr. Som Mittal: 'The Indian information technology is in need of more ‘specialists' even as the industry is tapping new markets and getting engaged with new global customers...Our colleges produce research students but not specialists in a sector...The number of engineering colleges has nearly doubled to 3,300 from 1,700, and around 6,50,000 graduates enter the job market every year. This number will increase to one lakh in the next couple of years. Graduates should not only be trainable but also employable, then companies would not need to spend 18 weeks on training...The industry annually spends nearly $1.3 billion on training and ‘re-skilling' students, putting enormous pressure on companies' operating costs. “We need to increase the pool of trainable people."

Mr. Rajendra Pawar: "With nearly 3.7 million students getting into higher education each year, the challenge is to make them industry ready as they pass out from the colleges."

Fundamentally I have a difference of opinion on two issues:

a) Generalists versus specialist: Being in business school for little more then 11 years now, I have seen this classical dilemma very closely. What do you expect school to produce? Retail comes and wants students to be retail-specialists, IT comes and they want students to be IT-specialists; likewise every industry expects students to be specialist in that particular industry. This is true for business schools as well as true to a large extent for trade schools. So what do expect school to do? Business schools instead of having specilizations like Marketing, Finance, HR, etc. to have specializations like Finance for IT, Finance for Retail, Finance for Media...
In my opinion  the content that is given to the students in schools has to be largely generalist-content which develops their decision-making abilities and makes them ready to adapt to different conditions and use their knowledge and skills that they have acquired in these schools for finding solutions to various problems that they encounter. Of course' part of their content also needs to be specialist-content with focus on specific industries. But that cannot over-rule the former. Otherwise we run the danger of producing too narrow specialists who do not know what to do once the context changes.

b) Skill-Gap...What skill Gap? - I have been hearing this rant for quite sometime now - 'there is a severe skill-shortage... gaps needs to be plugged...students have to become more employable...schools need to make students more industry-ready.' For sometime I also fell in this 'trap'. However I am of the opinion that there is no real skill-gap ( I am not saying that contemporary skills are not required). All this skill-gap story that we hear is only an attempt by the industry to 'shift' the cost of training to educational institutions. Instead of creating robust employee training infrastructure and facilities, the companies are very conveniently trying to transfer this responsibility (often read as burden) to the schools. And 'skill-gap story' is a convenient way of branding (or say masking) this no-ble strategy.

Both these 'initiatives' are myopic and are going to hit industry hard in the long-run. In today's dynamic and volatile environment, as much you require specialists, the need for strong generalists who can bring in diverse perspectives cannot be discounted. And 'engaging' these talent through development of contemporary skills that acts like a symbiotic-link, helping both the company (in achieving their goals) and the employees (in personal, professional and career development) has to be the direction.

Globally the companies who have made it truly in the big-league have never made any such rants. Instead they have gone ahead with blending talent in their companies and in transforming their companies into 'talent-factory'. Whirlpool has 'Whirlpool Virtual University', Disneyland has 'University of Disneyland', McDonald has 'Hamburger University', Sony, Google, Toyotas of the world have followed the same strategy.

But then another question that needs to be answered is - are we trying to create such institutions in the first place?

Tie them with a Tie

'An online survey conducted among 12,500 people in 24 countries by research firm Ipsos reveals that 66 per cent of workers feel senior managers who run the organisation should always be more ‘dressed up' than their employees. More Indians, than their counterparts across the world, want their senior management to dress ‘smart' or formal, and not casual. The sample included 1,000 Indian respondents...Indians, in particular, do not see casual dressers rising up the ranks, with 64 per cent saying they would not make senior management, and 58 per cent describing casual dressers as ‘slackers'...

Only 27 per cent of respondents from Europe claimed the same...'

No wonder we are still developing country... Read an excellent column by T.C.A. Srinivasa-Raghavan that appeared in Business Line few months back. Here it goes:

Formal's sake?

T.C.A. Srinivasa-Raghavan

When I was 13 years old, I spilt something down the front of my school uniform shirt. The school was an old colonial one, which I was obliged to attend very briefly. So we also had to wear a tie, which I had taken off.

It was while putting it back on that I had my great Newtonian or Archmediean moment. Ties, I concluded, were meant to hide stains.

I was very pleased with this great discovery and went and told the curmudgeonly old Anglo-Indian master about this great moment of truth. But of course he was scathing in his response. “It's to keep you warm, you idiot,” he said.

Many years later, I had to attend a National Day function at an embassy in Delhi. It was late September but the card had said that the dress had to be lounge suit.

So there we were, all the men, resplendent in our lounge suits, sweating like horses on the humid lawns. It was awful.

But the women were all wearing flowing clothes. The Indians were in saris and salwars, and the East Asians were in sarongs, while the European women were in loose flowery skirts. Not just that. The poor men were all in shoes because suits need shoes. They also wore socks, while the women were in chappals and sandals.

It was then that the words of the old Anglo schoolmaster came back to me in all their profundity and I had my Second Newtonian Moment – if layers of clothing such as provided by suits and boots were meant to keep you warm, why were we wearing them in the tropics, that too in summer?

Since that day, which I like to think of as my Day of Deliverance, I have not worn a suit in India, even during Delhi's fairly nippy winter. I wear only khadi bush-shirts, mostly white — which led one young colleague to ask me once if I had only one shirt — and chappals or sandals. My only genuflection to the Delhi winter is a pair of socks.

East Asian explanation

A few weeks ago, I was invited to give a talk to some East Asians in Baroda, which is not a cold place by any reckoning. They were all in dark business suits and at some point during the talk, I said we Asians were great imitators, including in the matter of what we regarded as ‘formal' attire.

One of them, a Vietnamese I think, was sufficiently provoked to say that although he found western formal wear a real imposition, he (and the others) wore it because it made for greater acceptability. I found that appalling but then what does one do with such attitudes?

I wanted to tell them that dignity was a state of mind and acceptance based on clothes — the Japanese and the Koreans have even switched to teaching their children western classical music only — was not really genuine acceptance. But I didn't.

I think as India regains her confidence, Indian men should switch to clothes more suited to our climate. After all, why should girls have all the fun?

(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated February 26, 2010)

Stupid Rules

Few days back at a busy traffic crossing at Bangalore when we were waiting for the light to turn green, a traffic warden jumped before our car and asked me to turn-off the engine. I was in the car with my wife and my five-year old kid. I politely gestured to the traffic warden in return, expressing my inability to turn-ff the car engine.However the highly animated traffic warden started gesturing vigorously. I rolled-down the window and explained him that since the AC is on I cannot switch-off the engine and since we all were dust-allergic the possibility of rolling-down the windows on a hot evening in one of the busiest junction where toxic fumes and gases emanating from hundred of vehicles around would be a bad idea. However he was not ready to listen and threatened me of dire consequences, if I did not comply. Then suddenly he took-out his blackberry and took a snap-off my car's number plate. He even suggested to me that mother-earth would not forgive me for my 'grave' sin. He finally forced me to turn-off the engine. By the time we pulled-off the junction, I and my family were quite disturbed by the traffic warden's rude and violent behavior and also thinking of what he might be up to with the snap that he had taken of my car's registration number. Worst he spoilt our memorable evening evening when we were returning from Crossword where my latest book had been listed in the best-seller category.I know some environmental enthusiasts would be jumping-off their seats by now in support of the traffic warden. But I am sorry, i would say these are 'Stupid Rules'. The idea of switching-off the car engines at traffic junction sounds so platonic but the harsh realities of our roads is that you can do that only at the risk of breathing-in ammonia and developing severe allergic infections, lung disorder and in the long-run a shortened life. Rules can never be set in isolation. They have to be set by remaining conscious of the ground realities and have to be practical; not esoteric and ideological which can never be related to.
Then few days back I read that some environment-conscious citizens in Bangalore started a campaign of not allowing the municipal corporation to cut few trees in a area for widening the road. They went and hugged the trees and all that made front-page masala for the local dailies. So this time it was the other way around the citizens were setting the rules. So many would exclaim, how sensitive, how humane. Bullshit! I am sorry for the use of words. But in all probability those who went and hugged the trees are the super-rich  enjoying all the luxuries in their house, adding more carbon-footprints then those poor labours and common man on the street who needs a better road to go to work everyday and earn bread for his/her family.
Some students reportedly went around streets of the city and asked people to stop honking to limit the sound pollution. Fantastic! how philanthropic. However if they had come to me I would tell them go fly a kite. For god's sake, honking saves lives on Indian roads. Bangalore which is the accident capital of India, accounts for 10% of the total accidents that happen in this country, there are some people who are asking people not to honk. In all probability, before sound pollution kills them, a swinging truck or a devilish bus or a erring cab would hit and kill them. And why just Bangalore, this is true of any Indian city. I am sure you all can vouch for it. Pure buffoonery...
In short, rules are only relevant if they are cognizant of the practical issues and the environment in which they are expected to be enforced. And then more stupid rules you have, more people will dissent and find a way around them or desert in frustration. Remember this is true for organizations too. When organizations set rules for their employees they should remember not to make them stupid or become oblivious of the practical ground situation.Such rules would only lead to more and more disengagement.

Dark Ditch or Smart Pitch

Fear erodes innovation and creativity. Forced choices are only good for getting people to work, not for expecting them to think radically. And without radical thoughts and dissensions without fear, innovation is a distant dream.
An environment that is tempered with fear always stops people for expressing and even if they know that their organization is going the wrong way, they simply keep quiet because they are unsure of the consequences. In an effort to stop their 'boss' falling in a ditch, they may be hurried into the same ditch for speaking their mind. How can one expect people to think creatively in such choked-up environments.
In Microsoft corporation two employees actually wrote memo to Bill Gates telling him that he was wrong on going-on with the strategy of set-top boxes and satellite TV and that the company should instead invest in Internet, which is going to be the next big thing. Bill Gates later called for a meeting and revised the entire strategy. In how many organizations such environments can prevail? Voluntary involvement is at the heart of engagement.
But then, every company has a choice whether to be the Microsoft, Google, Apple of the world or to be a back-office Sweatshop. So choose your way but if you choose the latter then for god's sake stop chanting innovation just because you heard that from somewhere else.

Bubble to thwart trouble

Infosys recently launched 'Infy Bubble', an internal social networking site is supposedly a platform for disgruntled Infoscions to vent on. The site mirrors Facebook and allows employees to connect across borders with colleagues as well as bicker about anything they want.The IT giant seems to be learning its lessons finally. Troubled with a very high attrition-rate (some 7000 odd employees have reportedly left during April-June 2011 period) and unimpressive performance ending quarter June 2011, the wisdom seems to be prevailing finally.

Comparative Financial Performance of TCS and Infosys (quarter ending June 2011)*
	TCS		Infosys
	Quarter ending June 2011 (figures in Rupees Crore)	Percentage Growth YOY	Quarter ending June 2011 (figures in Rupees Crore)	Percentage Growth YOY
Net Sales	10797.02	31.39%	7485	20.8%
Operating profit	2824.92	25.67%	1952	11.23%
Consolidated Net profit	2414.76	26.69%	1722	15.7%
Total Employees	198614		133560
Attrition Rate	14%		17.5%

*Data are to the closest approximation, based on published open sources.

Not too long back there was a huge issue of infoscions baring their feelings in the social networking sites over the controversial iRACE. At that time the company took a strong exception and went to the extent of introducing a social media rule book to tell employees what they can share and what not on the social media (read my extensive article on this Policing social media isn't a smart policy). However the company has perhaps realized that this way cannot be for long in today era of  competitiveness.
And so this bubble (an attempted internal PR exercise) for a change is expected to thwart the trouble that the company finds itself in today.

Salary-hikes and Engagement

'Employees in India are expected to see a salary hike of 12.9 per cent this year, among the highest in the world, as industries are benefiting from the country's robust economic growth, according to Aon Hewitt.'

Sounds fantastic...Happy time for Indian Employees? Before you jump to conclusions, consider some more facts.
Compensation has long been used by the employers all-over the world to engage and retain people. Ofcourse there has been always a debate as well about the viability of such strategies. For a moment we shall leave all such debate aside. All said and done, money may not be the only or the best engagement tool but that it plays an important role in the same cannot be written-off as well.
But are these hikes really paying-off? Plotting salary-hike data, inflation and GDP growth rate data together over a 10 years period throws-out some interesting perspectives:

a) Above normal salary hikes in Indian Industry Inc. are explained by the high GDP growth rate (green line) that India has witnessed for the couple of years.

b) During the recession period when rate of salary-hikes have fallen sharply, inflation was still rising.

c) In the recovery-phase i.e. post 2009, the inflation line has closely followed the rate at which salary hikes have occurred.

So What?
a) Clearly the benefit of salary-hikes have not been realized in real-terms by the Indian employees because of the high rate of inflation.
b) Companies should keep this in mind while planning hikes and some inflationary adjustments may be required to keep the hikes more relevant.
c) Since there is a serious limitation to the extent that companies can go to adjust rate of hikes, they must seriously start looking at engagement as a holistic strategy rather than  a only compensation-driven strategy.

Best-Seller

'Employee Engagement' co-authored by myself and S. Ramadoss, Sr. V.P and CHRO of Titan has been listed among Crossword Best- Seller.

This time for the 'ladies'

Shakira "Waka Waka" as the FIFA World Cup 2010 Official Anthem became quite a rage. The lyrics beside the catchy ‘waka waka’ had a magical line ‘This time for Africa’. That said it all and made the cause much larger than football.

The HCL's Women Connect initiative  has a similar appeal. And I feel like keep everything in those magical waka waka song's lyrics same except to replace the line 'This time for Africa' with 'This time for the ladies'.

Here's a quote from the website:

'Mere pas maa hai. When India’s musical maestro A.R. Rahman quoted one of Bollywood’s most famous lines in his Oscar acceptance speech last year, the significance of his words was not lost on the millions of Indians watching. Translated literally, it means “I have my mother.” But the phrase meant a lot more; celebrating the role of a woman in his success and symbolizing the woman-power that has quietly influenced the path of Indian history.

Today, we are fortunate to be witnessing the unprecedented spread of this power beyond traditional roles and domestic confines – in politics, government, technology, even sports. Yet, sadly, it is still woefully missing in business leadership, with women comprising just 5 per cent of senior management positions. According to statistics, while the male-female ratio at the entry level in many organizations is balanced, a large number of women exit the workplace as they rise up to middle management, leaving behind a largely male dominated workplace.

The reason, I believe, is a fundamental point that corporations seem to miss. Very few women, particularly in India, abandon the crucial role they play on the home front – that of bringing up a child and nurturing a family – for the lure of professional success. To be sure, occasionally men will play the primary role in raising children. And, as some women in our organization have pointed out to me, having children – or taking the lead in raising them – may not be a priority for all women. Still, at the moment and at least in India, women often see this role, by necessity and preference, as theirs.

It is the importance of this value-system that must be accorded due respect in business. It’s quite simple really. The currency of today’s workplace is largely defined and designed for men. To utilize our female resources optimally, a workplace needs to meet the needs not only of men but of the multi-faceted role of women.'

Finally there is some company in India which means in both letter and spirit to banish the gender disparities in engagement by doing something meaningful for their female workers. Kudos... great job. Trend-setter!

High-Profile Engagement

'Move over joining bonuses and golden hellos. CEO aspirants in India now want to create wealth through their pay packets. Beyond stock options, profit sharing is the new bait companies are using to attract executives, who too are falling for it. The good news is that high-potential, high-performing executives are no longer interested in here-and-now wealth creation. They are willing to wait.

When a German Greenfield manufacturing company was setting up its operations in India recently, it decided to design a profit-sharing compensation for its top brass, says Ma Foi Global Search CEO Hastha Krishnan. Reason: It wanted to grow its business fast and also needed the CEO to stay for three years at least. Profit-sharing allowed the company both. "A lot of CEOs with pay packages in the range of Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 3 crore are even willing to look at a cut in pay and take a combo of wealth creation and entrepreneurial opportunity," she says. Profit-sharing is not just a carrot to attract executives, but a means of retention too.

"It ties the CEO to his role for along duration," says Hastha Krishnan. Another CEO aspirant in the metals industry was offered a fixed salary of Rs 1.5 crore while the variable component was Rs 3.5 crore which is close to a little over 1% of the current profit of the company. If he meets the target, the CEO has the potential to earn Rs 3.5 crore, says MD India for Stanton Chase International R Suresh.

"If you hit the target, the variable is so high that you create wealth. In this case, the compensation has been designed with Rs 3.5 crore variable," he says. Suresh has also sat through several CEO compensation deals where companies agree to part with 1% to 2% of profit as variable. In some such deals, the profit is measured over 3 years. Around 50 % of the profit is paid after the first year while the rest after three years.

The advent and growth of private equity-owned companies has intensified the clamour for wealth creation. "PE-owned jobs give executives and opportunity to create wealth at multiple levels if the company grows," says Suresh. Compensation, bonus and a share of profits are a part of the pay deal at PE-owned companies. Also, executives are willing to take higher risk.

"Risk taking has never been higher. You deliver more, you get more. CEOs can afford to make more money. As a result, companies are using profit percentage to create wealth for these CEOs," says Ronesh Puri, managing director, Executive Access, an executive search firm. Does that mean cash is passe? "Cash compensation is not a huge motivator. It is important, but no high potential will move jobs (for cash)," says Anandorup Ghose, Head, Executive Compensation and Governance, Aon Hewitt . Headhunters such as Purvi Sheth, CEO, Shilputsi Consultants , agree that wealth creation is emphasised a lot more than ever before, but cash is equally important.

"CEOs want the best of both the worlds. There is always certain minimum cash flow needed. It is difficult to attain cash nirvana," she says. "Wealth creation plans are exciting and lucrative. That does not mean that executives are compromising on cash. It's just that the market is competitive," says Shanthi Naresh, principal and executive remuneration segment leader, human capital, Mercer. Among the guaranteed facets of compensation - assured compensation, shortterm or annual incentives, benefits and pension-related, and long-term benefits like stock option and profit-sharing - the last is the most in focus. CEOs are looking for long-term benefits. "Long-term works though you have to be competitive on all segments of compensation," says Naresh.' (Source: The Economic Times)

Kick-away the Flab

Since busy schedules and long hours of travel leave employees with little or no time to work out,IDFC has introduced kickboxing and taekwondo classes for staff.These help people across departments and verticals bond,while keeping them in shape with an intense workout.Dipesh Shah,director,IDFC Capital (derivatives dealing) and Asha Gangadharan,VP,IDFC Capital high-kick their way to good health here.Photo: Nalin Solanki

Turnaround -2

Oh yes We did it!

EMPLOYEES CAN, EMPLOYEES WILL

Dressing-up for the Occassion

The labour crunch and rising overheads are said to be the reason for textile and garment units heading towards rural skyline. Would that solve the problem of labour crunch? Visibly yes, considering the burgeoning rural populace that we have. But I have doubts. The problem of labour crunch is more systemic in nature and solutions are cosmetic.

The textile and garment units where majority of workers are females are slowly shying away from working in these units and are looking at retail or other sectors. This despite the fact they may skilled or semi-skilled in the trade. The real reasons for labour crunch is poor enaggement of these workers which is again due to multitude of reasons:

1. Low Pay & Long working Hours: Currently the best that a textile or a garmenrt worker get is Rs. 6000/- a month. In a city like Bangalore would this paltry amount have any value. The units that are heading towards villages are expecting this to futher reduce wages by another 25-30% for rural labours. Obviously wages are absymally low for a very demanding work.

2.Tough Working Conditions: Most of the workers are women who leave behind family and kids to come to work. Except some units, other units do not provide any transport facilities. They have no choice other then to take public transport which in their case is not an air-conditioned Volvo bus, but a 1960 model cranky overloaded bus, which should have been at the junkyard 20 years back. Besides, general working conditions do not seem to be very healthy. All this has taken a toll on the health of the workers.

3. Harassment at workplace: The harassment of the women workers is reportedly very rampant in such units and this has resulted in a psychologist disassociation of the workers. Added to this there is a growing social stigma for women who work in garment and textile units.

The industry needs to seriously look at engagement issues with the workers, if it wants to find solutions to the growing labour crunch. Going rural is fine but if things do not change in the 'system' the rot can set-in anywhere.

Turnaround