QUARTERLY MAGAZINE April 2022 Vol 09
QUARTERLY MAGAZINE April 2022 Vol 09
Spotlight
Everywhere you look these days, the business environment is getting more competitive and demanding than ever before. This implies that people at every level of work, and especially those entering the corporate world or deployed in frontline jobs, must bring in their best and their most determined selves to work every single day.
There is also no doubting the fact that giving people a monetary raise can indeed motivate them to up their game. Yet, it is now proven that if an organisation truly wants its people to excel in their jobs and be better committed to their roles, the best way is to build up their sense of pride in their work. People are more likely to shine in exceptional ways if they believe deeply in what they do.
This is a truth that employers are waking up to now, more than ever. Organisations that have already been practicing these tenets are surely ahead of the curve. Held together by a strong set of values, an ingrained attitude of people-centricity, and above all, a robust code of ethics, employee pride in such organisations is a given. In fact, these attributes best describe what RPG has been all about, for many years now.
Walk into any of the Group companies’ offices and plant locations in India and around the world, and you will perceive these places more like a Cirque du Soleil; but with transmission towers, IT services, plantations, tyres and pharmaceuticals, to name a few.
The vibe is colourful, as always, with people who are empowered and inspired to showcase their skills, creativity, and humour beyond their expected work duties. All of this happens for one intrinsic reason – at the core, RPG employees are genuinely proud of what they do.
After all, how many organisations have been instrumental in electrifying a third of a nation’s rail network, or been the only brand in Asia to win the highest award in Total Quality Management – the prestigious Deming Award? Which company has inspired its people to travel 200 kms by road during the most devastating pandemic to ensure they reach patients with lifesaving medicines?
When you are a part of an organisation that is responsible for providing livelihoods to over one lakh people in a state, and features year-on-year as one of the top places to work in the country, it is only natural that your heart will swell with pride to belong to such a place. Employees at RPG look up to the culture they are a part of; this goes beyond the money they make in their jobs.
Another important ingredient for employee pride is the policies that govern the organisation. Employees at RPG feel proud wearing the badge of an institution that walks the path of true inclusion, be it bravely embracing the third gender and normalising it to the extent of acknowledging same-sex spouses, or giving voice to its people, bottom-up, to share, opine and help co-create the organisation’s future.
Pride comes by default for a company that stands by its employees in a pandemic ensuring not a single one of them loses their job or suffers a pay cut. There is a lot to say for its employees who feel they belong, a company that pioneers a perpetual ‘work from home’ policy and continues working hybrid through the current challenges – an industry-first for an Indian conglomerate. For an organisation that counts empathy as a core ingredient of its culture, pride among its people is inevitable.
There is an alternate currency in use at RPG – the currency of employee respect, of a ‘People-First’ agenda that RPG employees across the world value deeply. When you belong to the only conglomerate in the country that asks, “We need to know if our people are happy,” and goes on to put up an entire framework in order to measure employee happiness, you know you are in the right place. In turn, you talk about your place to the outside world with pride – that’s the alternate currency!
Reni Jinu of CEAT narrates her story. “RPG is an amazing place. It opened for me a world of possibilities. I joined CEAT in 2012, and since then I haven’t looked back. My mentors told me to be crystal clear about what I wanted and then pushed me to achieve the extraordinary. They believed in me so much that I started believing in myself. I stepped back into my passion and started running once again. Since 2015, I have completed 36 marathons and won 34 podiums. Today when I look in the mirror, I see a woman who is achieving everything she deserves in her life. Thank you, RPG, for helping me rediscover myself, and grow in my power,” she says.
Sneha Ratakonda, a Group Management Resource (GMR) of 2018 batch recalls the time when the organisation made a bold gesture of trusting her with responsibilities of a senior role. In her words, “Very few corporates would take a bet on inexperienced newcomers in crucial roles. RPG is one such place. I was trusted with a M&A role, when I was almost fresh out of college. It was a massive gesture of empowerment, validating my self-belief. Since then, I have never looked back. After over three years of an enriching experience mostly meant for senior and experienced industry people, I moved to CEAT in an equally crucial role in Business Finance. I am so happy and lucky I belong here, and RPG is a badge I flaunt with pride.”
Pride always matters more than money. This is why we have people retiring after long successful stints in the organisation. They stay because there is something powerful that makes them stay. It’s about belongingness in an organisation that respects its own people and gives back to society, not because it has to, but because that is what it believes in.
Pride grows out of the relentless pursuit of such worthwhile endeavours that RPG employees see around them, and are a part of. This ingrained sense of pride leads to strong institution-building when it prompts the kind of effective, customer-focused and value-based behaviours that distinguish the organisation from its rivals.
RPG stands tall today as a humane entity, with a beating heart and with an arm around the shoulders of its people, acknowledging them as its most powerful assets. It is an organisation that has employees revelling in its scale, glowing under its halo, with their hearts filled with a sense of belonging and ownership of a place that they proudly call their own.
