QUARTERLY MAGAZINE October 2023 Vol 14
QUARTERLY MAGAZINE October 2023 Vol 14
IN CONVERSATION
At RPG Life Sciences, we value inclusion before diversity, because we believe that creating an inclusive workplace is the best way to nurture and sustain diversity. Gender sensitivity training on critical subjects such as POSH is mandated for all employees on a yearly basis. We respect and ensure equal representation of diversity be it culture, region, gender, ethnicity, religion, ability and socioeconomic background and create an inclusive environment through our happiness initiatives and forums.
On gender diversity, we have customised diversity-friendly travel policies such as providing safe travel home from work during late working hours. Our maternity benefits are not only the best in the industry but are over and above the statutory obligation. As a result, our gender diversity percentage has been steadily rising — it increased this year by 25% over the previous year.
For their professional career growth, we always ensure fairness and an unbiased approach while assessing annual performance, which include 8% of promotions reserved towards diversity candidates, market corrections and providing opportunity for career progression. We don’t even shy away from providing higher responsibility on merit and also demonstrated 20% diversity in our Leadership team.
This is how we have started our journey to create an inclusive culture where diversity is valued and respected.
“We value internal talent and don’t hesitate to take calculated risks. Our consistent outperformance in the market is a result of their commitment and zeal to make RPGLS the best place to work.”
We have nine signature “Happiness initiatives” divided into three categories “Engagement, Skill Enhancement, and Rewards & Recognition”, wherein we involve every RPGLS employee and also measure the effectiveness of the initiatives. Our Happiness Quotient score is 87%, which is the second-highest score and the highest delta increase amongst all RPG group companies. To motivate employees, we always believe in rewarding them for their best efforts and recognising their contributions to the organisation on a continuous basis. So far, this year we have recognised 90 employees.
We have flexi working hours and work from home policy, which many of our employees avail. We have doctors available at our HO and manufacturing plants to take care of employees’ health and wellbeing.
We leverage technology through a 24x7 grievance redressal portal, which helps us address employee queries with an average turn-around-time of 2.5 days, while also helping us understand the employee pulse. We also leverage HR-MIS (Master Information System) for HRIS (Human Resource Information System), Recruitment, Talent Management, Performance Management and Succession Planning. On the business front to remain competitive in the market we also leverage technology to build our go-to-market strategy and reach doctors and health practitioners.
Certainly, we are growing at a fast pace compared to the market and to cope with the skill development of our employees we focus on Skill Enhancement through initiatives such as “We Skill, You Grow”. It is a skill development continuum for our sales employees wherein we not only impart training programmes but also have industry best practices of measuring employees' knowledge score improvement after each session. For our plants we have in-house trainers & SMEs to conduct functional skill development and also leverage platforms such as Percipio for the behavioural programmes.
In the area of Talent Management, we have identified successors for each of the critical roles and have chartered their career growth through a robust long term development action plan to bridge the short-term and long-term competency gaps. We not only identify successors for critical positions but also ensure regular communication and effective engagement. We have a practice of identifying top talent and design their developmental journey with exposure to cross functional projects, taking up higher responsibilities and opportunities to lead critical projects. We also have a platform known as Future Leaders Board to create future leaders amongst the top talent and give them exposure through cross functional project teams, opportunity to present to senior leadership through personalised mentorship and coaching.
