Diversity & Inclusion today at TVS Motor Company Ltd.
On our journey toward being Best Organisation to work for, among various initiatives we have focused on Diversity & Inclusion as one of the primary pillars of top focus.
Despite making up 50% of the global population, women generate just 37% of GDP (India 17%), research shows in India by 2025, working women may grow to 41%. If today we miss out on this talent, we will miss out on talent and abilities of a vast majority.
In the medium term, we are targeting to enhance the gender ratio to 20%. We have started taking some important steps towards this in terms of enabling infrastructure, making our work place safer and brought in flexibility in various aspects at workplace.
Our women members have made us, it is heartening to see some of our women managers honoured with awards for Innovation, Leadership, ‘Women in Manufacturing Award’ and TVSM being recognized as “Best Organisation for Women Empowerment” in 2019.
R Anandakrishnan
EVP Human Resource &
Employee Resource Management
Capt. Jyotsna Malhotra (Retd)
Head Diversity & Inclusion,
Employee Engagement
Creating an Eco-System, Culture of Equality
We are very excited to look at the journey of TVS Motor Company Ltd. (TVSM) in the ways we embraced diversity. The idea was always to build a sustainable and socially progressive eco-system. This included, ensuring that we do not leave behind majority of the work force, but at the same time ensure emphasized focus on development, succession and progression of women at professional, personal and social front.
The scope of ‘Women Employment and Talent Development’ in manufacturing comes with multifold challenges due to different work-clusters and work-environments existing in the same eco-system. As we abide by majority of common policies, the culture had to be skillfully crafted ensuring enough agility to throw spotlight on the bright sparks in the organisation.
The automotive industry is one of the biggest employment generators in the country, by sheer nature of its diversity and complexity. Hence, it is also one of the most competitive. The workforce in automotive industry is incredibly diverse. Developing competencies and skills aligned to specific functions is very critical here. Therefore, we focus on practices and initiatives specially tailored to address different set of workforces.
Some of the recent initiatives at TVSM include formulation of Women’s Resource Group (WRG), providing an informal platform for open discussions and developmental; Women in leadership mentoring program; Referral program to attract more women to join us and contribute towards the growth of our company. To develop an eco-system, we are also focusing of Cultural Sensitisation on unconscious bias.
TVSM Recognized As “BEST ORGANISATION FOR WOMEN EMPOWERMENT” 2019 Great Indian Women in Leadership Summit (GIWL)
G Gayathri, Anna Philip, Jyotsna Malhotra,
Maj. Aditi Mohan (GIWL Chief Guest), N Pramila Rao, KS Harini
Innovation
Providing wheels to diverse workforce has been the focus for more than three decades, in 2019 TVSM completed 25 Years of TVS Scooty Pep, empowering women through mobility and independence. We take pride in celebrating diversity in leadership with role models in innovation as well as other fields of work.
Women Tech Leaders
N Pramila Rao (L) , Advance Engineering Group
Innovative Woman Leader of the year 2019
Joined TVSM’s R&D in 2002 and has been instrumental in various pioneer tech projects. Pramila is a focused, thoughtful and an optimistic leader guiding a team of vibrant young chemical engineers in green technology
G Gayathri (L), Research & Development
Women Leader of the Year 2019
Started her career as a component designer in 2005 and over years, has successfully grown to the position of heading a functional team on electrical systems at TVS Motor Company (TVSM) – an OEM known for world class product quality and innovation.
Recruitment
With plants in Hosur (near Bangalore), Mysore, Himachal Pradesh and Indonesia, TVSM have the largest portfolio of vehicles and cater to the widest segment of customers.
At TVSM the recruitment focus has been constantly to bring on board the best talent and past years have seen major focus on ensuring entry of women in most key functions. Our numbers on recruitment of women employees have been remarkably progressive for automotive / manufacturing sector.
TVSM also has a long relationship with key institutions in the country and has ‘Collaborative Learning Programme’ and Campus hiring through various institutions across India. Campus hiring statistics have been fundamental in demonstrating the enormous progress organisation has made in ensuring women entry into the organisation.
Women Workforce overall at TVSM:
Consistent increase in number of women employees at TVSM
3% in 2009
7% in 2013
10% in 2020
20% targeted by 2023
Currently approx. 14% (women in production)
TVSM runs an Operation Department, Engine Assembly line with 90% women employees. Plant Head and Managers have validated that this assembly line has contributed to zero defects, extremely low re-work and nil discipline issues.
Best Practices
Organisations need to ensure the talent recruited is retained and does not get fizzled out in the form of undesired attrition over time. To ensure retention at TVSM, there is emphasis on building up a supportive eco-system through various measure. The policies and processes placed have evolved through cutomised requirements of the employees as well as benchmark studies with various research based human resource organisations. The inputs for these interventions have been directly provided by the employees through various interventions, like surveys, open house, online forums etc. Building this eco system includes focusing on:
- Workplace Safety
- Parental Provisions
- Flexible Work Structures
- Work-Life Programmes, etc.
TVSM on campus creche and day care facility
At TVSM some of the best practices are in place and this has helped ensure that women employees are able to balance their work in alignment with their professional growth. Some of these best practices include:
TVSM Policies and Best Practices for conducive eco-system
- 30 week of maternity leave & one week paternity policy
- In addition to Maternity Leave, women employees are also entitled for additinal 8 weeks of on-boarding leave with flexi work and pay
- 14 weeks of extended Maternity leave without pay
- Provisions for lactating mothers to take breaks with available feeding room
- Ease out onboarding post maternity through flexiblity on case to case basis
- Adoption leave, 12 Weeks leave for Commissioning mother or Single parent and 8 weeks onboarding with (Flexi-time)
- Miscarriage leave of 6 weeks, male employees will get 3 days leave to support the spouse
- Fertility Tratment for employees covered by the organisation
- Creche facility for both men and women
- Pick-up, drop back and shuttle bus services round the day
- Maternity leave does not impact performance or progression for women employees
- Insurance cover for self, immediate family, parents and in-law’s for all employees
- During travel, women employees eligible for enhanced travel provisions with emergency cab booking facility
- Pesence of lady Doctor at key locations with more than 10 women employees (Hosur & Mysore) of TVS Motor Company Ltd (TVSM)
- Women employees staying late at work are provided safe transport with escort for office to home drop
- Concierge Desk at the reception to help employees with their personal administrative work (eg : making license, PAN Card, Adhar Card, payment of bills, courier, banking assistance etc.
- Prevention of Sexual Harrassment (POSH) Policy in place with all employees sensatisation, Posters and Circulars, Regular Training Sessions, e-module learning and leadership messages
- Employee loans – interest free for house rent advance, marriage, personal emergencies etc.
- Special discounts for employees on purchase of TVS vehicle for self, family or friends
- Gifts to the employee and family from the organisation for the new born in the family, newly married couple
Talent Management
TVSM products are born out of innovation and customers are of utmost important with emphasis on creating delight, which is at the core of TVSM DNA, nurturing & motivate talent, while fortifying existing talent. TVSM believes in ‘People First Philosophy’ for its customers, partners as well as employees. TVSM understands that up-skilling and investing in employees is vital for steady success and employees have repeatedly recognized TVSM as an organisation that invests in employee growth through continuous learning.
Collaborative Education Programme
At TVSM we run a thorough, well-rounded internship and recruitment programme called Utkarsh. Through this programme, TVSM works with reputed Engineering colleges in India with parameters such as entry criteria, standards, aspiration and engagement of student’s community, curriculum, pedagogy, infrastructure, placement and certifications.
After the rigorous selection process post internship few selected are offered to join TVSM. Through each Utkarsh batch there is a deliberate effort to bring minimum 40% women employees into the organisation on merit basis annually.
Career Development Workshop (CDW)
TVSM has constantly invested in developing its employees through CDW for building continuous talent pipeline for developing future leaders within the organisation. The process is focused on identifying the strengths and areas for development.
Through CDW employees with minimum two years at TVSM are taken through a Development Centre, here their skills are aligned against future requirements of the organisation.
Employee undergo structured intervention and are provided with detailed report providing self-introspection. Thereafter, through discussions, career coaches including Senior Line Managers and trained HR professionals help these employees’ discussions and prepare an Individual Development Plan (IDP) for themselves. The IDP is initiated and captures the journey of employee for next 3-5 years. This process comprises of minimum 10% women employees each batch.
The CDW also helps employees understand their suitability for specific domain in alignment with their personal preference. These domains include Specialist or functional expert – General Management or New Product Development / Order Fulfillment Group (OFG) or Generalist domain in Order Obtainment Group (OOG). An expert penal provides alignment of individual vs organisation requirements to the employee, with top two preferences.
The penal also recommends suitable opportunities for the employee, this may comprise of one or multiple opportunities through:
- Continuing education
- Job Rotation
- Special Projects / Cross Functional Team
- Professional exposure, Networking and Peer Learning
- Mentoring and Coaching
Employee Learning through Continuing Education or Higher Studies
TVSM has constantly invested in developing its employees through sponsored full-time Master’s programs, MBA’s, Executive Management Programmes and on the job trainings. This is unique to TVSM as well as its Group Companies, where organisation send approx. 10% employees for training and development interventions inland as well as overseas annually. Organisation has also been sending women employees for sponsored educational programmes, which comprise 9.5% of the total sponsored education programmes for a progressive career within the organisation.
Some of the premier institutions TVSM employees pursue continued education include:
Manchester-UK, Cranfield – UK, Southampton – UK, Manchester-UK, Newcastle University, Warwick University, UK
IIT – Chennai, CITD – Hyderabad, IISc – Bangalore, NITIE, M.S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, Bangalore, XLRI-Jamshedpur, etc.
Job Rotation Programme
As part of career enrichment, TVSM has a Job Rotation Programme where all employees who have completed minimum two years in a role are welcome to apply for an Internal Job Posting. The applicant is treated on merit basis and provides opportunity to employees to acquire new skills on-the-job.
Mentoring and Coaching Programme
People Development through mentoring and coaching programmes are vital at TVSM. Experienced industry experts, such as Mr RR Nair (retired from Unilever in 1999 as advisor, an expert in organisation development and training for Central Asia & Middle East); Prof Yasutoshi Washo (subject matter expert from Japan, coached TVSM leaders on Total Quality Management, subsequently helped TVSM becoming first Indian Company to achieve prestigious Deming Award) and experts from leading universities are few names to mention.
Leadership Development through Employees Passion
At TVSM employees are encouraged to pursue their passion, we appreciate each employee’s uniqueness and their varied interests are respected. Women employees in big numbers participate as leaders, volunteers and participants for these events.
In 2019 we had 50% women participation in most events.
Women In Community
Srinivasan Service Trust (SST), the CSR wing of TVS Group has been actively involved in Economic Development of several families and individuals through skill development for better wage. Women amongst community are encouraged to learn more to earn more. This means more self-help groups, training people and introducing better farming methods to help them rise above poverty. Once our communities become self-sufficient and learn to reinforce that with state support, they strike out on their own. At this stage, we typically move out of such villages and seek other communities that need help.
Impacted 5000 villages in five states (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal), touching 3.14 million people and training 1,98,791 women through self-help groups.
Women In Racing
“Checkers flag doesn’t distinguish between gender”, with this as our theme, TVSM has offered niche successful careers to women not only at national, but also at International Panorama. Encouraging women in community to become independent through two-wheeler riding lessons is a TVS way of impacting lives. Supporting them to be independent and boosting their self-confidence.
Riding Experience for Women
Women at TVSM have the opportunity to experience Powerful Apache Bike Riding, under supervised controlled environment. It has helped in uplifting inclusion and confidence, while providing the unique experience.
TVSM supports women interested in taking up ‘racing as passion’.
India Book of Records : TVS Scooty Zest 110 became the first scooter to conquer Khardung La with Woman riders
Apache Riding Experience for TVSM Women Employees and interaction with TVSM ace racer Ms Aishwarya Pissay, May 2019
TVS Scooty Zest 110 became the first scooter to conquer Khardung La with Woman riders
Male Allies
TVSM has kept in mind requirements of women at different life stages including policies, retention, motivation, professional development and safety. Continuously building and bringing improvements, keeping in mind the diversity focus. Being a male dominated industry till date this would be necessary to mention that all the initiatives have happened through extensive support by men allies as leaders and as people managers. The leaderships commitment is unconditional to ensure that Diversity and Inclusion remain the key focus for the organisation and its leaders.
Quoting Head of R&D’s comment on contributions of women employees to the organisation:
Mr R Babu
Head of R & D, TVS Motor Company Ltd.
“In Research and Development (R&D), the contribution by the women employees in new product development and proving, technology development, problem solving, planning function have been significant. There are leading examples and exemplary performers”
Mr J Baskaran
Head of Manufacturing Operations, TVS Motor Company Ltd.
“I am proud to say that we run an engine assembly line with 90% women employees and this is the only assembly line with least re-work and highest quality”.
Events
Self Defence Workshop for Women
Apache Riding Experience for Women
Women Health and Wellbeing Session
CEO Connect with Women in Leadership
SPORTTITUDE
GET-INSPIRED
Under the umbrella “GET-INSPIRED” women employees interact with women leaders who have done remarkable work in their own space. These include women leaders from inside as well as outside of TVSM. The sessions are interactive and aspirational. Few such sessions are mentioned below:
| Ms Jayashubha K,
Chief People Officer, TVS Credit Services |
Mrs Saraswathi Kasturirangan,
Senior Partner Deloitte |
