Gurjeet Singh Johar, Chairman, C&C Constructions Ltd, shares his company's HR policies.
The Indian construction industry is poised for growth and investment in construction accounts for nearly 11 per cent of India's GDP; €239.68 billion is likely to be invested in the infrastructure sector over the next five to 10 years.
C & C Constructions Ltd is an engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) company with a primary focus on roads and highways. C&C has a track record of on-time completion even in difficult areas like Afghanistan and Bihar. At present, it has a prequalification capacity to quote for contracts over Rs 32 billion. C&C will commemorate 14 years of its incorporation on July 16, 2009.
HR at C&C
The HR team takes a lead in developing best HR practices by providing leadership and being innovative in the management of organisational and cultural change to enable it to achieve its strategic objectives. Moreover, to make a people-focused organisation, the key priority is to motivate and engage people in the organisation.
The HR team is also involved in influencing and resolving differences across organisational boundaries by treating staff with fairness and objectivity while being sensitive to cultural and gender differences. In all its activities, the department strives to ensure equity, uniformity and transparency in the application and administration of all human resources policies, rules and regulations. HR helps new entrants settle down in the early days of the job; ensures that they get assistance in finding an accommodation or workspace; and answers queries on organisation culture, existing policies and employee welfare schemes.
Training initiatives
The frequent contracts awarded to C&C necessitate more and more talent to take care of and complete projects as per the client's expectations. Thus, it becomes imperative to continually update and train employees about contemporary activities in the industry. Also, training current employees as per the requirement is more cost-effective compared to recruiting new people.
C&C leverages the expertise of professional trainers for giving technical and soft skills training and certification to its employees. The top and middle management are given behavioural training, such as conflict handling, mentoring, coaching, leadership skills, and time management. Also, effective communication at work is vital for the proper functioning of an organisation. A lack of communication, or even worse no communication, can create a large amount of frustration within employees, which in turn leads to lowering of morale and ultimately productivity. Thus HR and section heads ensure all employees possess good communication skills and on-the-job training is one of the tools adopted for the same. Employees are often given the chance to attend seminars, workshops and roundtable conferences to stay abreast of current happenings in the infrastructure sector. And at project sites, employees also undergo basic health and safety training apart from behavioural training.
HR initiatives
Management and leadership connoisseurs insist that effective and transparent communication is vital to groom the culture of any organisation. In order to connect its associates, the HR team of C&C sends a newsletter and enables each member of the C&C family to share knowledge and learn from each other's experiences. Also, the HR team takes pride in implementing intranet 'C&C Connect', to set a benchmark in knowledge sharing and collaborative working in the company. In addition, the morning meetings and weekly departmental reviews with the chairman and directors ensure open and effective communication in the organisation.
The brand C&C
A strong employer brand is a cost-effective way of recruitment where the cost of recruitment is reduced to a negligible sum when employees themselves become marketers of the company's brand. The exotic experience an employee gets in an organisation directs him or her towards word-of-mouth marketing.
Indeed, retention of critical talent pool has become a major challenge for HR heads across the globe, but C&C's low turnover rate speaks of the high satisfaction of its employees in the company, the management team and their job profile. Also, C&C gives long service awards to employees who have successfully completed five or more years in the organisation. In order to mark the growth and progress of C&C and celebrate the bond of the company with its associates, it celebrates its annual day at its corporate house and sites.
Project completion bonus/target-based bonus:
It is indispensable for any organization to ensure that the motivation level of its staff is optimal and employees work in an environment conducive to their professional satisfaction and development. And C&C motivates and encourages its workforce by rewarding them and recognising their performance. Towards this end, C&C gave 25 per cent bonus to employees working in Afghanistan on the timely completion of a project. Also, the company gives a bonus to all employees working on a particular project whenever it is completed within or before set deadline; the bonus varies from one month's to two month's salary.
By rewarding the employees as mentioned above, serves the purpose of timely completion of projects as it brings an enthusiasm among the employees and thus helps in the overall growth of the company and its people.
Fair and transparent processes
C&C believes in transparency when it comes to giving annual appraisal to its employees and the company provides increment of up to 20 per cent or more to its star performers, which is comparable with industry standards. High performers are sent on fast-track career growth and put through challenging assignments and continuous mentoring from top management. Furthermore, these budding performers are given an opportunity to manage project sites independently.
The company values its manpower as an invaluable resource. A mixture of higher compensation than industry together with a fast track promotion scheme for 'high performers' pays rich dividends to C&C. Also, according to a compensation benchmarking study, C&C scored fairly high compared to other companies in the sector.
And finally…
C&C's road to growth has not been achieved overnight and has been full of challenges at every stage. But, C&C has learnt how to conquer every challenge. And every success continues to reinforce its desire to excel.
