Best companies to work 2012: Forbes Marshall ensures the ‘family spirit’ is intact in its employees
For regular jobbers, five-day weeks are a given. But the Pune-based Forbes Marshall was faced with a tricky situation when the state electricity board announced that manufacturing units wouldn’t get any power supply on Thursdays (the weekly off for most companies there). The company took special efforts to ensure its workers get their weekends off.
“Rather than split the weekend, which would impact the time spent with the family, the company invested in gensets at the peak of the recession so it could continue working on Thursdays and keep weekends off,” says Bobby Kuriakose, head-HR, Forbes Marshall. It’s attention to these kind of things that has ensured Forbes Marshall is the only manufacturer to break into the Top 10 this year.
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The company ensures that ‘family spirit’, one of its four core values, is followed to the tee. The employees’ families form part of all activities that are carried out at the company, whether it’s the Annual Day celebrations or a department picnic.
“Integration happens when families are involved and know what the employees do at work,” says Kuriakose. Spouses are present all the way through, right from the orientation to retirement dinners for employees. The HR process is founded on some core philosophies, one of which outlines that an individual’s dignity is as important as the organisation’s. “It is important to recognise that people are an important part of your overall strategy,” says Farhad Forbes, director at Forbes Marshall. “About 10 years ago, many engineering firms lost employees to IT.
Most thought it was for a higher salary, but a CII survey revealed that it was the work environment, the lack of challenges and the ability to grow in the job that was prompting people to migrate,” he says. Having realised that all these were factors within its control, the company started looking at HR practices followed by IT companies before implementing some of these.
One of these was ‘Blue Chillies’, an inhouse ‘fun at work’ team which organises events every alternate month. The company has a slew of activities ranging from cricket matches to an in-house band, Blue Wave. One remarkable feature at Forbes Marshall is the high percentage of women employees-22% of the 1,200 employees, compared to an industry average of 3%.
Another factor which attracts people to the company is its deep tradition of social welfare. “It feels good to be a part of something that makes a difference beyond the factory doors,” says S Rajeshwari, a member of the internal audit team who has been with the company for 22 years. Rati Forbes, who oversees all CSR activities at the company says, “CSR has been very strongly embedded in our culture, even before it became a corporate buzzword. It is run as a separate division by trained people who have the required background, with its set budget, goals, quarterly reviews and evaluations.”
The company follows a system of valueadded reviews where each member contribution to the overall profitability determines their annual increments and bonus. Having a transparent system in place has ensured that people know exactly what to expect at the end of the year and are responsible for both their and the business’ performance. After 60 years in the business, Forbes Marshall seems to have found the perfect balance between being a modern organisation while still holding on to its traditional value system.
16 Jul, 2012, 06.00AM IST, ET Bureau
