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Industry Visit to J K Fenner

An Effort to Understand the Industrial Relations Strategy at J K Fenner, IDA, Patancheru.

The HR Professionals all over the world are transforming them into Strategic Business Partners of the organization and this goes in line with their leadership approach & initiatives. To dwell deeper into the HR domain and understand the importance of Industrial Relations, Dr. A Jagan Mohan Reddy, Area Chair, Human Resources, SIBM Hyderabad, arranged an Industrial connect with J K Fenner and the students of HR Batch 2017-19 of SIBM Hyderabad through a very informative and interactive Industry visit conducted on August 17, 2018.

Industrial relations has become one of the most delicate and complex problems of modern industrial society. Industrial progress is impossible without co-operation of labor and harmonious industrial relations. Therefore, it is in the interest of all to create and maintain good relations between employees (labor) and employers (management). In today’s VUCA time, where organizations have to quickly to adapt to the emerging changes, it is of vital importance for the HR Professionals to understand the impact of their leadership that revolves/evolves in and around the organization. On visiting the J K Fenner machinery plant, students have come to know about their HR policies and practices which are keeping their employees engaged at work and maintaining an extensively positive and inspiring organizational culture.

The HR Managers and the Industrial Relations Manager at J K Fenner addressed the students giving them an overview about the functioning of J K Fenner and their initiatives to maintain healthy Industrial Relations.

After the address, students were taken to their manufacturing plant where they manufacture Oil seals and Belts. Step wise production was explained and shown to the students. Students also interacted with few of their workmen to understand their experience at work.

J K Fenner Management is very specific about their purpose and objectives when it comes to their industrial relations.

To safeguard the interest of labor and management by securing the highest level of mutual understanding and good-will among all those sections in the industry which participate in the process of production.

To avoid industrial conflict or strike and develop harmonious relations, which is an essential factor in the productivity of workers and the industrial progress of a country.

To raise productivity to a higher level in an era of full employment by lessening the tendency to high turnover and frequency absenteeism.

To encourage self-discipline and implant discipline across the organization.

To create a sense of belongingness in every employee in the organization including the workmen.

To exude proactive behavior, this is very much essential to perform efficient management.

Below are the few initiatives which they practice to maintain healthy Industrial Relations.

Gemba: It’s mandatory for all the HR managers to visit the shop floor everyday in the morning. This is to understand any difficulties faced by the workmen and to address to those problems at the earliest. Also to maintain no communication gap between the workmen and the management and to make them feel more involved in their work by giving them a sense of belongingness.

All the festivals are celebrated within the plant and a sense of equality is maintained with no difference between the Blue and White collared employees.

Open door concept: Complete transparency is maintained between the workmen and the management. They believe that the trust factor is very important to have healthy Industrial relations. Any employee, May it be workmen or the white collar everyone is free to directly knock the door of the Senior Management for any suggestion or any complaint.

Many activities are undertaken to ensure employee engagement like rewards and recognition. They have a concept of on the spot rewards where they recognize the suggestions which would bring in betterment for the organization and the employees are rewarded on the spot.

They strictly adhere to compliance to statutory laws of the government.

Quick and effective redressal of grievances.

They maintain a structured communication once in every quarter to let the employees know about the growth and other important aspects in the organization which will help them in achieving their vision and mission statements.

CSR initiatives are taken across the organization not only to abide the government rules but also to ensure the sense of social welfare and responsibility among their employees.

They also enforce Self Directed Work Team (SDWT) to ensure autonomy among the employees.