The entire fiscal has not been an encouraging one for the Indian auto sector with the sales graph seeing a continuous dip. This saddening dip has been quite haunting for the auto industry as the car sales are being severely hit and witnessed an ongoing downfall. As a result of this, major car manufacturers are feeling the heat and new strategies are being developed to counter the much aggrieved situation. The extent of damage done reflects from the fact that car sales have been severely hit for nine months in a row. Similar trend can be seen when one checks on the sales of heavy trucks which has fallen for the seventeen straight months.
Amid this ongoing slaughter of diminishing sales, about 2,500 to 3,000 contract jobs have been lost in the last quarter. This includes companies like Ashok Leyland, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors. Certainly, if this is the number for a quarter alone, one can easily image how hurting the cumulative number can be. Amid these uncertain hard times, the car companies are trying to keep their working staff motivated. Thinking in the line, 'when going get tough, tough gets the going', the companies are trying to ensure that employees are prepared to phase of the current tough situation for after severely hampered sales, a demotivated staff can further worsen the situation. A perplexed and uncertain staff can have a severed impact on the quality and efficiency of the entire production facility. So, an illumination is the need of hour to deal with the demanding situation with positivity instead of pessimism. Companies are responding well to infuse motivation among its workforce amid volatile sales and labour unrest.
The companies' mental bent to beat the heat of de-motivation is exemplified by the fact that currently in the first week of August, Sindhutai Sapkal, a 64-year-old social worker and activist, visited Nashik and Chakan facilities of Mahindra & Mahindra to address about 3,000 workers. Sindhutai Sapkal, who is known for her devotion to adopting and caring of orphans, told the working staff about how to handle ups and downs in life. This is quite important as the staff saw the unfortunate exit of 1,000 contract workers who shared the same shop floor a month ago. Here, it is clearly evident that Mahindra wants to help its employees to maintain a sense of equilibrium and positive frame of mind to deal with the highly constrained situation effectively.
As per PN Shah who is the chief executive-automotive division of M&M, such keen initiatives will go well to help both employees and the management. He said, "With the Chakan unit having a lot of young workforce, it was essential to have such inspirational speakers to address hardships and ways to face such situations, and not get mentally disturbed. Most workers are aware of the current situation and the external environment, and so it was much easier for them to understand any kind of management decisions."
DL Sachdev, national secretary of trade union AITUC, acknowledging the diverse efforts made by companies commented that employees will be at ease only when things normalise and normal production level is regained. He said, “Although companies are re-skilling workers or giving them multiple responsibilities, if the overall situation does not improve in the next two to three months, workers will start feeling the insecurity.”
Currently, the Indian automotive market employs about 200,000 skilled workforce in manufacturing units while the share taken by the auto components is around 500,000. During this desperate time of uncertainty, companies face a stiff challenge to manage their blue-collar workforce. One of the senior executive of a leading automotive company commenting on the current aggrieved situation said, “Employees at the lower level do not have the same kind of maturity. Disgruntlement at the lower level may be more due to the sensitivity of a pay cut affecting their daily bread. Resentment or dissatisfaction at the lower levels could be higher.”
Sharing his views, Ashok Leyland's Managing Director Vinod Dasari said that it is best to be honest with workers. He further said, “In tough times, one should be communicating with workers more.” His words seem to befit the situation for SY Siddiqui, Chief Executive Officer (Administration) of Maruti Suzuki too. Dasari had addressed, on a live webcast, its 12,000 employees across 120 locations and also made a presentation that was originally shared with board of directors of the company. He briefed employees about the current macroeconomic environment, slowdown strategy & priorities and laid down the company's expectation from its employees. Post presentation, Dasari also answered sensitive questions about job and salary cuts along with future plans. He also made it clear that the company is likely to cut jobs, but will adhere to the merit policy to take any such decision. Revelation about delay in promotions and increments by three months was also made. Here, it must be noted that Ashok Leyland has cut salaries by 5 per cent since the month of July and also negotiated a 15 per cent productivity improvement.
M&M is well prepared to use the downtime and put it to re-skill workforce with other specialised works like handling a new assembly operations or different machines. The drive is to push employees to take up more responsibilities and diversify their knowledge. Earlier, similar sessions were conducted on a quarterly basis, but the same are now being held monthly. Employees are also getting a chance to hone their skills through involvement in quality control and material management trainings. Besides, Sindhutai Sapkal, M&M also invited external trainer Ramesh Deshpande to brief employees about the ways of conserving cost and maintain a positive approach throughout one's life span.
As per Vilas Patankar, working in the quality department at Mahindra's Nashik plant, workers who attended Sindhutai's session were immensely benefited from it. He donated a sum of Rs. 3 lacs to her orphanages and trusts. He said, "We were told to treat the company like a mother, and not desert her."
Kuldeep Jangu, General Secretary of Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union stated that though there is a sense of insecurity due to subdued market sales, but one must never loose the hope of good times. Hoping that the tide of insecurity will be over quickly, he said, “Training programmes and re-skilling are being regularly done (by Maruti).” Vishnu Newale, president of Tata Motors Union also said, "It's always better to have a job than not have one. With competition peaking in the car market, it's only prudent to re-skill and improve quality."
