Training Intervention towards Employee engagement and Happiness.

ABSTRACT

“Employee engagement is a measure of someone's attitude at work; how they

think, feel and act towards helping their employer meet their goals.” Wikipedia

A Manufacturing Industry is the backbone of an economy. Its highly process and productivity
driven which includes all forms of human activities that transform or convert raw materials
into finished products or goods.

In Cann Ltd, a Chemical manufacturing Company which are into the process of
diversification and expansion of their products and markets, faces challenges like delay in
production, break downs not just process related also error by human which can be hazardous
and life threatening. This creates high pressure to perform thus leading to employee
engagement problems like comfort zone, under performance, monotony in ideas,
unhappiness, laziness, resistance towards change in any form, etc. These are mostly
attitudinal and behavioural challenges which does impact productivity of the company.

Organisation to fulfil diversification and expansion plans undergo lot of employee

engagement programs in house and out bound.

This case will help you to understand how an employee engagement Training program within
the organisation helped to improve happiness and productivity quotient with focus on attitude
and behavioural aspect through its continuous engagement.

Keywords:
Employee engagement, Training, Happiness, productivity, change, diversification,
Expansion.

Author details-
Name: Ranu Khandelwal
Designation: Soft skills Trainer
Institute: IBS
Email id: ranukhandelwal609@gmail.com
Phone: 9820087055
Case Study on Training Intervention towards Employee engagement and Happiness at CANN
Chemicals Pvt Ltd.

Introduction

This case study talks about CANN Chemicals Pvt Ltd, a company which is currently into manufacturing
of chemicals used as ingredients into the fragrance industry. The company has identified its need for
diversification into a new sector, product and market with respect to their current expertise around
chemical manufacturing. For the smooth transition of change, this paper reviews different aspects of
organisational development drivers. In today’s time company’s success depends on its employee's
ability to adapt to the changing needs, become customer-oriented, more resilient and quick to act upon
changing dynamics of the business. HR becomes a critical resource for them to maintain the requisite
pool of skillsets and talent, especially when the company is moving towards diversification and
expansion strategy. They require full support and alignment of the people for them to execute the same.
Training is a part of employee engagement activity. This checks their technical knowledge, business
sensibility to ready the employees to face the diversification, how their actions will affect the overall
business performance, empower and motivate employees, develop their skills for today and what they
will require for tomorrow. Develop a sense of urgency and speed which will increase risk-taking
appetite. Therefore HR is very crucial to identify gaps at:

People level- Set competencies at skills, attitude and knowledge for performance and appraisal.
Processes level- Whether they are well defined for existing business smooth functioning and how ready
they are for the diversification plan.
Technology level- Identification of gaps in Technology to enable the new business challenges for
diversifying.

Company Background

CANN Chemicals Pvt Ltd, established in the year 1975 is into manufacturing aroma chemicals which
are used in perfumes of scents. They have been majorly into exports of these chemicals to other
companies into fragrance industry. They started with two manufacturing units. Over a period of time
the production capacity were increased in large quantities to cater to the fragrance and cosmetic industry
demand by the end of 1990.

Presently trying to diversify business and increase product range, CANN is moving into pharma for
Cosmetic Ingredients. For this the company is investing in new units as per the expansion plan.
Leadership understands that this diversification plan has a great impact especially considering that it is
a major move from medium regulated vertical to a very highly regulated vertical of Pharma. To execute
and enable diversification plan it would require implementation of required set of competencies, skills,
knowledge and an attitude in the organisation.

Leadership also understood for execution of this diversification plan they need to Partner with HR
department considering a lot was on stake from skillset, knowledge and transitional acceptance
perspective.

Why Human Resource Department as a Partner?

Human Resources in an organisation plays a very important role as its managing the most valuable
assets of the organisation in terms of People, Processes and Technology. The purpose is to make sure
that these employees are productive and are highly optimized for their effectiveness which enables a
business thrive and become successful. HR sees the employees as the assets of the organisation, not
costs. It strategically creates systems and processes for the development and growth of the employee in
their career. This keeps people motivated, happy, personally engaged and contributing to company
success. Furthermore, the HR helps the development of organisational culture and climate in which
employees have the competency, concern and commitment to serve customers well.
The main roles of Human Resource Management is to handle Recruitment, Compensation, Safety of
Employees, Training & Development, Wellness, Establishing relationships with employees,
performance management, Organisation development, Employee benefits, Motivating employees,
creating & build a happy and healthy work culture and environment.

In CANN, the Company wants to optimise the cost of diversification by not hiring new people instead
build skills internally and also utilise them for the company’s growth which would also lead to their
individual growth. Along with skill development also working on behavioural change is an essential
element. They want the existing trained employees, systems, processes to be used and /or enhanced for
new business expertise in their specific domains to align with companies vision and mission. This would
support their diversification and expansion plan.

At this junction of diversification, partnering with HR is very-very critical in using existing resources,
especially when they face attitudinal challenges like employee stagnancy, employee comfortable with
their existing position, resistance towards a change of job role and location, lacking the ambition to
grow, not ready to test their limits to achieve higher goals, underperformance, etc.

A Deep-Stick Analysis – Employee Engagement Level in Organisational Diversification

To create this impact HR conducts a Deep-Stick analysis for the readiness of the organisation. To plan
the implementation of the established need of diversification, HR executed Employment Engagement
Programmes through Interviews and Surveys. They had an in-depth and focused discussion with 80 key
personnel across the locations of CANN. The discussion was mainly focused on People, Process,
Products and Values @ CANN. It’s a diagnostic report mainly focused on What is working well and
What are the possible areas of improvement for diversification.

They Identified there are many factors which are becoming obstacles for utilising the existing resources
and their core challenges are as below.

1. Habitual to do the same old thing.

2. Comfortable at their present levels.
3. Employees are reluctant, not willing to accept change.
4. Age factor- most of the employees are senior in age due to which not ready to take up new
challenging roles.
5. The employees belong to the nearby villages which is also their permanent home address and
all their social circle and relatives stay nearby. They do not want to leave their homes and go
out of their territory for work.
6. People’s attitude & ego where they are not able to handle conflict situations. They are not able
to manage their temperament in such situations.
7. Company did not have set Core Values in their system across the organisation.

During the Training Need Analysis (TNA), the HR team developed the set values which they want to
run in the DNA of the company and make it a culture.

Need for Core Values

Reason to identify the Company’s core values were the challenges faced by teams in the organisation
during expansion and diversifying strategy implementation. The Company intended to set those values
which can actually convert these challenges to opportunities for the employees. As the company lacked
core values and they now thought of developing core values, so they created them to address their core
challenges. To implement the same and address their core challenges steps which were taken are as
below:
Step 1- Define Core values, pick up those competencies and define them which would be followed by
every individual in the organisation.

Step 2- To develop training program for the individuals in the organisation which will help these
employees at all levels to understand these core values, imbibe them and deliver or showcase in their
day to day area of work they are doing.

Step 3- Address implementation challenges of Core Values in the organisation.

Developing & Defining Core Values

Core Values developed by the HR in the company are linked to their challenges faced by the employees:

It is called ALICE.

Agile- They want them to be futuristic and think ahead of their competition. Become ambitious to grow
themselves in their current position, by analysing their work and be prepared for change. This would
make them flexible and mouldable in any given situation focussing only to achieve outcomes.

Leverage- Use their strengths and improve their work and behaviour. Focussing with what you are best
at and strengthening it further to increase the productivity level of the individual.

Innovation – Become proactive towards continuous improvement in self and work. Think out of the
box while solving problems. Simplify their work and improve performance. Focus on ideation for
Process improvements which can be implemented simply.

Crucial Conversation- In any conversation or situation focus on a win-win situation. This can be
achieved by being aware of the pattern of communication of self and others. This will help in dealing
with situations where stakes are high and emotions run strong. To avoid such conflicting situations or
interactions we need to reach the argument rather than win the argument. This would make them great
communicators and influencers.

Emotional Intelligence- Understand self and other patterns of thoughts, what triggers negative thinking
and behaviours. Utilise the information to be positive and in control of one’s emotions. Value and
respect self and others. Appreciate and motivate self and others. Self-control will help them focus on
situations rather than people and avoid ego.

The reason to identify these 5 core values were to work in a team which will help them to work together
in tangent for company’s common goals aligned to the employee’s goals. Understand each other and
be empathetic in every situation to address the problem of creating even a conflicting situation.

Training Program Design

Training Intervention:

Based on the need of the training program it was decided to go for an experiential learning cum
facilitation program. As the focus was to make the participants experience, recognise and understand
themselves and the importance of the change in their personal and professional approach.

Experiential learning is the process of learning through experience, and is more specifically defined as
"learning through reflection on doing". Here the learner is actively involved in participation, taking
actions and also deriving the outcomes. This helps the learner to immediately apply knowledge
experience teamwork, planning & strategizing, communication skills, etc. They are able to reflect on
themselves to practice and develop attitudes such as resilience, tenacity, curiosity and self-direction.
Also, accept on their areas of development to practice change on habits. Here they also get access to
candid feedback and coaching.

In such workshop facilitator plays an important role in being invisible and yet leading. Ingrid Bens
describes facilitation as “a way of providing leadership without taking the reins.” A facilitator’s role is
then described as the job of "enabling others to assume responsibility for the group and take the lead."

What a facilitator does is plan, guide and manage a group event to ensure that the group's objectives are
met effectively, with clear thinking, good participation and full buy-in from everyone who is involved.

Program Details:

Total no. of Participants: 400

No. of Batches: 18
No. of participants in each batch: 22/23
Duration of training for each group: 2 days
Profile Level: Senior, Middle and Junior levels
Training Name: Direction for action -Behavioural Training
Departments: All the departments
Methodology: Experiential learning, Facilitative, Peer Learning
Program 1- Junior Level: 2 days
Program 2- Senior & Middle level: 6 days
Program Details: Focus on self-learning through activities
Activities Conducted: Indoor & Outdoor Activities, Games for Ice breakers & Energizers.
Activities used in Training methods: Videos, role plays, presentations, projects, storytelling, focussed
group discussion, divergence & convergence.

Program Execution

The focus of the program was Participants Objectives linked to the training objectives of the company.
Therefore the objectives were set by the participants keeping in mind the title of the training. The
ownership lied with the team of participants. We also created a discipline to smoothen the ways of
working (WOW) or functioning during the workshop. Everyone took the ownership of their own
discipline and discipline keepers were appointed to keep a track of individuals who were not in tangent
with the team. This was set separately for every team.

During the program, the flow was maintained as per the requirement of the group for learning through
various activities which were concluded with learning outcomes and Debrief. End of the training day
focus was on summarising, individual key takeaways, promise card- to oneself for implementing the
learnings and also planning for tracking the improvements. Feedback of the training session and the
facilitator.

Buddy system was created to help the participants keep track of their progress and also seek help from
each other for motivation, and the journey of implementing behavioural change.

Training Objective commonly shared were Communication – Transaction Analysis, Interpersonal

relationship, Body language, Leadership, team building, Presentation skills, Planning, Stress
Management, Motivation, self-discipline, Goal setting, Knowing self, Emotional Intelligence, Time
management, People management, Productivity behaviours like ownership, adaptability, decision
making.

Training Outcome
The Behavioural change can happen only with habit change which is self-driven by taking the
ownership on themselves. This will lead to productivity and bring focus on their work. Motivation and
self-discipline will always help in training themselves to work towards achieving the goals. It will make
them open up towards new avenues and also acceptance towards Diversifying changes. All the values
when imbibed will prepare them for the new challenges. They will be prepared to stretch themselves
for new roles and responsibilities aligned with the value system of the organisation.

The company has taken formal feedback through questionnaire, interviews and personal interaction
with the employees which they are analysing. Also keeping track of their progress through their
reporting heads. HR is still analysing the outcome. General feedback has been taken which shows the
level of confidence, motivation and happiness has increased. People are more connected with each other
and also enthusiastic for self-development. They are coming out of their comfort zone and ready to take
on challenges. They also want a Wellness program for Happiness to be conducted not just for
themselves, also extended for their families. The training was accepted well and they are looking
forward to continual training program intervention for keeping employees happy in future too.

Conclusion

A long-term Training Intervention along with the support of other Employee Engagement programmes
at a strategic level benefits a company for increasing the pace of the organisation and its employees
especially when the company is undergoing an expansion plan. The workforce feels highly motivated,
aligned to companies goals and ready to accept challenges and play new innings. This also helps in
identifying the employees which require extra support in terms of mentoring and coaching. The trouble
makers which can be dealt with separately. Also the performers and high motivators, influencers which
can be strategically utilised. Such interventions always create a feel-good factor amongst the employees
which move their mindset towards Happiness.

Bibliography

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/RoleofAFacilitator.htm

https://www.ica-uk.org.uk/what-is-facilitation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiential_learning

https://www.northwell.edu/news/five-advantages-of-experiential-learning

https://facultyinnovate.utexas.edu/experiential-learning

https://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/human-resource-management.html

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-human-resource-management-organizations-21077...

https://www.griffith.ie/blog/importance-human-resource-management

https://www.easyhrworld.com/the-importance-of-human-resources-to-an-organization/