Celebrating our People
We strongly believe that our People are our most valuable asset and it is our
continuous endeavour to focus on the development of our internal talent pool and
attract the best talent available by providing the right opportunities. Guided by our vision of being the most admired employer, we have strived to engage our employees and provide them with the right tools and resources to continually improve and upskill themselves to holistically develop as evolved professionals.
The same is also in line with our group ESG journey that stands on the three core
pillars of Transforming the Workplace, Transforming Communities and Transforming the Planet. All our organisational policies and practices are aligned to deliver on these core values.
Transforming the Workplace is driven by the principles of promoting diversity, inclusion, and gender parity to unleash the organisation’s full potential.
Moreover, we have also adopted an integrated approach when it comes to Human Resources (HR) at
Hindustan Zinc and these are closely interlinked with our Sustainability Goals 2025. To ensure the holistic development of our employees, we have developed a mutually inclusive relationship with them to ensure their progress, while effectively propelling our sustainability journey.
Hindustan Zinc has always been a frontrunner in promoting gender, geographical, cultural, and racial
diversity. In this journey of promoting gender parity and developing an inclusive culture, we have set a target for ourselves to achieve and maintain 30% diversity among all Executive and Management Committees and ensure that equal opportunities are provided to all without any bias.
This gives us many reasons to celebrate our progress on our strategic priorities and targets.
Our HR Vision is to Develop our PEOPLE, PARTNERSHIPS,
and to build a FUTURE-READY organisation.
At Hindustan Zinc, our organisational values are the guiding principles that provide a purpose and direction to each decision. Our values of Integrity, Respect, Entrepreneurship, Care, Innovation, Trust, and Excellence lie at the foundation of our sustainable business.
Trust
We actively foster a culture of mutual trust in interactions with our stakeholders and encourage an open
dialogue which ensures mutual respect.
Innovation
We embrace a conducive environment for encouraging innovation that leads to a zero harm
environment and exemplifies optimal utilisation of natural resources, improved efficiencies and
recoveries of by-products.
Integrity
We place utmost importance in engaging ethically and transparently with all our stakeholders, taking accountability of our actions to maintain the highest standards of professionalism and complying with international policies and procedures.
Respect
We lay consistent emphasis on Human Rights, respect the principle of free, prior, informed consent, while our engagements with stakeholders give local communities the opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns.
Care
As we continue to grow, we are committed to the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Prosperity to create a sustainable future in a zero harm environment for our communities.
Excellence
Our people are our most important assets. We actively encourage their development and support them in pursuing their goals.
Entrepreneurship
Our primary focus is to deliver value of the highest standard to our stakeholders. We are constantly motivated on improving our costs and production quality in each of our businesses through a culture of best practice benchmarking.
BUSINESS STRATEGY | CEO RULEBOOK
Our Group’s DNA, philosophy, and ways of working have been precipitated in the CEO Rulebook which
provides the guiding light for how we work and deliver.
Our people philosophy revolves around the guidelines from the CEO Rulebook. Business units are directly accountable to lead workforce planning, hiring, retention and reward programmes. The HR team reviews the strategic workforce plan and is responsible for making corrections as necessary, to allow for any deviations.
OUR HR STRATEGY
Our Human Resource strategy over the years has evolved from fulfilling a support function to becoming a strategic partner in our business. This has catalysed a transformation in our HR strategy, which is now aligned with the organisational strategy.
- Formulated on the basis of recognising business requirements and goals for the foreseeable future, and analysing changing workforce trends
- Structured to create a future-ready organisation with a multi generational workforce and employee-centric policies
- Led by our HR vision, which, coupled with the organisational strategy, paves the way for the meaningful
utilisation of our talent pool (executives, non-executives, business partners), our most significant resource
Our HR Policies
- Equal Opportunity Policy
- Diversity & Inclusion Policy
- Whistle Blower Policy
- Employee Award & Reward Scheme
- Productivity Tools Policy
- Prevention of Sexual Harassment
PILLARS OF OUR HR STRATEGY
People
Performance
Processes
These three pillars are interdependent, inextricably linked, and aligned with each other in our HR strategy.
3,500
Total headcount in
FY 2021-22
(2,487 Executives,
1,013 Non-Executives)
412
Attrition
(11.8% of total
headcount)
Great Place
to Work trust score
increased to
78% from 74%
OUR HR STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK
Developing our people and our partnerships build a
future-ready organisation
PEOPLE PERFORMANCE PROCESSES
Hindustan Zinc Vision: To be the largest Zinc and Lead producers globally
Vedanta Vision, Values and Pillars
OUR KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
19,414
Total Business
Associates
52%
Indigenous
Employee
Percentage
15
Differently Abled
(on-roll Employees)
15.7%
% of Women in the
Executive Workforce
99
No. of Six Sigma
Projects Initiated in FY 2021-22
1,12,947
Learning Hours
(14,118 Man-days)
Training Man-days
5.68
Average Training
Man-days
per Executive
Employee
<30 years: 48%,
30-50 years: 46%,
>50 years: 6%
Age Diversity
50%
Senior Management /
Board Diversity
*% of the executive workforce as on March 31, 2022
OUR PEOPLE PERFORMANCE
In an eventful year that tested our perseverance, resilience, and strength, we, at Hindustan Zinc, successfully navigated the various challenges of the rapidly spreading Omicron variant supported by the sheer grit and determination of our people. Despite the numerous odds facing the organisation, our teams rose to the
occasion to steer the organisation to the next level, enabling us to achieve the highest-ever milestones in various aspects.
ELEMENTS OF OUR HR STRATEGY
Organisation Design
Ensuring Right Management in Place
Digitisation
Optimising employee productivity,
engagement and teamwork through
digitisation and automation
Industrial Relations
Ensuring seamless operation through
an integrated approach
Talent Empowerment Strengthening Talent Pipeline by:
- Acquisition of Competent Talent
- Promoting Young Talent
- Capability Building
- Driving Diversity and Inclusion
Our focussed approach in implementing the best people practices across the organisation propelled the Company’s performance
excellence and growth journey through the year. During FY 2021-22, we did exceptionally well in HR and payroll processes as a function and received A-Rating for the second consecutive time – a first in the Group. We also topped the HR scorecard with a score of 77%, which is the highest ever for any Group company. These
successes help us to stay motivated and march ahead with
confidence towards excellence.
APPLICATION OF OUR HR STRATEGY
Through focussed interventions in tandem with our HR strategy, we, at Hindustan Zinc:
- Determine the most effective ways to attract, motivate, develop, and retain new and existing talent across the organisation
- Define a set of key people initiatives that enable the organisation to achieve its strategic goals and targets focussed on enhancing safety, innovation, productivity, and cost-effectiveness
- Develop guidelines and procedures for governance, compliance, and risk mitigation
ATTRACTING & NURTURING TALENT In FY 2021-22,
- 358 talents were identified through the year under various talent recognition and development initiatives (V-Reach – 127, Business ACT UP – 10, Technical ACT UP – 20, V-Build – 29, V Aspire – 3, V Reach Tech – 63, Functional ACT UP – 106)
-
724 Employees benefited under various talent development initiatives (Executive Coaching – 8, Lead Programme – 53, DC MEP – 40, Mentoring – 304, V Lead – 10, IDP – 309)
- Diversity Mentoring: To enable women leaders (168) to transition to the next level in their career
- Young Talent Mentoring: To groom young leaders (89) in the experience band of 1-5 years
ENABLING LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT
With a focus on enhancing their learning and development, executives are enrolled through the HZL Work Integrated Learning Platform. Our initiatives during FY 2021-22 covered:
- Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from IIM Udaipur: Batch yet to start
- Enrolled 33 employees for an MBA in Business Analytics from BITS Pilani
A glance at some of our training programmes and the number of employees who benefited:
- Theory of Constraint: 210
- Six Sigma Projects: 83 GETs covered in training and 99 projects identified
- Total Quality Management: 69
- HZL Mining Mate Training Competency enhancement: 117
- Contract Management from IIM Udaipur: 28
- Motivational talk, ‘Ek Udaan Aur Bharo’, by one of the eminent speakers: 1,200+
Building Capacities
- During the year, we conducted ‘Ankuran’, an industrial relations workshop with leaders of Hindustan Zinc Worker’s Federation and HR Heads across Hindustan Zinc. This is a proactive step to build harmonious industrial relations for the
organisation.
- Another programme ‘Kshamta’ was undertaken to ensure that our team is adept, aligned and imbued with the necessary skills to operate in the prevailing external environment. The 2-day workshop, organised with our HR business partners (HRBPs) across locations, was crafted to make employees agile and flexible to adopt new technologies and concepts.
CASE STUDY
Challenging the Status Quo
PROMOTING GENDER DIVERSITY
As an integrated player with strong focus on holistic value delivery across our stakeholder fabric, we face many challenges with respect to stereotypes of gender, age, regional ethnicity, education etc. These challenges lead to low employee engagement, impacting manpower productivity, leading to lack of organic growth within the organisation, unconscious bias in managers, lower representation of women across levels particularly in leadership roles, and lack of basic facilities for women especially in mining operations.
Acknowledging the need for gender diversity, from the Board level to the mines, we decided to raise the diversity bar through a cohesive project. The project was initiated by creating our vision, strategy, roadmap and implementation plan through brainstorming and ideation with the leadership team. It was focussed on Diversity & Inclusion as a business imperative for the organisation, with the ownership starting from the leadership team and cascading down to the shopfloor.
The Inclusion Project
- The organisation focussed on workforce composition as the first step. The ‘Inclusion’ lens included gender, regional, educational, physical ability, age, ethnicity, and communities
- A roadmap was developed, and the Company’s Equal Employment Opportunity Policy and the Diversity Policy were declared
- The Company revamped the recruitment strategy, anchored the gender diversity, focussed on age diversity, ensured educational heterogeneity, encouraged regional and cultural diversity, focussed on diversity among business partners and inclusion of expats in the workforce, besides
involvement of social communities in this drive
- To ensure the safety of women, including those in the night shift, a structured and proactive
approach was adopted, with the Company first taking consent from the statutory authority for
operating night shift for women employees. We then included access control and a dedicated transportation facility for women. We provided training on the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) policy to employees, business partners and general workforce, in addition to gender
sensitisation norms. Women were provided self defence training and safety kits in addition to a SOS App and further steps to aid the process. The night shifts have been successfully initiated at Dariba and Chanderiya smelters
The Inclusion Project
- Multi-fold message disseminated, both internally and externally
- Endorsing Hindustan Zinc’s commitment towards being a progressive, safe, and inclusive
organisation, where women are challenging the status quo and employees are fostering
inclusiveness
CASE STUDY
Transforming the Workplace
COMMITTED TO PEOPLE CARE
The ESG journey at Hindustan Zinc signifies our commitment towards adopting best practices and policies for the greater good of the planet. As we embark on the next steps, ‘Transforming the Workplace’ is one of the key pillars of this framework, which focusses on promoting diversity and inclusion alongside integrity, respect, entrepreneurship, care, innovation, trust, and excellence.
- By leveraging our core value ‘Care’, we have focussed on the holistic well-being of our employees, families, and extended families of business partners
- We have launched the Employee Well-being and Assistance Programme, aimed to improve
productivity through stress management
- Programme focusses on year-round engagement with employees, with thrust on building resilience and mindfulness as strategies for stress management
- It includes round-the-year programmes and app-based stress management learning opportunities to engage multi-generational workforces
- The services include 24x7 psychological counselling for employees and their dependents, which are completely confidential
STAYING CONNECTED WITH OUR PEOPLE
We are cognisant of the importance of bonding with our people to progress on our collective journey to realise the organisation’s vision. Our employee engagement strategy is specifically designed to connect with our people by proactively reaching out to them and taking cognisance of their needs.
Hindustan Zinc has partnered with the Great Place To Work Institute to understand the engagement requirements of employees across various levels, functions, and verticals. This enables us to capture feedback from employees on our existing engagement platforms and accordingly revamp and rework our employee engagement methodologies continually.
OUR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT METHODOLOGY It is founded on:
Holistic approach
to engagement and
quality of life
5 dimensions of
Engagement/Work Culture – Credibility, Respect,
Fairness, Care and
Camaraderie, with platforms
created to foster the same
8 dimensions of well – being – emotional, physical,
occupational, social,
spiritual, intellectual,
environmental, financial
CASE STUDY
Providing Equal Employment Opportunities
BUILDING AN LGBTQ+ INCLUSIVE APPROACH
Recognising the value of a diverse workforce, we, at Hindustan Zinc, have committed ourselves to providing equal employment opportunities. We are focussed on creating an inclusive workplace and work culture, in which all employees are treated with respect, care, fairness, sensitivity, and dignity. We believe that workforce diversity is a business imperative and strive to ensure that our workforce represents all sections of society. This open mindset, we believe, will help us deliver better business results. We have hence committed ourselves to providing equal employment
opportunities, without any discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
While it is our endeavour to be inclusive of the LGBTQ+ people, we feel it is essential that
non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies in the workplace must additionally include
gender-neutral language specifically in addressing sexual orientation and gender identity or
expression.
To this end, we have:
- Formulated a well-articulated D&I and LGBTQ Policy
- Partnered with ‘The Humsafar Trust’, which is a pioneer organisation in India dedicated towards counselling, advocacy, and provision of health care to LGBTQ communities
- Initiated an awareness and sensitisation drive for all employees across Hindustan Zinc during FY 2021-22
- Trained more than 100 managers through virtual sessions as part of the sensitisation drive for the HR team and HZL EXCO leadership team. Trainings included awareness on differences between gender and sex, gender identity, the usage of right pronouns, rights, and reformation of laws for LGBTQ employees
- Planned physical training sessions, going forward
OUR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PLATFORMS
Based on our employee engagement approach and methodology, we have launched various platforms and initiatives to stay connected with our people.
SAMPARK
CEO Virtual Townhall (Reward & Recognition: HZL Star Award to the employees – 244, Operators from
Business Partners – 99)
V Excel
Caters to performance and developmental needs of our new joinees across 4 pillars [Leadership
Shadowing, Anchorship for Development, Goal Setting & Performance Delivery, Dipstick Feedback & Action] – Coverage : 150 GETs, 36 MTs, 9 VLDPs & 12 OTs
Workstream Approach
Adopted by HZL HR, along with creation of workstream for each vertical, in a concerted drive towards Excellence in HR. We have 11 workstreams which are working with SMART KPIs and deployment of best-in class people practices
Project ‘Setu
Launched to reboot the organisational structure and align it with our business strategy, enabling the organisation to unlock efficiency and accelerate growth. This critical project, driven by HR in tandem with business leadership, aims at design principles with ‘Right person in Right job’ concept
Caring during COVID-19
MEGA VACCINATION DRIVE
A COVID-19 mega vaccination campaign was initiated across locations for all on-roll employees, their families and business partners/contract workforce and their families, as part of our guiding principles of care and commitment to
guarantee the health and holistic well-being of our people.
CARE FOR COMMUNITIES
We extended help to local panchayats and local health administrations by
disinfecting villages, spraying, and fumigating with sodium hypochlorite solution, in 149 villages, and providing medical gear like masks, sanitisers and personal protective equipment.
BREATH OF LIFE
In the fight against COVID-19, we undertook the following measures:
- Imparted and delivered 500 oxygen concentrators to hospitals in Rajasthan state to address the scarcity of oxygen
- Dedicated the entire supply of oxygen from our plant in Dariba (Rajsamand) to Rajasthan Government and local authorities
- Set up an oxygen bottling plant in a record time of 5 days, and supplied over 13,000 cylinders of medical oxygen
- Dedicated 5 mobile health vans and 1 fully insulated vaccine van, to distribute 500 COVID kits and 47,200 masks
GROUP CORONA KAVACH POLICY (insurance policy)
We introduced an insurance policy for our contract workforce across our
locations in Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, covering more than 25,800 contractual employees.
FIELD HOSPITAL
We have set up a state-of-the-art 100-bed field hospital in Dariba that includes 80 normal beds and 20 ICU beds, with 24x7 oxygen aid for COVID patients.
DIDYOUKNOW SERIES
We launched a series of knowledge-sharing on a weekly basis on how to boost human immunity against COVID.
COVID YODHA
Through this, we share inspirational stories of our employees and Zinc Parivaar who have won the battle against COVID-19.
PROGRESS ON OUR STRATEGIC PRIORITIES & SUSTAINABILITY GOALS
The progress on HR strategic priorities is on-track. The ESG projects taken up under the sustainability framework are as follows:
10%
Diversity Beyond Gender
Human Rights
Assessment
PROGRESS IN FY 2021-22
27.4%
Women as
percentage of Hires
~7%
High-Potential
Women Ratio
25%
Diversity
Ratio in HZL ManCom
19%
Diversity
Ratio in HZL EXCO
Regional Diversity (Executives)
18.6%
Diversity ratio for executives and
other employees
(Female v/s Male)
Overall gender diversity among
executives: ~16%
Dariba Smelter Complex initiated deployment of women in all the three shifts in laboratory and
security functions
GRIEVANCES & FEEDBACK MECHANISM
We have automated the procedure of capturing and redressal of grievances. An online query management system is used by employees for raising queries.
543
queries/grievances
raised
543
queries/grievances
resolved/closed
(During FY 2021-22)
We also capture employee feedback through various interventions including CEO Connect, CHRO Connect, CEO Townhall, LEARN with CEO, Rendezvous with CEO, and engagement with HZL ManCom. We also
capture the feedback during exit interviews.
For business partners, grievances and its redressal are taken up on various platforms such as Grievance Redressal Committee, Canteen Committee, Joint Consultation Committee etc.
CORDIAL LABOUR RELATIONS
We have a single union concept since inception. The Company has one union, affiliated to INTUC, and
recognised by the Management, across all locations. At the corporate level, there exists the Hindustan Zinc Workers’ Federation (HZWF), which was constituted on October 23, 1982, and subsequently recognised by Hindustan Zinc vide letter dated November 27, 1982. HZWF is the sole bargaining agent for workers at the apex level, a body which believes in the dictum that ‘If the company grows, our growth will be taken care of.’ It consists of core members from the recognised Union across locations.
All matters pertaining to service conditions, wages and benefits, strategic policies in respect of workmen are discussed across the table, at the unit level as well as the corporate level, with the Unions/ Federation.
Discussions are driven by the philosophy - ‘to resolve our issues amongst ourselves in our own way jointly’.
All executive members of the federation are either employees or ex-employees of the Company, and
represent the recognised unions in their respective units. They decide the strategy to deal with issues of their employees alongside the Management. There are multiple bipartite forums like Joint Consultation Committee, Welfare Committee, House Allotment Committee, Safety Committee, Canteen Committee & Transport Committee across locations, to deal with matters of workmen in all facets of life. These
committees have equal representation of the Management and the Union.
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
GREAT MANAGER’S AWARD
The Economic Times
(Category: Company with Great Managers)
CII HR EXCELLENCE AWARD
(Category: Prize in Leadership
in HR Excellence)
PEOPLE FIRST HR EXCELLENCE AWARD
((Category: Leading practices in technology
deployment in HR and Champions in
Response to COVID-19)
SHRM INDIA HR EXCELLENCE AWARD
(Category: Excellence in Diversity &
Inclusion and Significant Contribution in
Leveraging HR Technology)
SKILLSOFT PERSPECTIVES 2021 AWARDS
(Category: Digital Dexterity)
5TH CII NATIONAL HR CIRCLE AWARD
(Category: Diversity & Inclusion)
STRATEGIC OUTLOOK
Going forward, we shall look at navigating changing work trends triggered by the pandemic, to increase workforce resilience and effectiveness, while improving employee experience. We shall focus on building critical skills and competencies by creating a more dynamic approach towards sensing the skills required, especially for critical roles. Taking on greater responsibility for driving innovation and executing business transformations in a hybrid work model, we shall strive to support the development of such a model by using human-centric design to offer flexible experiences, enable intentional collaboration and drive empathy based management.
To foster long-term workforce resilience, we shall reassess the workforce support offerings to drive
workforce health, not just performance. We aim to improve workforce health to drive organisational
resilience and sustain performance without jeopardising the health and safety of the workforce. We shall work to accelerate progress on our Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) goals by establishing consequential accountability – holding leaders accountable – instead of collective accountability, which does not produce real results on DEI outcomes.
To build a ‘fit-for-future’ organisation, we shall structure the HR function towards achieving agility, customer centricity and operational efficiency. We shall drive empowerment through a HR operating model that better adapts to changing employee expectations, greater use of technology, and increased cost pressures. It is our endeavour to move to a more dynamic operating model and upskill capabilities.
With the pandemic proving to be a watershed moment that triggered a permanent shift in attitudes and work norms, we are strategically focussed on ensuring workforce effectiveness, backed by dynamic management of employee skills. Our efforts, moving forward, will be more sharply centred on preparing the workforce to take greater accountability towards driving innovation and executing business transformations in a hybrid work model. We are committed to fostering long-term workforce resilience, while accelerating progress on our DEI goals. We have identified the creation of a ‘fit-for-future’ organisation, backed by functional effectiveness, as the overarching agenda of our future strategy.
Ajay Kumar Singhroha
Chief Human Resources Officer
