How Can I Inspire My Team in a Challenging Spinning Unit Environment?

Hi everybody! I am the owner/M.D. of a cotton spinning unit. I am an electronics/software person by education and training. I had to take charge of this unit due to some family problems.

I have picked up a good bit of the technical part, and I have succeeded in making the unit debt-free. But now, when it comes to going to the next level, I am finding it tough. Especially motivating/leading employees whose educational levels are quite low is a real challenge. The nature of the jobs (repetitive, all three shifts, and very little prospects of promotion rank-wise) makes the job even harder.

May I have some ideas/tips/techniques about how to go about the job? My aim is to create a world-class organization, but how can I get my people to understand this?

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Season's Greetings,

It is not easy for every one of us to grow and take on the responsibility as you have shown.

In your organization, motivation plays an important role in growth and learning. You can achieve this by involving workers in a team game directly associated with their activities in the company. You can gather suggestions from the workers themselves regarding the implementation of new procedures and policies, but you need to be very cautious in your interactions with them. Sometimes, being too close may create problems for you and your team.

Lastly, I wish you good luck in your future assignments. We, the members of Citehr.com, are ready to provide suggestions for improvement.

Good luck once again.

"Lafz ki shakl mein ehsas likha jata hai
Yani seerabi ko bhi piyaas likha jata hai
Mere jazbaat se waqif hai qalam bhi mera
Main wafa likhoon to TERA NAAM likha jata hai"

Your ideas are very clear and helpful. What sort of team games do you recommend? Moreover, my predecessors have left a legacy of pretty strict handling of staff with fines, etc., as the main elements of control. So, a MD who tries to interact with people is perceived as being too soft. The trust factor is also lacking.

I tried to learn something about leadership through many books and ended up a bit confused. A few books recommend that you should be involved with people on a day-to-day basis, while a few say that a leader should not be too accessible.

The place where my plant is located is a small town with around 60,000 people. I tried to get a couple of HR people, but they do not seem to be interested in doing a job at such a small place and in a company with moderate (10.00 Cr) turnover.

Can you give some further guidance on this matter? Thanks and regards.

Hi Amar,

Firstly, I appreciate the way you are visualizing the business. Now, coming to the facts of increasing loyalty among workers, you need to give the right direction to them. They should feel secure with your company. You should win their trust because they are not professionals to understand promotions; they seek immediate compensation. Celebrate your success along with them and make them believe that they are part of your victory.

Any suggestions regarding this will be very helpful.

Kranthi
[kkranthi2007@indiatimes.com](mailto:kkranthi2007@indiatimes.com)

Hi Amal!

I also appreciate your efforts. Apart from motivation, reward, and recognition play an important role in textiles because the attrition rate is too high.

So, I suggest you give them wages, salary, overtime, etc., on time. You can also start attendance awards, cash awards for full attendance, provide them small gifts on 1-year completion, and as my friends say, they want the company to be with them and celebrate their festivals.

Regards,
Mohit

Dear Mr. Chaware,

My $0.02 (two cents)

To start with, BASICS:

1) First, get the IDEA/CONCEPT into the company culture that there exists a pathway to a better work culture. Why will they buy this idea: Show them the benefits that will be for them when you finally achieve your world-class organizational culture.

2) Invite people they aren't aware of and start introducing them within the company. Create a mental image of the company changing for the better for them. These people could be called "visiting faculty" for the organization. Also, if possible, start hiring outside the known industry parameters.

Slowly, you will initiate a smooth process that will help you start your dream organization.

Hi Amal,

It's really good that you shared your concerns here. Many will get useful tips out of this.

As you said that it is not possible to promote people in the organization to higher designations, but you can always keep them attached to their profiles and make them feel responsible for the work they are doing. Your prime responsibility is to make them feel that whatever they are doing has a lot to contribute to the company's growth.

The second thing is the team game. A team game is nothing but playing with human nature and tendencies. When you are not able to retain people with monetary and luxury benefits, do it with other things. People are likely to stay in places where they feel most comfortable and have other people around with whom they can share. To achieve that, you can arrange gatherings where you can encourage them to enjoy together, creating a sense of togetherness that will be reflected in their work as well.

Your predecessors, as you said, were very strict with the workers, and maybe they were not entirely wrong considering it was a decades-old mentality. However, now that times have changed, you need to adapt. Be liberal with them. Grant them the little things they want. Make positive changes for them in the company policy, gradually improving the environment. This will help you gain their trust. Encourage them to bring their families to company celebrations and cover the costs.

Leadership is never found in books. "Leaders are probably not born, and no one can make leaders as well. They are self-made with their abilities to convince and have foresight."

I wish you all the best for your plans to make your company a global organization.

Regards,

Hi Amal,

Congratulations to you for taking over the responsibility. We believe that all managers are HR managers, so I think you need not look out for an HR person specifically for your unit presently. As you rightly said, you may not get one immediately.

Personally, I feel that your employees may not be interested in training as such, but would easily get associated with you and your organization if their social interests are known and taken care of. Adding value to them may be secondary to adding value to their families - children/spouse.

You can try to improve the quality of life at the workplace (good facilities for drinking water, a place to have lunch, enough space to work). Celebrate their festivals, organize a few activities for children (some competitions within the company premises), offer scholarships to children for studies, and install a screen in the office premises that gives some advertisements, songs, etc. You can run a CD regarding your unit wherein they are shown working, and their families may appear in some events. (Live media is an agency that provides free services.) Recognize loyalty (award for attendance, long service, discipline, maximum productivity, additional qualifications, educating children) in public. Introduce skill improvement sessions, invite people from other units for interactions, and let them watch movies like "Guru," "Lagaan" together; it helps in motivating and team building.

I could think of these few things immediately and so felt like sharing.

Best wishes for your future ventures,

Archana

Dear Mr. Amal Chaware,

Your task of motivating and leading employees becomes much more challenging if your shop floor employees are older and the foreman or supervisor in charge is somewhat demotivated. It appears from your posting that you are young, and this may also contribute to the issue when interacting with elderly employees in the workplace.

- The supervisory staff needs to be addressed more frequently regarding the changes you wish to implement; this message is conveyed more easily to the workers.
- The workers must undergo structured motivational training programs, and your vision should be communicated through these programs.
- Following these steps, you may consider introducing benefits such as free tea, meals, and milk during night shifts (if not provided before). One of our clients, who faced chronic absenteeism issues, successfully tackled it by introducing free lunch. This approach still works today. The workers need to see the positive changes to start believing in them.

I have undertaken similar assignments in motivating and leading employees in several cotton spinning mills in the South, and the results have been somewhat slow but certainly evident. These mills have older employees with a lower level of education, facing similar challenges to what you are experiencing.

My suggestion is to proceed "slow and steady" initially and then accelerate the process once the message is absorbed by the employees.

Wishing you all success!

K. Sambasivam
(M) 94434 05521.

I have received more concrete feedback here than ever before. Thanks a lot, everybody. I will now detail what I have done so far and the results:

1. We are providing an attendance incentive as absenteeism is a major problem in textiles. We ensure timely payment of all wages, incentives, and overtime. Initially, the incentive was effective but now it seems to be losing momentum. My study reveals that a group of individuals consistently receive the incentive each month while others come and go. I have also observed that many employees show up but lack genuine engagement in their tasks.
2. I attempted to introduce a program where we acknowledge and celebrate birthdays and marriage anniversaries of our employees. I quickly realized that celebrating birthdays of adults was perceived as "soft" and that any Managing Director proposing such ideas was considered too lenient and a "wimp." It may sound unbelievable, but I did receive feedback along those lines.
3. Presenting videos of successful, role model units has been effective, particularly with younger employees. I am keen on implementing Archana's suggestions promptly. Additionally, loyalty awards are a valuable concept.
4. While I have not yet implemented a free lunch program, feedback from a few mills I am acquainted with has been rather amusing. They mention that the free lunch initiative led to significant management challenges, including concerns about food quality and choices becoming contentious issues. I would appreciate insights from Mr. Sambasivam on the specific implementation of such schemes.
5. As pointed out by Mr. Sambasivam, I am relatively young. I value the suggestion of involving middle managers to support and embrace my ideas. I will focus on achieving that.
6. I would greatly appreciate feedback on enhancing my communication skills. This area requires significant improvement.

Once again, thank you all for your encouragement and time.

Here we can just guide you in your planning, Amal. Everybody here tries to solve each other's problems. As I told you before, they are not professionals to understand why you are bringing these schemes. It is important that the responsibility of motivating your employees starts from you. Other than what you have specified, please add these:

- Appreciate the employees with skills to manage the people.
- Give them additional responsibilities.
- Provide motivational sessions twice a week.
- Show that you are willing to talk with them whenever they need you.

That's why it's important that someone who is a capable person (an employee who is a good manager and loyal) takes on a few burdens of yours. Bring out a strategy for every move you make.

Kranthi

Dear Amal Chaware,

Let me explain how I went about:

I am a freelance technical consultant. I was engaged to reduce waste/cost of poor quality in the mill, but I found within my first two or three visits, the mill was having problems similar to what you have. I was trying to find out the problems and what were the reasons for this state of affairs from both workers' point of view and middle management point of view. Since I was an "Outsider" and old (58 years), they freely talked to me and tried to convey the message that nothing could improve (no waste reduction or efficiency improvement possible). After discussions with management, we decided to assess the reality first. Following this, I interacted with all, individually and in groups, collected further details from these two groups. Based on this, we decided to categorize only the "real" problems as:

- Easily doable (minimum resources, minimum time) - results should be visible
- Requires resources and time - to be done in phases - Talk about this to all on every possible occasion (e.g. improving lighting in twisting hall)
- Cannot be done - Explain the reasons to workmen (This is to be done after completing the first two)

Started taking actions immediately.

Motivating workmen

Motivating Supervisors

Re-doing "on the job training" (OJT) simultaneously emphasizing the need to improve productivity/reduce waste (making them understand that there was no magic/shortcut to improve the bottom-line). They never had any OJT after their induction years ago.

Results started showing slowly and continual improvements were perceptible.

From your reply,
"free lunch scheme became a major management issue with many offshoots like quality of food, food choices, etc. being the bones of contention"
Somewhat strong workers' union(?)
This was not a major issue here, as the cost of provisions is escalating every day and workers feel benefitted by this. Every day, the unit-head sits and takes lunch with workmen from day one.

Wishing you Success!
K. Sambasivam
sambasi@hotmail.com
(M) 94434 05521