Your reply tells a fair amount about the situation. If you have this strength of workmen, I am certain functions like "Time Office, Payroll, Leave management, and Statutory Compliances" are organized and in place even before you joined.
Does your company comply with the requirement of paying the "Statutory Minimum Wage" applicable to your industry and revise the same every six months as required by the law?
If the answers to both above are affirmative, then your organization has happily achieved the first benchmark in employer-employee relations, which means that your workmen and employees are not justified in nursing any grievance against the employer (except, of course, for more wages and benefits!).
If labor turnover and attrition are important problems being faced by your organization, what are the reasons your workmen go away? If the remuneration, working conditions, and treatment are perceived by them as irritants or unfair, workmen would always be on the lookout for alternate employment, causing low commitment to the present job. This is rather tricky. Even if your organization has achieved this basic benchmark, workers all over will always clamor for higher wages and better benefits. This situation is complicated further if the organization is making good profits, the business is growing, but the employee costs (wages and benefits) are or are perceived by the recipients as low.
Greater commitment and improved performance revolve around how emoluments are structured, at what level they are set, and how supervisors and managers treat workers. If the organizational culture is harsh, authoritarian, undermining human dignity, and such areas are ignored for any reason, aside from attrition, employees may organize themselves into a Trade Union (internal or external, is an issue apart!) unless your organization already has a Union of workmen.
To earn better efforts, the work atmosphere, culture, and working conditions must be supportive, inclusive, and non-threatening. If you put in place first the compliances and coverages under various applicable legislations, establish work norms, treat workmen as important constituents of the organization, establish training inputs, recognize and reward contributions from workmen, then you are well on the way to have earned the essence of the principle "Extra efforts, commitment, and sustained contributions to production and productivity have to be earned by the employers."
In terms of routine activities, just remember that there is always a "sophistication gap" between the Management and the Workmen, which makes workers insecure, and this insecurity manifests either as extremely defensive or even offensive behavior. Collectively, they will even suspect your perfectly normal interventions.
I would advise as follows:
1. Communicate, preferably in their native language or at least in Hindi, freely but so as not to please or pamper to establish a dialogue.
2. Be proactive in receiving their grievances, complaints, problems and respond as fast as you and your organizational system permit, but please do remember that you are an aid to those who are responsible to extract work performance, and you shall never undermine them.
3. Workers, organized or otherwise, expect from employers: Uniformity, Consistency, Fairness, Firmness, Some amount of generosity, and above all, Recognition.
4. If you follow these simple rules, you will gain fairly easily for yourself and for the organization the all-important credibility.
But always be upright (not be an egoist), protect your own self-concept and dignity, and at the same time grant them theirs.
Your workmen/employees are your partners in progress and prosperity, and not your slaves!
Kindly do not get tired or exasperated by this rather long reply. But you have an open invitation to raise more questions. I will be glad to assist always but within my capabilities!
Regards,
Samvedan