How Can We Boost Teamwork and Morale Among Factory Workers Facing Discontent?

Hi, I have employees working in a plant in UP. Among the workmen, there is a lot of discontent, complaining, manager-related issues, and lack of teamwork. What are engagement activities that can increase teamwork, collaboration, and respect for employees in a factory setup?

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Engagement Activities to Enhance Teamwork in a Factory Setting

In a factory setting where there are issues such as discontent and lack of teamwork among employees, implementing engagement activities can play a crucial role in fostering a positive work environment. To enhance teamwork, collaboration, and respect among employees, consider the following engagement activities:

1. Team-building exercises: Organize team-building activities such as group challenges, games, or workshops that promote collaboration and communication among employees.

2. Employee recognition programs: Implement a system to acknowledge and reward employees for their hard work and achievements, which can boost morale and foster a culture of respect.

3. Training and development opportunities: Provide training sessions or workshops to enhance employees' skills and knowledge, promoting teamwork and collaboration through shared learning experiences.

4. Open communication channels: Encourage open and transparent communication between employees and management to address grievances, build trust, and promote a culture of respect within the workplace.

5. Social events and gatherings: Organize social events or team outings to create opportunities for employees to bond outside of work, strengthening relationships and fostering teamwork.

By implementing these engagement activities, you can create a more collaborative and respectful work environment, ultimately improving teamwork and employee satisfaction in the factory setup.

Dear member, your post mentions the symptoms and causes of the lack of employee engagement. If you know the causes, then why not work on their eradication? However, whatever action you recommend, you need support from the top management. Is there sufficient empowerment at your level, and also at the plant level?

Causes of Employee Disengagement

The causes of employee disengagement that you have mentioned could be the traditional type of management style. In most companies, the top leadership is disinclined to change their management style. Therefore, I recommend you first measure the costs and ratios associated with each department. Once the top leadership gets visibility of the costs, the solution to decrease the costs would be the removal of the causes mentioned in your post.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Thank you for your response. Not only is my top management, but also the customer (our plant is based at the customer site), completely in support of this engagement and expecting HR to intervene. With reference to your suggestion, I have already conducted the cost and ratio analysis and have implemented some restructuring to reduce costs. Is there anything specific that you can recommend?

Dear colleague,

Your belief that introducing suitable employee engagement activities will mitigate discontent among workers is, in my view, putting the cart before the horse.

You need to know exactly what is agitating workers' minds before finding a solution. For that, quickly conduct a dipstick survey by talking face-to-face with some representative workmen. Then, you will come to grips with specific issues rather than generalized ones. It may emerge that the issues are pinpointing unjust treatment, favoritism, inadequate pay, lack of basic facilities like potable drinking water, insufficient toilets, a hot working environment, etc., which will point to taking issue-based actions rather than generalized employee engagement activities.

The above are illustrative examples and may not be your bone of contention. But the point I am stressing is the need to size up the specific issues and work around them rather than focusing on costs and ratios, which may only please management but will bypass the pain points of agitating workers' minds.

Regards,

Vinayak Nagarkar HR and Employee Relations Consultant

Dear member,

I had recommended the measurement of costs and ratios because that is the only language top management understands better. If you talk about the "problems" with the management, how many companies are there whose management is ready to listen? The problems that you are able to see, but your top leadership is not able to see, speak volumes. All the problems your company has are solvable. It is not at all rocket science. Nevertheless, why was the need felt to come to the forum and seek a solution?

The problems that you have mentioned existed even before the birth of management science. If management science provides adequate safeguards to prevent the problems, then why are companies grappling with them?

By the way, how many HR professionals do not know what the problems in their company are? They know the problems and they know the solutions also. Nevertheless, they just pretend that they do not know the problems or they do not show the courage to talk to the management.

If the problems are well visible, and in spite of it, if the HR starts conducting the dipstick survey, then it is as good as living with the proverb "haath ke kangan ko aarsi kyon?"

A few months ago, there was violence in one of the companies located on the outskirts of Bangalore. The workers had vandalized the company's property. It would be naive to think that HR did not know why the workers were in an agitated state. Nevertheless, when the government ordered an inquiry, the HR professionals of the company were blamed for not having sufficient knowledge of the labor laws!

Worst still, the HR professionals were even killed in Pricol and Maruti Suzuki Motors Limited. At both companies, the HR professionals had illustrious careers.

Anyway, you feel that the dipstick solution will work, and you have given compliments also. In that case, do a favor to the members of this forum. Conduct the dipstick survey and take corrective action against the problems that emerge in the survey. Hopefully, by 2025, when the problems are eradicated, come back to this forum and write a case study. It will be a great education for the HR fraternity as a whole.

Let me reiterate what I had written in the previous post. Nothing sensitizes as much as an understanding of the costs and ratios. This is what Taiichi Ohno had done in Toyota Motor Corporation for 20 long years. Now since you say with confidence that you had done the cost and ratio analysis, then would you mind confirming the Inventory Turnover Ratio (ITR) is for the inventory of the materials as well as for the finished goods? Nothing confidential about the disclosure of this ratio as this very ratio is a part and parcel of the balance sheet of the company. Just visit the websites of Economic Times or Money Control and you will get the balance sheets of thousands of companies. The ITR is mentioned in the balance sheet of each manufacturing company.

Otherwise, you can do one favor to the members of this forum. Conduct the dipstick survey, take corrective action, and please confirm whether ITR was increased, or any other ratio was increased/decreased. It could take 3-4 years. However, your confirmation will help to benchmark other companies against your company.

All the best!

Dinesh Divekar

You may also choose to try the management guru's suggestion of conducting a side-by-side dipstick survey and then share the results for the benefit of this forum.

Regards,
Vinayak Nagarkar
HR and Employee Relations Consultant

Dear member,

For those who have cut their teeth in the erstwhile era of personnel management, it is common for them to pass taunts against HR. They always look at HR as providing only basic functions. Nevertheless, management science, which includes HR management, teaches us to measure anything and everything.

The Importance of Measurement in Successful Companies

Look at successful companies like Dell, IBM, Google, Microsoft, and so on, and you will find they have instituted a culture of measurement in their companies. Southwest Airlines has gone a step further and made teamwork an organization's strategy. That is why they have not made losses even for a single year in the last half-century. FedEx has taken the culture of measurement to the grassroots level.

Steps to Implement Effective Measurement

If one wishes to go somewhere, then one must know his/her position on the map. Therefore, our steps should be to:

a) institute measures
b) decide what we want to increase or decrease
c) make an action plan

If you follow this path, issues such as discontent among the staff members will get addressed. If the focus is only on addressing the discontent, then we may not know whether the efforts translated into higher productivity or not. Therefore, decide whether to benchmark against successful companies or against a personnel manager. Your choice will decide the result.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Dear colleague,

Instituting a measurement culture, in principle, is an approach the learned colleague is advocating for. There is nothing wrong with it as such. He has also mentioned names of imported companies where it is claimed to have worked successfully. The critical question is whether the same approach will work in the poster's organization, especially when it is dealing with employee issues and the hearts of workers are suffering. If the imported management guru elaborates on how and at what cost it will work successfully in the current predicament of the company, it will be a valuable lesson for the forum members.

I believe there is an opportune time for a measurement culture to be introduced and take root, especially when the employer-employee relationship is filled with issues that require immediate solutions.

Regards,

Vinayak Nagarkar HR and Employee Relations Consultant