Firms want men of many skills amid labour shortage and cost cutting

Vijay Singh Birua, 31, who belongs to a tribal community from Jharkhand, came to Telangana in search of work. He joined Sitaram Spinners as a cleaning staff, but quickly rose to become a machine operator, earning Rs 10,000 a month.

Birua received training for the job through a skill development programme under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana. Besides government programmes, private initiatives, too, are encouraging the workforce in labour intensive industries such as textile, leather and cement to upskill — and better still, learn multiple skills.

Multiskilling has taken centre stage in sectors such as these, which are facing labour shortage and are looking to limit costs.

Hundreds and thousands of migrant workers, who had left for their home states in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic in India, are yet to return. And while the lockdown has been lifted, in many cases only 20 to 50 per cent of the sanctioned manpower is being allowed in factories to limit crowding and ensure safe working distance.

Multiskilling and cross-training of employees to operate various machines are helping mitigate the problems arising from this crisis.

Gautam Ganeriwal, managing director, Sitaram Spinners, and general council member at Textile Sector Skill Council, says multiskilling not only addresses labour shortage, but it also helps cut costs by 15-20 per cent. “Multiskilling is the order of the day. We want people who can do more than one job at a time,” adds N Srinivasan, vice-chairman and managing director, India Cements.

At India Cements, the number of contract workers, which used to be around 1,900, has fallen to 950. Srinivasan doesn’t see the numbers going up again, even if the factories reach full production capacity because existing workers have now been trained in multiple skills.

As the quality of fresh engineers and technicians is mostly mediocre, and talented workers are difficult to find, the only way out “for industries like ours, which are often located in remote areas, is to equip the workers with multiple technical skills,” says A V Dharmakrishnan, CEO, Ramco Cements.

Ramco Cements conducts a two-year skilling programme, both on and off the job. Graduates undergo a one-year programme. The trainees are attached to a mentor who monitors their progress and gives them periodic feedback. Once the training is over, they are tested, interviewed and suitably placed.

“Besides reducing the cost of labour, multiskilling gives the employee a sense of satisfaction and achievement. His resume, too, becomes strong,” says Dharmakrishnan.

Ramco Cements does not have separate electrical and instrumentation departments at its factories. It takes electricians from the Industrial Training Institutes and trains them in both. They are also trained in maintenance and operations and rotated between the two departments, says Dharmakrishnan.

Multiskilling also helps address absenteeism, which can be as high as 20 per cent in some places, adds N Mohan, executive director and CEO, Clarks India, and chairman, Non-Leather Footwear Panel under the Council for Leather Exports’ Make in India Programme.

“To improve processes and productivity, it is important to have benchmarks and measure efficiencies from time to time. Therefore, it is imperative to embark on multiskilling programmes,” says Mohan. “We can also introduce incentives to encourage workers to add skills that would benefit the organisation.”

One reason that countries like China score in productivity is their emphasis on multiskilling, especially at the level of supervisors, says I S Paul, MD, Drish Shoes. His company, he adds, has trained 25-30 per cent of its workers as all-rounders, which reduced labour requirement and also increased productivity by nearly 15 per cent. At Gokaldas factories, too, over 60 per cent of the nearly 25,000-strong workforce is trained in multiple skills, adds Sivaramakrishnan Ganapathi, MD, Gokaldas Exports.

“The pandemic has come as a wake-up call,” says Irshad Ahmed, managing director of footwear manufacturer and exporter Farida Group. Farida Group, which has 29,000-odd workers, restructured its operations during the lockdown. And multiskilling was at the heart of the restructuring.

Every Farida Group employee goes through a two-month training in technical and soft skills. This leads to an increase in productivity and decline in rejection rates. If rejection rates come down by 0.1 per cent, it is equivalent of one worker’s salary for a year, Ahmed says.

Assembly lines at the group’s factories have now been made circular, since one person does many different kinds of work. Where one worker was doing four activities before the pandemic, now they are doing six.