Godrej workforce set to get younger

The soaps-to-chemicals conglomerate Adi Godrej Group, which has been in existence for 117 years, has prepared a blueprint that will see it transform itself into a next-gen, global Indian enterprise, led largely by a younger workforce.

This blueprint, which involves betting on internal talent, strengthening the group's leadership pipeline, driving performance-linked incentives and an emphasis on training and development, comes at a time when the $2.25 billion (or Rs 13,500 crore) group proposes to increase revenues ten-fold in the next ten years.

Nisaba Godrej, Adi Godrej's younger daughter, who oversees corporate strategy and human capital at the group, believes that it is the conglomerate's workforce that can help take this agenda of growth forward. "To achieve our ten by ten strategy, we need to maintain our pace of growth at around 26 per cent per annum. Besides putting in place systems and processes, it is a highly skilled and motivated workforce that can help us achieve this," she said.

The ten by ten strategy involves ramping up business both organically and inorganically across the group's five key companies including Godrej Consumer Products (GCPL), Godrej Properties, Godrej Agrovet, Godrej Chemicals and Nature's Basket, the group's retail arm, Nisaba Godrej said.

To achieve this, the group will increase its 15,000-strong workforce by 20 per cent in the next three years ensuring that it is mostly younger people who are inducted into the system. "Currently the average age of employees (at Godrej) is 36 years, while the average age of senior leaders is 45 years. Both have come down in the last few years," Sumit Mitra, group HR & corporate services, Godrej Industries, said.  

Half of this 18,000-strong workforce that will be on the rolls of the group by 2017 will sit abroad, Godrej said, thanks to operations in continents such as Africa, Latin America, Europe (UK) and Asia. The group continues to scout for acquisitions in consumer products, its largest business, in Latin America, Asia and Africa as part of its ten by ten strategy. The Indian market, on the other hand, will see largely an emphasis on organic growth in consumer products owing to targets being few and over-valued, Godrej said.

The group is also expected to shift to its brand new office called GodrejOne by the end of this calendar year, which is state-of-the-art and disability friendly Godrej said. All five group companies will be based out of this office, with unit heads and workforce located abroad expected to visit it at least once a year as part of the group's exchange, training and development programmes, she added.

Godrej also said that the group was working at improving gender diversity in senior management positions within group companies. "At the group level, we have 38 per cent women in our workforce, while in companies such as GCPL it is as high as 45 per cent. But we still have a long way to go in terms of getting women into top leadership at the group. That is something where we are focusing our attention," she said.

CHANGE OF TACK

• The blueprint involves betting on internal talent, strengthening the group's leadership pipeline, driving performance-linked incentives
   
• Also, there would be emphasis on training and development
  

 

This comes at a time when the Rs 13,500 crore group proposes to increase revenues ten-fold in the next ten years
 

The group will increase its 15,000-strong workforce by 20% in the next three years ensuring that it is mostly younger people