Award for People
The Johnson Matthey Sustainability Award for People recognises individuals, teams, sites or businesses that demonstrate commitment and excellence in developing a sustainable workforce. This could be through any aspect of training and development or employee health, safety and wellbeing.
The judges were looking for evidence of:
- The benefits to individuals and to Johnson Matthey.
- Employee engagement and involvement.
- The social / environmental / ethical / financial impact of the entry.
- The contribution the entry makes towards achieving the Sustainability 2017 Vision.
Empowering a Sustainable Workforce
A programme of change in work style and behaviour has transformed the Johnson Matthey site at Panki, India. A workplace that was once characterised by a strong sense of ‘them’ and ‘us’ – the worker / management divide – has now become home to a strong team ethic and commitment to excellence. Productivity at work has increased, hand in hand with a greater emphasis on employee and community wellbeing. This remarkable paradigm shift has earned Panki the 2008/09 Sustainability Award for People.
The ethos among employees was previously one of only ‘doing what I was asked to’ – and no more. Working structures were inflexible. So when the programme of change was introduced there was initial resistance: people were worried about their jobs and felt that any change must be bad.
A Human Resources module called ‘Care & Growth’ was set up to underpin behavioural change. Everyone was covered, from the managers down to the operators on the shopfloor. Individual accountabilities were determined and everyone accepted their roles and responsibilities. This has been backed up by periodic reviews, counselling where needed and a system of performance based pay increases at all levels. In the past, people were more concerned with what they could get, not what they could give, and the site has moved on from a ‘get’ culture to a sense of ‘give to get’.
Formal training needs are identified through an annual assessment and include skills, behaviour and knowledge training which is delivered either internally or externally. To raise awareness of community issues, the Panki site collaborated with the Central Board of Workers Education in a scheme to get involved with the local community and help tackle their domestic health and safety problems. A special training module on CSR was devised for Panki employees.
A morning meeting is held at the start of every working day, with everyone attending. A calm tone is set by a few moments of yoga and then the operators themselves lead the meeting. The performance of the previous day is discussed, together with the plan for the coming day. The nitty gritty questions of production are covered and tricky issues of incidents, near misses and absenteeism can be raised in a blame-free atmosphere.
Self confidence has soared as operators have begun to take responsibility for their machines and their jobs. So too, has productivity, up 37% and 50% at the two plants; while the production of catalyst pellets per man hour has increased by 141%.
This is altogether a happier workforce where people think in terms of ‘my factory’ and where there has been no disciplinary action for over two years. The health and safety record is robust. With a greater understanding of life, work and the economy, people at Panki are on the road to a sustainable culture of work excellence and selfless giving.
