My Raymond Journey – The Complete HR

On 7th May 2018, a batch of 20 young, aspiring minds entered the Raymond campus adorned with the elite tag of “Senior Management Trainee” (SMT). It was a beautiful mix of diverse people who all had the same dream to have a great start to our post MBA career.  All of us bonded really well after a week-long common induction post which we were allocated our respective businesses. I was into Lifestyle Business with 8 other Sales and Marketing SMTs. We were extremely curious to know our roles but there was a great surprise awaiting us. Lifestyle business had crafted a one year training program which was segregated into 3 different stints.

The stints in HR were designed in the following sequence:

Plant HR

Business HR

Center of Excellence HR

I truly loved the beauty of the sequence of stints. Plant HR role in start would help me to understand the business really well. It would expose me to new challenges which would equip me with the ability to understand the ground realities. After understanding the business, Business HR role will be crucial in aligning the business objectives with people and lastly Center of Excellence role will help to strategize and drive the leading policies and practices.

Chapter 1 – Plant HR Stint

Would you consider swapping five-day work-week for six days at work, fancy canteens for a staple lunch of roti-daal and lavish office for an environment filled with loud and shrill noises? Probably not, but I was excited as this setup reminded me of my humble and simple childhood in the township of SAIL. My stint started at the oldest Suiting Plant of Raymond at Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh. Having an electrical engineering background in the past has provided me multiple avenues for different manufacturing plants exposure but a textile plant experience was still on my checklist.  Hence, I was elated when I landed at Chhindwara Suiting plant on 1st June for my first stint.

Chhindwara plant started its operation on 1st April, 1991 and is spread over 100 acre plot. Not just the plant but the lovely Raymond Township was no less than a heavenly resort. The flats and Bungalows were surrounded by picturesque bio-diversity. I was extremely mesmerized by the beauty of the plant and township, but the learning from the stint was even better.

HR Team in plant is like Avengers. It is a single man army for each domain (Administration, HR policies, Wages, Training, PF, Admin and IR). In my 4 months plant stint, I was majorly working in the domain of Training & Development, HR Policies and IR domain. I was extremely grateful to get direct in hand experience to understand the manufacturing process. I worked with both internal and external stakeholders for different projects (CSR, Training Evaluation, IR cases, Manufacturing awards and Culture Cascade).

My technical skills did strengthen to a great extent and but the greatest takeaway from the plant stint was my behavioral learning. Plant role groomed me in the following skills.

Communication- The communication style varies to a great extent between corporate and plant. At plant it is important for one to display humility at all times but not at the risk of sounding submissive while interacting with management staff or workers, The awareness of sensitivity of communication with workers and other stakeholders was one of the crucial learning part. 

Approachability - I was extremely impressed by the HR team. They were extremely approachable. They entertained every level of query by all employees with equal importance and reverence. The biggest learning I had while working with the team was the value of patience. 

Adaptability - Being the youngest team member, I was apprehensive about the differences in working methodology and thinking pattern. But to my surprise, the team was very progressive in their thought process. They embraced all the technological changes which I suggested with open arms. My technological driven ideas and their robust learning style created a great fusion. I was inspired by their work ethic and never ending quest for learning.

Plant HR was the perfect Launchpad to start my HR career.  I would suggest that manufacturing experience is imperative for anyone aspiring to take up a leadership role. So, this was the end of my beautiful journey in Plant. I will be back soon with my next Chapter as Business HR.