NEW DELHI: Around 25 engineers at Maruti Suzuki's production planning and control division in Gurgaon recently came up against a pleasant surprise: their erstwhile boss, Atul Jain, had taken on a new avatar. He had morphed from a fiery boss to a colleague who seemed more malleable. <\/p>\n
Earlier, Jain could not tolerate a single glitch in processes handled by his team and this led to frequent unpleasant situations. As a result, many of his subordinates hesitated to acknowledge their gaffes. Now, the picture has changed and Jain's team finds itself more in harmony than ever before. The transformation was the result of Maruti Suzuki introducing pilot sessions on spirituality and 'mind enlightenment' by the Brahmakumaris. <\/p>\n
\"After attending these in-house sessions, my efficiency as well as that of my department, has risen. The ownership in my team members has also improved. They no longer hesitate in disclosing their mistakes,\" says Jain. <\/p>\n
Encouraged by the response, the company, which has been struggling to handle workplace conflicts, has introduced sessions on spirituality by the Brahmakumaris for all its 18,000 employees. Celebrity Brahmakumari Shivani will conduct the sessions on spiritual well-being. Her first session, webcast this week, reached out to all the employees. <\/p>\n
\"The sessions will help our employees keep stress levels in control and avoid conflicts at work. We will also customise training for the overall spiritual well being of our employees,\" says a Maruti Suzuki spokesperson. The sessions will help the Maruti employees keep emotions in place, says Brahma Kumari Shivani. <\/p>\n
\"We should not blame others for our anger; it is totally in our hands to control it,\" she says. Shivani has held similar sessions at companies like Larsen & Toubro, Indian Oil Corporation, Singapore Airlines, Godrej Industries, Sony Entertainment Television, GE Energy and Apollo Hospital. <\/p>\n
Maruti is also working on other initiatives targeting employee engagement. For one, it boasts of a common canteen and uniform across hierarchies. \"At Maruti Suzuki, we believe that having food together encourages bonding. Our Gurgaon plant has two vegetarian canteens that can seat about 2,400 persons. We also have a separate Japanese food counter for expats,\" says SY Siddiqui, chief mentor, Maruti Suzuki. <\/p>\n
The company also organises a programme where families of the shop floor visit the factory on every second and fourth Saturday to interact with the Maruti team. \"They bond over lunch, games etc. It's a full fun-day activity,\" he says. <\/p>\n
About 45 per cent of Maruti employees are in the age bracket of 25 to 30 years but the broad HR policies and strategy are the same for them. \"We believe that a younger workforce requires higher levels of engagement. With that in mind, our focus is to strengthen the on-boarding process-comprehensive induction training, challenging assignments, creating job excitement and mentoring,\" he says. <\/p>\n
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Maruti Suzuki introducing pilot sessions on spirituality and mind enlightenment by the Brahmakumaris<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW DELHI: Around 25 engineers at Maruti Suzuki's production planning and control division in Gurgaon recently came up against a pleasant surprise: their erstwhile boss, Atul Jain, had taken on a new avatar. He had morphed from a fiery boss to a colleague who seemed more malleable. Continue reading