Key Focus Area/Leading DEI Initiative
While we have been hearing about DEI for many years now across the organisations and even more after the pandemic, for us at RR Kabel, it is already imbedded in our DNA since its inception. Being a family driven professional company, DEI is part of our values which is reflected in the way we conduct our businesses and respect our stakeholders.
At RR Kabel, we are dedicated and are committed to providing equal opportunities to all our employees, irrespective of their race, caste, religion, colour, ancestry, marital status, gender, age, nationality, or disability. Our aim is to create an inclusive and diverse work environment where everyone is valued and respected.
DEI Initiative
At RR Kabel, our primary focus is on strengthening diversity in our leadership roles and across departments such as R&D, Logistics, Sales, and Sales Support including Manufacturing. We have made significant progress over the past few years.
To percolate the thrust from the top leadership team, we have formed a DEI committee and have developed a comprehensive policy and established our DEI framework across the company.
We have drawn out next 3 years road map towards our DEI progressive journey and have incorporated and already published in our Sustainability (ESG) report, which is now available in our website.
DEI is now an integral part of the leadership team KRAs along with business goals.
As part of our employee annual budgeting exercise, we have proactively identified positions which needs to be filled only with women employees including specially abled. We are fortunate many such specially abled team members are already contributing significantly in our company and making career progress.
Each and every manufacturing plant of RR Kabel has well established women committees which continuously strive in making our workplace inclusive by introducing initiates towards women well-being and conducting engagement programs.
It’s a matter of great pride to us, that our assembly lines of cables and switches are completely run by our women employees. More than 100 women workforce manages such assembly lines. We have also been hiring women employees across the hierarchy in various functions including R&D and shop floors.
We run periodic employee connect sessions for women employees to listen to their valuable feedback and address any concerns and also implement new suggestions. We have also been conducting series of training and workshop to upskill our women employees.
Our well-established HR policies including grievance addressal and employee benefits have also played a significant part in further strengthen our inclusive work culture.
Very recently we have tied up with many technical institutes for long term association to hire freshers exclusive for our company to train and groom them as our future talents. We will have significant diverse workforce who will benefit from this program.
Our well-established CSR initiatives under Mission RRoshni has started the ‘Kabel Star Scholarship Program’ to provide financial aid to the children of our electricians in India. It has already impacted life of more than 1000 students who have availed the scholarship and making their career and life bigger and brighter.
For us at RR Kabel, DEI is a continuous journey, and we all are equally committed to not only to make our company inclusive, but also contribute in every manner to make our society inclusive.
Employee Testimonial:
- Working with RR Global group since 1999 has been a fantastic experience. You can come across several employees who served in this organisation for more than two decades in different departments. Being a single woman army at Chennai office, and having served almost 25 years of services in this organisation is an authenticated proof that it is a inclusive work place that gives me a strength to face all situations. The interaction within a single platform makes all the employees feel that there is no discrepancy among the employees.
Nalini Swaminathan – Manager – Sales Admin., Chennai
- “My life is not defined by my disability. There’s a lot I can do, and there are some things that I can’t do. After completing engineering, it would have been easy for me to get a government job through the disability reservation quota. However, I took on the challenge and pursued a career in sales. I was told that traveling would be difficult since sales requires a lot of it. But traveling was never a barrier for me since I learned how to ride a cycle, a two-wheeler, and a car without any additional modifications.
And now, I have promoted from being a sales executive to a regional manager at RR Kabel. My company recognizes me for my work and not on the basis of my disability.”
Ashwin Poojary – Regional Sales Manager.
- “I have been working for this company for 11 years, and it has become like family to me. I feel safe and secure, and the leadership team is very approachable. I have learned so many things during my time in this organization, and it has helped me to become a better person.”
Prachi Chavan – Digital Marketing
- “First of all, I would like to say a big, hearty thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity to express my thoughts about RR KABEL LTD., which has given me a valuable opportunity to work here. In this organization, women feel a fearless working environment, get respect from their superiors and subordinates, and are free to express their opinions. This is good motivation for women’s empowerment. There are policies in place for making us feel secured and most important empowered.”
Ixita Patel – Technical Cell
- “The work culture at RR Kabel is characterized by a strong sense of camaraderie and a great work ethic, with equality as the guiding principle. It prioritizes safe commutes, a joyful environment, and a platform for knowledge sharing. I am glad that our superiors always place their trust in female employees.”
Payal Chaturvedi – Technical Cell
- “I want to say thank you for giving me a wonderful atmosphere, equality, and learning opportunities. I have been working here with enthusiasm for 11 years in a safe and free environment. RR Kabel strongly follows and believes in POSH policies and has a good number of women employees.
Shilpa Rathwa – Quality
Impact Statement / Advise
For DEI to make the impact on people and businesses, it has to move beyond presentations, board rooms discussions, posters, and documents. It has to be imbedded in the company culture and value system.
Success of DEI lies in making DEI itself Inclusive rather than looking at it as Initiative or in Isolation. The torch bearer of DEI lies with the leadership team to ensure the fire is burning and the light from the fire is spread across the company.
Deciding how and what to measure in implementing DEI initiatives is the key towards sustainable progress. Unless a clear road map and right amount of focus and resources allocation is not done, it will continue to remain the most talked about subject rather than being action and execution oriented.
DEI goals have to be well defined with quantified data and with clear accountabilities within the leadership team of the company.
Companies need to look at DEI with their long-term lenses rather than creating short-term goals. The most important aspect is to strike the right balance between internal and external benchmarks toward making progress. Most often companies are so obsessed with external benchmarks of competition or market that they miss out on the internal benchmarking and thus missing out on making significant progress by not addressing the core challenges pertaining to DEI within the company.
DEI has to become an integral part of the bridge which connects to the top line and bottom line of the business to deliver its true value to the company as well as society.