Promoting a culture of inclusion is nearly on every organisation’s DEI agenda. Employees are more aware and alert about what’s happening in their surroundings. Gen Z feels closer to a brand if they have taken the right step in this regard. A Deloitte report suggests that 74 % of millennial employees believe that a culture of inclusion fosters innovation, and 47 % prefer diversity and inclusion while looking for potential employers. Hence, blending DEI goals with your employer branding efforts will make a lot of difference.
Marico Limited has taken a few crucial steps in this direction. From establishing an Inclusion and Diversity (I&D) council to revamping Talent Value Proposition, the consumer goods giant has put a lot of procedures in place to become an attractive employer. The I&D Council was formed on February 10, 2022, with an aim to curate a culture where diverse perspectives across levels are equally heard and valued. Marico believes that this will further accelerate their diversity agenda.
The I&D council is a nine-member council, led by the MD and CEO. The other eight members are from the international Marico network, including an external consultant. The diversified team gives the organisation a thorough internal, external, and global perspective on the actions in alignment with the goals.
Amit Prakash, CHRO, Marico Limited tells All Things Talent, “We target to enhance our gender diversity ratio to 30% and the differently abled to 5%, as part of our decade of action roadmap. Various programs and activities such as sensitisation training, policy and process rollouts, infrastructure enablement, etc. – will be overseen by the Inclusion & Diversity Council and Organisation Effectiveness teams to create a workplace free from discrimination and harassment.”
In the last few years, many significant changes were made in building people policies at Marico. From making all the policies gender neutral to extending same-sex partner benefits and offering a bouquet of reimbursement benefits for ‘new parents’ – facilitating them with transport, physical, and mental wellness – are just a few of the changes made.
Every quarter, the firm undertakes a survey with inclusion metrics that primarily measure if the organisation values diverse perspectives while highlighting any instances of discrimination or harassment. These are tracked and reported to the CEO and the Executive committees, providing them with the intel needed to rectify any situation if needed. “Over the last year, an average of 81% of our members feel included, and we endeavour to continue this further. We also regularly conduct POSH surveys for members of all genders to understand issues and challenges, which continuously helps us identify any areas of improvement and drive focused sensitisation efforts,” Prakash informs.
The value of talent
Marico revamped its Talent Value Proposition (TVP) last year with an aim to align business purpose with talent aspirations in the aftermath of the pandemic. Three key TVP pillars identified were ‘Go Beyond, Grow Beyond, Be the Impact’. “With ‘Go Beyond’, we encourage our members to have an entrepreneurial streak, enabling them to take calculated risks to go beyond their line of duty. In our ‘Grow Beyond’ pillar, we have created opportunities for our members to grow inclusively and embrace diversity. As per the last pillar, ‘Be the Impact’, we enable members with multiple volunteering avenues, in order to cultivate their passion and purpose towards bringing a positive change in society,” Prakash explains.
Revamped work model
Marico introduced a reformed work model called Ways of Working (WOW) that prioritised the hybrid model to provide employees with greater flexibility. It offers location flexibility options to all the members across grades based on their roles and individual needs. This allows them to work from a location outside the ‘Base Location’ of their role as per their needs. For example, when their partner’s work location is based out of Marico’s base location or if an immediate family member requires close medical attention for an extended duration. On a case-to-case basis, members can discuss the same with their manager and get approval from the respective CXO and CHRO.
Also read: Realising Hybrid Work Model is Here to Stay, We Virtualised 15 Roles Forever: Meghna Gupta, Axis AMC
Explaining how this helps in Marico’s talent-finding endeavour, Prakash elaborates, “We found that with this policy we are now able to reach a larger talent pool, and simultaneously mitigate attrition by retaining members who choose to leave due to location constraints. Further, this empathetic approach where we provide our members with the liberty to define their work schedules has enhanced our member engagement and the business outcomes overall.”
“In the last few years, many significant changes were made in building people policies at Marico. From making all the policies gender neutral to extending same-sex partner benefits and offering a bouquet of reimbursement benefits for ‘new parents’ – facilitating them with transport, physical, and mental wellness – are just a few of the changes made.”
Succession planning at Marico
84% of the current leadership team at Marico is home-grown talent. Evaluation of the talent pipeline and building a potential succession pool is a continuous process. As part of the Company’s talent review process, individual development plans are discussed on an annual basis, and key talents are identified for potential higher roles in the future. Further, a 360-feedback process enables employees to identify strengths and areas of development to scale up their leadership capacity.
Leveraging all these initiatives, Marico aims to attract new-age talent across diverse backgrounds, education, and experience. To ensure diverse and unbiased hiring, they recently launched the next-gen AI-based recruitment platform.
-with Bruhadeeswaran R
About the author: Amit comes with 20 years of experience and is currently responsible for the overall organisational development at Marico. He has worked with Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, Delphi, ITC, and LG in varied roles.
Year of Incorporation: 1990
Number of Employees: 1,600+
Founder: Harsh Mariwala, Chairman, Marico Limited
Key Executives:
– Saugata Gupta, MD and CEO
– Pawan Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer
– Amit Prakash, Chief Human Resources Officer
– Koshy George, Chief Marketing Officer
– Sanjay Mishra, COO- India Business and CEO- New Business
– Amit Bhasin, Chief Legal Officer and Group General Counsel
– Shilpa Vora, Chief Technology Officer
– Ashish Goupal, Chief Executive Officer, Marico Bangladesh
– Vaibhav Bhanchawat, Chief Operating Officer, South East Asia, South Africa
– Vrijesh Nagathan, Chief Information & Digital Technology Officer
Business Line: Marico Limited is one of India’s leading consumer goods companies operating in global beauty and wellness categories. We nurture leading brands across categories of hair care, skin care, edible oils, immunity boosting and healthy foods, male grooming, and fabric care.
Key HR Factor: We believe membership is superior to employee-ship and hence consciously, all Mariconians are called ‘members’ and our culture is founded on our core beliefs of trust, transparency, care, inclusion, and teamwork.
