Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd. (BALCO) - Awards Finalist 2022 Case Study

Investors in people has a mission to make work better which aligns with our values and culture wherein we wish to make our workplace the best place to work for each and every individual.

We feel our workplace practices with respect to diversity & inclusion, employee engagement & experience, talent development is one of most well – structured within our industry and we also want to increase our branding across the globe about our best people practices and implement best in-class practices of other global companies.

BALCO has differentiated itself through continuous efforts in creating positive transformation and contributing to the creation of a society that is based on meritocracy and without any scope of discrimination on the ground of age, sex, colour, disability, marital status, nationality, caste, or religion.

BALCO always believes to be the equal opportunity employer. To support this, a transgender rights activist who has been working for the rights of transgender people partnered for the engagement of transgenders at BALCO. Through D&I hiring project, 12 transgender & 5 specially–abled people have been hired, engaged, and deployed in the Business Partner roles, where they are contributing to the operational and organizational success of Balco.

The project, initiated with hiring of 4 transgender candidates and will gradually proceed to 20. The percentage of female employees in decision making body has also seen an increase due to our diversity initiatives. This has increased the female employee motivation as well as satisfaction.

Due to the increased diversity, we now have fresh perspectives and innovations in place and decision making has improved due to collective decision making of diverse teams. Overall performance and business results are also showing positive increases due to this changed diversity ratio and employees are much more engaged within the organization than before. Employee experience and sense of belongingness within the organization has improved and we have also made sure that employees on – boarded through diversity hiring project feel comfortable within the workplace through various initiatives such as Gender Sensitization Workshops, Leadership Connects and Gender – Neutral Infrastructure.

Currently, our central security control room is fully staffed by female employees, and we are projecting 3 or more departments to be fully diversified within the next financial year. This change has made all employees more sensitized and well – behaved towards diversity. Vedanta’s core values – care & respect are visible in shop floor on a day-to-day basis due to this and team bonding has drastically increased across the unit.

The Investors in People Award is one of the most sought-after awards within the fraternity with highest level of accreditation celebrating the best individuals and organizations, to be a winner of such an award in the Diversity & Inclusion category would set us apart from the crowd giving us an edge over others in the manufacturing sector since we are one of the few companies to implement diversity & inclusion initiatives at such scale within our industry. It would set us as a benchmark for other global companies.

It would also increase the employee morale through recognition. The trust and loyalty of our employees will strengthen as well as demonstrate to them that they are being valued. It will also encourage other female, transgender, and specially-abled people in the community to consider our organization as a place where they wish to work and be associated with, through positive word of mouth