In Conversation With Sidhartha Ghosh, CHRO, Adani Wilmar

Sidhartha, how do you think HR professionals ensure that the performance management system is fair and unbiased in evaluating employee performance? Also, what are some of the active steps that HR professionals or HR leaders of the company can take to minimize potential biases and ensure a fair evaluation of employees?

First of all, let us take an example of an FMCG company where I'm currently working. Typically, if I take the example of a salesperson, their targets are fixed, okay? And it cascades down from the top. It's calculated from the top. So the very first exercise we do is, have all the leaders sit together and finalize the yearly targets for the organization.

What would be the top line and what would be the bottom line, Based on that, the MD creates these targets. Alright. And simultaneously, it is cascaded to different verticals like sales and marketing, sales heads, marketing heads, business manufacturing, and various other functions.

So as HR, what we do is quantify, we always create a measurement of all those targets, which is very, very important. If you really want to have a fair evaluation of individuals, then it's very important that you measure their performances, and there should be some kind of benchmark. There should be some kind of milestone one has to achieve.

And once it is supported with data, then it becomes much easier, right? So we automated the entire performance target of each individual by zone, because in every FMCG, we have zones. The entire geography of the country is divided into 6, 7, or 8 zones, and those zones have their own targets to achieve. And at the same time, different cost centers, different states, and different towns are covered in that, including rural areas.

This is something we do meticulously, and we do our evaluation every quarter because once we do it in a year, there are so many things we might leave out. So we make sure that every quarter, we evaluate and capture all the data, and we do this evaluation every three months. By the end of March, we extrapolate the numbers till March, and by the end of March, we are done with our performance appraisal in totality.

And in the month of April, we do the payouts. We do the increments, promotions, and all payouts are completed by the 31st of April. Initially, there were many fitting problems, but for the last two years, we have been absolutely through with this process. It's all thanks to the IT team; they've created a fantastic dashboard for us.

And everything is captured through software called Darwin Box, which we follow. Everybody has to capture all the data, all the comments in Darwin Box. We have a clear diagram in front of us so that we can evaluate, and if anything catches our eye that seems inappropriate, we intervene with the managers immediately. We take proper feedback from the managers as to why such adverse or negative comments are coming up. We identify in what areas an individual is not performing or where they are performing very well. Accordingly, we put them through various developmental initiatives, including the creation of various academies, wherever the need is.

So that's how we initially ensure that the system is fair and accurate.

You have divided the organization into zones where employees have to achieve specific targets. But, don't you think this is a traditional method of evaluation? Is there any consideration for emotional intelligence or ethical factors when evaluating employees?

You're right; different geographies have different challenges. If I take the example of an FMCG company, it's a business where we need to monitor employee performance every day. It's a steep competition, and we operate on narrow margins, around 1.5% to 2%. So it's crucial that we monitor performance daily. We need to align employees with the business objectives, given the dynamic commodity prices and the competition.

As HR, we identify issues and provide coaching and mentoring. We encourage an open culture where employees can approach leaders directly. We encourage a team mindset rather than an individual mindset. Everybody should feel that they own the company. Our employees spend 60% of their time at work, so it's important that they feel motivated and happy when they come to the office.

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