Sustainability Report 2020-21 - Click here to access the report
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People Development & Human Rights

Our world-class crop and seed solutions have their beginnings in our people. We believe in considering everything we do through the lens of how it will affect them, and our organisational culture – always prioritising wellness, learning, fairness, and inclusivity.

Employee Engagement

People have always been central in our operating ethos. They form one of the pillars that hold up UPL’s strategic intent.

To develop our teams’ potential, and inspire them to lead with their best efforts, we actively drive employee engagement. From the day we onboard a new candidate, and across their tenure and growth trajectory at UPL. Engagement initiatives help align our employees’ individual activities with UPL’s own growth path. We drive employee engagement through a 3-pronged approach
Employee Engagement Survey 2020 Download-pdf
Employee Engagement Trend
Unit FY 2018-19 FY 2019-20 FY 2020-21
% of actively engaged employees 64.50% 71% 88%
Methodology: Willis Towers Watson’s Sustainable Engagement model – measures 3 parameters - Enable, Engage and Energize. (Data coverage this year is 100%)
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Inductions and Orientation

Formally integrating new employees into the organization ensures that a new employee feels welcome and comfortable in their new environment. It equips them with a starter kit of skills, knowledge, and resources to begin their working relationship with the company on a positive, productive note.

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The Benefits of On-boarding

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Virtual On-boarding

The second quarter of 2020 sees us adapting at breakneck speed to a post-pandemic world. ‘Work from Home’ seems here to stay and onboarding new employees, like nearly all other functions, has gone entirely virtual. In this context, HR has worked hard to ‘humanize’ the virtual onboarding experience.

Human Capital Development

We have incubated a culture of continuous learning. In it, we encourage personal and professional growth across our global offices and the wide range of diverse functions. The ultimate objective is to complement UPL’s business mission with the full potential of our people.

Women’s Network
We believe that our female colleagues and leaders are some of the most accomplished women we know. Our Women’s network is a global community that provides dedicated access to various opportunities:

  • Learning and training

  • Professional development

  • Mentoring

  • Improved work-life balance

  • Cross-function/geography networking

  • Career advancement

  • New talent referrals

The aim is to showcase women-centric, and/or women-led initiatives and innovations being carried out globally, across all our regions on a single platform. The platform also hosts the various development and training initiatives created/curated for our women employees. With the Women’s Network, we are gearing up to fast-track the career paths of our women employees, hire qualified women candidates to more of our open positions, and set the stage for greater gender parity.
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‘Percipio’ is our e-learning platform and purpose-designed to:

  • Develop a culture of learning within UPL

  • Encourage people to be active learners, able to decide their development needs and seek out the specific inputs they need

  • Offer a wide range of learning resources via a globally recognised service provider

  • Offer dynamic custom content that is easy to access and complete, e.g. modules in Accounting, Cross Cultural Management, SCM, working remotely, problem-solving, Customer-First Leadership, etc.

  • Deliver certificate badges upon completion of modules which can be shared socially, for example on LinkedIn.

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Safety Leadership Trainings

  • Behavioural based safety by Max Safety was carried out in January 2021, covering employees at unit leadership level, projects group and unit safety team

  • Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment training with consultation and participation of workmen at shopfloor was conducted by internal safety team in year 2019

  • Safety Leadership by Paul Balmert in November 2019 - Covered 75 employees of our Supply Chain leadership team and Unit leadership team of all units. Key objectives of this workshop were:

    • How safety performance can be enhanced using various tools at the shopfloor level

    • How to influence right safety behaviour at the lowest level, this led to 2 new initiatives

      • Leadership GEMBA walk at shopfloor level was introduced to promote safe behaviour and identify issues on the shopfloor

      • Safety First Initiative in December 2019 for all the units of SCM

‘Alive & Well at the End of the day’, this specially designed leadership programme explains how to efficiently enhance safety performance in their respective areas.
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Process Safety Management
PSM is the key to safe chemical manufacturing operations and preventing accidents/disasters in chemical industries. The programme aimed at carrying out the PSM gap assessment across UPL’s technical sites. A 25-strong team of cross functional experts on Process Safety Management sets about educating employees across UPL on global best practices.

Total Quality Management

Our TQM Journey started in FY18-19 with the objective of achieving system-driven transformations and improvements in pertinent Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Employees of all cadres were trained in or sensitised about Kaizen and Poka-Yoke. Capability building programs by external consultants helped in successful roll out and enhanced the level of understanding on TQM topics.

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Highlights

1 In FY20-21, ‘United TQM Champions League’ was held, in which various teams from 3 units participated in 11 different competitions such as Daily Works Management (DWM), Quality Control Circle Projects, Improvement Projects, Autonomous Maintenance (AM), 5S, Kaizen, Slogan, Poster, Creative Writing, and more.

2 In FY19-20, Policy Management, Cross Functional Management and Quality Control Circle (QCC) movements were rolled out and our QCC teams have achieved accolades. At Chapter convention on Quality Concepts (CCQC), organized by QCFI, our teams won 12 Gold Awards and at National level, 2 Par Excellence awards.

3 To promote TQM and to recognize efforts made by our employees, United TQM Champions League (UTCL) was launched in Oct’19. In UTCL, individuals or teams who have contributed significantly in TQM implementation, are recognized, and rewarded suitably.

4 As a step towards validating the effectiveness of these efforts, UPL is aiming to challenge the Deming Prize, the most coveted award in the field of TQM. It is conferred on corporates who have achieved tangible improvement through the institutionalisation of TQM practices.

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Overall HCD performance indicators

Training Type

Behavioural-30.0%
Technical-28.0%
EHS-&-Quality-23.0%
Induction-7.0%
Functional-7.0%
Leadership-5.0%
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Reward & Recognition

We believe that Reward and Recognition (R&R) practices must continually evolve to support team efforts and keep up with organisational change. At UPL, our R&R efforts are directed at improving in-role and extra-role performances, thereby enhancing our engagement level with our employees. We have instituted 2 tiers of rewards: Global and Manufacturing.

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Global Awards

OpenAg Awards - Our vision is to be an icon for growth, technology, and innovation. The OpenAg Awards are a platform for rewarding excellence in business from all around the world, and for us to share our successes and learn from one another.

Global Sales Excellence Award - these celebrate our top sales and marketing performances. Individuals who directly drive extraordinary business growth

ProNutivaGold Awards - these celebrate new ideas and innovative, environmentally friendly thinking.

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Manufacturing Awards

P.R.A.I.S.E. – Program for Rewards & recognition of All individuals and teams toward Sustainable Engagement. The 5 pillars of PRAISE are Productivity, Quality, Cost, Delivery, S.H.E. and Morale (PQCDSM) form the base of our awards system. Within it, members of Leadership Team and HODs regularly assess and recognize individuals at department level or unit level based on their achievements.

Spot Awards – for extra vigilance and dedication Team awards for appreciating the ‘team with one focus’ and showcasing performances in terms of Kaizen / Poke-Yoke / Zero Customer Complaints / Zero Safety Incidents, and QC circle awards are some of our areas in R&R.

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Employee Engagement & Wellbeing

Recrafting ‘Normal’ in the time of Covid

  • We recognised early into the pandemic, that COVID-19 would test us on all fronts. Among the many adjustments we had to make, we were keen that employee wellness shouldn’t go neglected. We identified some simple and consistent measures to allow our teams to stay mentally and physically healthy in this fast-changing landscape. We developed multi-pronged employee wellness program with something for everyone:

    • Yoga

    • Meditation

    • Nutrition Talks

    • Talks on Mental wellness

    • Zumba

    • Pilates

  • We also encouraged virtual catch-ups with no work agenda – informal ways of checking in on your teammates and creating online ‘water-cooler’ moments.

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Health & Wellbeing

  • Childcare facilities are provided by UPL to its employees.

  • UPL provides Mediclaim facilities to all its employees.

  • UPL provides 32 weeks maternity leave, going beyond the Government of India’s mandated 26 weeks.

DISCLAIMER

“UPL and its subsidiaries have made every attempt to ensure accuracy of the information provided on this website. However, this is a global webpage with access to different geographies for wider reach and greater awareness of UPL. In the course of doing the same, UPL has used Google translator plugin to convert the language of this website from English to select regional languages.

UPL therefore, does not accept any responsibility or liability on the nature, standard or the accuracy of the translation and cannot take responsibility for any type of inaccurate contextual meaning in the event of a mismatch from English to a regional language.”