November 2011the world of liquor

Easy Job

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ou might know of the company through brand names such as Officer’s Choice and Wodka Gorbatschow, but Allied Blenders & Distillers Pvt Ltd has now made a name for itself in the HR department too. Team ABD was recognized at the second Asia’s Best Employer

Brand Awards 2011 for Talent Management and for Best HR Strategy in Line with Business.

The awards were meant to recognize how HR has always been a strategic partner to ABD’s sustainable growth and how it has ensured the institution’s values and performance work toward making ABD the “most admired employer”. The award also indicates to recognise the integrated approach and practices pertaining to all-round management and development of talent within the organization.

“This external recognition of Team ABD as a promising employer brand is a testimony to the collective efforts toward building a progressive and people-oriented organization,” says Sanjeev Dixit, Chief people officer, ABD. “It further reinforces the endeavour to sustain the organisation’s growth momentum so that it realizes its vision to be the most admired spirits company and the most admired employer”.

What’s more, Dixit has also featured as a key writer on international corporate culture on the website of Dale Carnegie Training, talking about the steps being taken by the company to keep people productive and as well as engaged.

Where employees

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love to workAllied Blenders & Distillers Pvt Ltd is a recognized name in the Indian spirits industry. But in terms of human resources it was just another company until recently. A felicitation at Asia’s Best Employer Brand Awards 2011 has changed the scenario altogether.

Sanjeev Dixit

preeja aravind

53November 2011

the world of liquor

As Dixit writes in his article, “At ABD, we all are driven and inspired by our vision to be the most admired spirits company. In order to live our vision in letter and spirit, we have taken all-round initiatives to influence heart, head and soul of our employees so that they admire ABD as one of the most important stakeholder”.

According to Dixit, to achieve that vision, there have been “concerted efforts in the last many months and years to provide professionally enriching work environment to our employees”.

That, in turn, has enabled swift decision making and also given the employees a sense of empowerment. It has supported them with objective processes and policies in order to not only help develop themselves but their team members too.

“This has helped us to put in them ‘lead by example’ motto, which is in-sync with the overall organizational values and goals. We aim to convert the values into behaviour; behaviour into measureable objectives and a sense of pride, eventually, into admiration,” he says.

“We strongly believe in the philosophy of employees coming first. The provision of a conducive work environment where everyone has an opportunity to get value added exposure and also learn and develop each

The awards were organized by the Employer Branding Institute, a credible organization with over six years of existence that encourages senior leaders in HR to connect with each other to share the best practices in Employer Branding that contribute to “Talent Management, Talent Development and Talent Innovation” across organizations from over 36 countries.

The awards were announced after adjudication by an eminent jury comprising stalwarts from the industry network and field of people consultancy at the Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre on July 22 this year to recognize the organizations that have surpassed several levels of excellence in benchmarking talent and HR practices.

A detailed report on the second Asia’s Best Employer Brand Awards 2011 is available on their official website www.employerbrandingawards.com for reference. It reflects the various category nominations and the companies who won each of these categories.

Some of the key initiatives that were highlighted through this entry were ABD Academy, ABD Future Leader Program, Love ABD, ABD Value Star, ABD Employee Referral Program, among others.

Team ABD during one such fun-filled moment

one’s potential. These factors are softer issues that bind a company,” explains Dixit in his article.

Dixit also reveals that in January 2010, the ‘Core People Vision’ was designed keeping in mind that the HR function would become a Strategic Business Partner and act as a key contributor to the business growth agenda of the company.

To overcome the high rates of attrition faced by almost every industry today, ABD has started various initiatives such as ABD Academy, ABD Value Star, and ABD Future Leader Program, along with the company’s people vision “to be the most admired employer”.

“From 22.8 per cent in 2008-09, the overall attrition has come down to 11.4 per cent in 2010-11. There is a real feel-good factor across the organisation about the positive communication and movement in people engagement which has also reflected in the kind of companies from which talent has joined us in the last two years,” beams Dixit, adding “we are confident that these initiatives will eventually grow into full fledged self-sustainable trees which will bear further fruits of effective people development and growth in the coming two years”.

We also undertake several organisations-related branding activities that help position us favourably in the eyes of the talent market. We showcased our good practices and USPs at Asia’s Best Employer Brand awards held in Singapore in July 2011. ABD was the proud recipient of the ‘Best Practices in Talent Management Award’ and ‘Best HR Strategy in Line With Business award’. These awards are testimony that we are heading in the right direction, says Dixit.

“It’s our ‘Living Our Values’ in our day-to-day working that results in very informal, open and friendly work environment where teamwork is alive and kicking. We make sure that we keep the work environment exciting for the employee. There is a positive buzz around due to our growth activities and new brand/products launch,” adds the chief people officer.According to Dixit, the company also makes it easy for Gen X and Y.

“We make sure we give them the right training and exposure by getting them involved in key meetings and industry forums. The idea is to empower them so that they know that the company values them. The ultimate approach is to leverage the inherent strengths of both set of employees and maintain an optimum balance in the overall composition.”