Driving Business Success through People-Centric HR Strategies in Machinery Manufacturing

In an exclusive interview with Industry Outlook Magazine, Sweta Singh, Head of People and Culture at Volvo Construction Equipment, shares pointers on how HR strategies, particularly in the machinery manufacturing sector, have to evolve to retain talents and how said strategic HRM methodologies should also incorporate the mental well-being of all employees. She has over 18 years of experience. She is also part of various leadership teams in HR and business in India, Asia, and globally.

Could you share your perspective on how the adoption of people-centric HR strategies is transforming talent retention and acquisition in the machinery manufacturing sector, especially in India, where new-age competence availability and technology integration are critical challenges?

It is important to recognize that today the talent market is candidate-driven and companies need to adapt their HR retention and attraction strategies to be the employer of choice. Two facet strategy must be deployed, firstly to make our current employees relevant in this changing market needs and secondly, to build an external talent pipeline that meets the ever-evolving new technology and services needs of our industry.  

To make our employees relevant, it is essential to expose all our people – both “shouting and whispering talents” to multiple growth areas by providing a continuous learning environment. The concept of an internal talent marketplace is picking up these days, and in my view, it’s a great way to upskill your talents in the company’s key business challenges that also match their interest areas. This helps the company to mobilize resources where it needs the most without increasing its overall fixed cost and benefits employees’ growth needs by preparing them for new and broader roles in the future.

Today, new-age talents are interested in joining companies that have a clear purpose and good working environment, in addition to the quality of jobs that allow them to learn every day. Continuous and visible work on employer branding and thought leadership by leaders and employees is critical to creating an interest in an organization. Initiatives like these build the pull and, when followed up with a continuous engagement plan with these potential talent pools, help you onboard them when you need to. This is relevant for not only lateral hirings but also the work you do with academia to build future curriculums and create an early interest in potential young candidates.  I would also say that for lateral hirings, keep your funnel broader at the sourcing stage to include diverse skills from varied industries where your future competence set exists. Remember that these talents will be new to our industry, and recognizing your old employees as their mentors’ helps these talents not only assimilate but also retain the knowledgeable old employees. It’s the balance between the two that will help us grow and thrive in the transformational stage.

Given the increasing focus on upskilling and reskilling in response to automation and AI in machinery manufacturing, how are HR policies adapting to ensure workforce agility while addressing concerns about job displacement?

The companies are bringing the concept of a talent marketplace, which not only helps in upskilling and reskilling but also makes all the talents more visible and accessible to be deployed in newer areas. It helps organizations to become more agile and aware of the current competence levels, use them effectively, and have plans and projects to develop new competence areas in their workforce. Many organizations are also promoting new skill development as an ongoing lifelong learning process by enabling employees to create 10 to 20 % space in their current day's work to contribute through stretched assignments and learn new skills in different teams.  These are some ways organizations can prepare employees to step up in new growth areas consistently, and this will also help them manage concerns around job displacements.

With employee well-being and mental health gaining traction as essential components of HR strategy, what innovative approaches have you observed or implemented to foster a healthier and more engaging work environment in manufacturing settings?

This is one of the fastest developing spaces, and every organization is taking steps to bring this important topic to light. Our organization has a special place, too, and we drive it under 3 elements Care, Health and Safety, and work-life balance.

I have felt that, as an organization, it’s important to help our employees feel safe and vulnerable and build genuine connections and resources that can be of help when they need it. People learn and absorb in different ways and hence think of creating various internal platforms where employees can share openly, fostering not just conversations but connections and networks that can be leveraged when needed.

I would also recommend training managers on how to deal with mental health topics in their teams. They must know how to identify and work with it in a good manner and seek expert help when needed. Employee assistance programs are also very helpful to have in companies that allow anonymity of the person concerned and employees can get immediate professional help for themselves and their families.

Employee engagement is often challenging in an industry driven by production and sales deadlines and efficiency metrics. How are you leveraging HR technologies or data-driven insights to maintain high engagement levels without compromising operational goals?

As an organization, we need to create an environment where people can do their best work every day, and to do this, we need to understand what’s important to them. At Volvo, we have a yearly “Pulse Survey” that consists of questions that matter most to us. This is a digital anonymous process to get feedback from all our people, and this gives leaders the visibility to understand the employee experience and insights to make our organization an even better place to work.

Looking ahead, we see business transformations that are reshaping the machinery manufacturing landscape. What key HR processes do you foresee playing a pivotal role in aligning workforce strategies with the industry's evolving needs?

Our industry is transforming at a faster rate, and we cannot afford to work with a traditional workforce planning process. In our company, we have moved away from a yearly workforce planning process to a strategic and iterative people and competence plan linked to the business priorities. We realized the need to have more proactive strategic people and competence management for the company where we visualize and develop our plans together with our leaders considering future business and creating prerequisites. We need to sustain the competence we are good at but grow the new competence that we need for the future, and hence, looking at the workforce in a holistic manner is critical. While you build the long-term plan connected to business, the key will also be to assess the kind of workforce needed through a data-driven approach and ways to transition from traditional to new competence areas. This proactive planning process also helps in visualizing the overall workforce composition which is an opportunity to build a balanced workforce in terms of age, gender, generation, and flexibility to sustainably manage through different business cycles. 

The Key is – take this is an iterative process because our businesses are dynamic and changing all the time!

Diversity and inclusion are becoming more critical, even in industries like machinery manufacturing. What progress do you see in embedding these values effectively within the organizational culture?

We firmly believe in the power of people! Our people are the driving force behind our pursuit of a greater purpose – to build the world we want to live in. We strive to create an environment where everyone can make meaningful contributions.                                              

Inclusion is the foundation to build diversity of any sort, and we are embedding this in all our people processes right from recruitment to exit.

For me, the most important step has been on “how we build leaders' ownership and involvement that drives meaningful actions on DEI.” We have worked with making them our DEI Co-pilots and not passengers. To do this, it’s essential to create leader autonomy in DEI goal setting, help them contextualize and find their own unique barriers to success, and build DEI plans that align with the overall company ambitions. Consider creating enablers for leaders to navigate through the DEI journey in the form of resources such as tools, frameworks, and DEI support groups.

We see progress by changing the way we work on DEI. Our inclusion score has improved over the last years, and we have a better gender balance, employees from other industries and startups including people with disability in our organization today.