At ANAND, diversity and inclusion is foundational to our culture and the growth of our business. This means building talent and teams that mirror real-world life experiences and who value curiosity and innovation. An inclusive culture at ANAND ensures that our employees feel a sense of belonging and that we are diverse but equal.
At ANAND, diversity goes beyond gender, and includes people from different industries, age groups, educational qualifications, regional mixes, special abilities and nationalities. For us, diversity is about creating an inclusive workplace where people from diverse backgrounds can perform to their utmost potential without any fear or bias and contribute to our growth journey.
We see diversity and inclusion as key enablers of our business results, even as we combine advanced technology and innovation to be more agile and deliver quick and best-in-class solutions to the ever-evolving mobility needs of our customers. We pride ourselves on being an ‘Equal Opportunity Employer’.
From hiring to career development to policies and employee engagement, we strive to ensure that every part of ANAND is embracing—and enhancing—diversity and inclusion. Our commitment to D&I starts at the top and is prioritised all the way down to the shop floor. As part of our talent strategy, we hire and develop people with different backgrounds and perspectives—to influence the development of new ideas and solutions that will shape the future of the auto sector. Our leaders work towards aspirational goals, and have access to data that helps them assess how well they are driving diversity within their teams and organisations.
ANAND has been a pioneer in harnessing women power on its shop floors across the country. The journey started with the proactive step of hiring women associates in 1961—breaking many stereotypes—and today we have over 1,600 women Operating Engineers (OEs) across 60+ locations. Another ANAND differentiator is our Operating Engineer Model, which brings together young skilled workforce from across locations—this means our shop floors are a welcoming mosaic of different states and cultures.
To ensure the safety and comfort of women employees, ANAND provides infrastructure such as hostels for OEs, crèches and transportation facilities. We also provide welfare leave to our OEs, which allows them to take the day off when they are experiencing menstrual pain and discomfort.
For new parents, beyond the legal requirement of 26 weeks of maternity leave, we provide extended flexibility to primary caregivers to work remotely twice a week till their child reaches the age of 18 months. In the case of adoption, we provide maternity leave for up to 26 weeks until the child is six months old, which is well beyond statutory mandates. Steps such as these go a long way in assuring employees that we are cognisant of the unique needs of employees from different demographic groups and life situations.
We strive to ensure that our workplaces are physically and psychologically safe for all our employees through the reinforcement of prevention of sexual harassment (POSH) policies and laws, and by ensuring the prevalence of a strong ethics and corporate governance framework.
Setting up a strong positive example of inclusivity, ANAND has employed specially-abled people in some of our manufacturing locations where they carry out various shop floor operations. Prior to hiring, an enabling environment is put into place by means of accessible infrastructure or sign language support as required This ensures that the specially-abled employees can contribute meaningfully to their own growth and that of the organisation.
Our diversity is clearly reflected in our joint ventures with global leaders—we have partners from France to Korea, and from China to the US and Germany, each with their own cultural and industry footprint. There has been much cross-border learning, not just in products, research and technology, but also in thought leadership, people management practices, HR, audit, and operating policies and processes.
We promote a shared and consistent understanding of diversity and inclusion across our Group companies and locations. This allows ANAND colleagues—with their unique talents, perspectives, and preferences—to know they matter. In order to develop leaders dedicated to an inclusive culture and equipped to promote one, we run a range of training and development initiatives, which include sensitisation about types of diversity, unconscious biases and inclusive behaviours. Our 200+ army of Inclusion Champions disseminate information and best practices, raise awareness of equality and diversity issues, encourage involvement in initiatives, and promote a culture where people are treated with dignity and respect.
At ANAND, we believe supplier diversity truly is a business imperative that leads to increased efficiency and innovation, and can be transformational not only for our customers, but for the communities we serve. This is why we are committed to integrating supplier diversity into our procurement procedures and practices across the Group.
Our Visionary Small & Medium Enterprises (VSME) initiative cascades our best practices to our supplier partners beyond production systems to include people management, ethical business practices and environmental sustainability. This is our way of supporting the SME sector, which is a critical growth driver of the Indian economy. We follow fair and free-from-bias vendor empanelment processes, and our vendor evaluation systems include robust diversity-related metrics at the supplier end. Through the SNS Foundation, our philanthropic arm, we partner with small-scale business-owners and women-owned business enterprises to scale and accelerate their growth.
Our compensation philosophy promotes consistent and fair compensation to our employees, based on objective criteria such as nature of work, location, relevant work experience, educational qualifications, special training and certifications, and performance ratings. Achieving and sustaining pay equity is a key performance metric for our D&I agenda and helps us attract and retain diverse talent.