Celebrating New
Milestones of Excellence
Led by our best people practices, we once again reported excellence in corporate performance during FY 2022-23. We performed exceptionally well in HR Scorecard as a function and received an A-rating for the third consecutive time across the Group. These successes help us stay motivated and march ahead with confidence towards greater excellence in the future. Hindustan Zinc was certified as a ‘Great Place to Work’ for the fifth consecutive year while employee engagement increased from 78% in 2022 to 85% in 2023.
Focus On Diversity & Inclusion
Diverse Workforce for Superior Performance
At Hindustan Zinc, our strong belief that a diverse workforce is key to high performance, pushes us to actively pursue this goal. We have targeted achievement of gender parity, with equal opportunities and representation for all employees across genders and hierarchical levels. Empowering a diverse workforce and enabling them to showcase their potential has been the cornerstone of our journey. A conscious effort has been made to improve our gender diversity percentage, which is currently at 19.5%. The Company has embraced diversity beyond genders with Chanderiya Lead-Zinc Smelter (CLZS) becoming the first location at Hindustan Zinc to lead from the front for a progressive and diverse workplace.
Our Diversity Programmes & Plans
We look at diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as the key to innovation and performance excellence. The organisation strives to create an inclusive workplace for everyone so that each employee is comfortable, confident and feels valued. Taking our DEI journey further, Hindustan Zinc has onboarded members of the LGBTQIA+ community in front end-roles like health care, marketing and supply chain as an equal opportunity employer. We are also looking to partner with academia, NGOs and other institutions to help further our agenda of promoting diversity of thought amongst our workforce.
Hindustan Zinc is committed to the cause of promoting diversity within the organisation, among its business partners, and in the larger communities with which we collaborate. Our objective is to achieve gender parity across all levels, starting from the Executive Committee (EXCO) of each IBU.
Key initiatives by the Company to nurture gender diversity
Diversity in Hiring
We have intensified our focus on diversity among campus hires, with one of the initiatives being the empanelment of all women colleges. Women hired through campus drives are placed in front-end roles across various functions. We are an equal opportunity employer and any hiring at Hindustan Zinc is solely based on merit, which has led to a greater acceptance of a diverse work group leading to a paradigm shift in the mining industry.
Accelerated Career Path
We have identified top women across Hindustan Zinc whose professional journey will be closely anchored and monitored by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) through the Talent Review Council and initiatives like V-Build.
Development Dialogue for Women
Hindustan Zinc organised the first-ever edition of ‘Ambavgarh Dialogue’, a nurturing leadership forum for women professionals. The theme of the discussion, sponsored by our EXCO, centred on ‘Gender Equality for a Sustainable Tomorrow’.
Coaching
We conducted a coaching-based leadership development programme to equip women leaders with essential life skills and strategies needed to stay ahead in the game and succeed. Women executives attended the coaching programme in collaboration with seasoned leaders and industry experts.
V-Lead: Our Army of Women Leaders
Women leaders from the Company were identified for this flagship initiative to train, develop and empower women leaders for CXO roles.
A Strong Leadership Bench Strength
We, at Hindustan Zinc, prioritise employee growth and development, and focus sharply on building capabilities across employee levels through comprehensive talent management interventions. These initiatives are directed at enhancing safety, technical and business excellence besides behavioural and leadership skills. We nurture leadership at Hindustan Zinc and invest in these leaders early in their career by creating for them an empowering environment to chart their own growth and unleash their potential.
In line with the Company’s philosophy of promoting talent from within, and our focus on building a strong leadership pipeline by nurturing young talent internally, we proactively deploy various interventions to identify the ‘stars’ and provide them growth platforms like the Chairman Workshop, V-Build and CEO Connect among others. We also provide these leaders with early opportunities to showcase their potential and talent to lead from the front in various business positions and cross-functional roles.
Broadly, we follow the following four principles to identify, recognise, reward and develop our young talent:
For individual contributors and entry-level employees, we deploy various learning interventions to enhance their technical and safety skills, drive process excellence, gain business insights and increase quality consciousness. We also offer interventions for them to improve their communication skills, become more resilient, demonstrate responsible behaviour and result orientation, besides practice teamwork and collaboration. The Company provides them various opportunities and training through online and offline modules for self-development.
Emerging Leaders
The ‘Emerging Leaders’ forum focusses on a closed group discussion with the senior leadership during the year, where the key agenda is to look at identifying emerging leaders in the organisation who will become future leaders of the organisation. These leaders take up deputy roles for key and critical positions with an expectation to broaden their horizon and develop a stronger bench of leaders within the Company. These leaders are anchored by the CEO and other EXCO members as part of the overall development programme.
Talent Review Council
We have established Talent Review Councils (TRCs) at the centre and at all Company locations. The objective of the TRCs is people development, ownership mindset and talent churn. Structured learning journeys and career paths are identified for the talent pool, which are reviewed by these Councils on a quarterly basis. The TRC is chaired by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), IBU CEOs and respective Management Committee (ManCom) members, and covers all high potential leaders, critical position holders as well as key women leaders in the Company.
Business Transformation Office
Hindustan Zinc created a first of its kind internal Business Transformation Office (BTO) with an objective to work as a PMO and enable value creation through generation & integration of ideas in the areas of volume enhancement, cost optimisation, digitalisation, asset optimisation, quality consciousness, etc., through benchmarking, data analytics and technical insights. We partnered with leading global consultants leveraging new-age assessment tools, techniques and panel engagements with industry stalwarts & experts for creation of this transformation office – ‘Apna Sankalp’.
Initiatives
1. Accelerated Competency Tracking and Upgradation Programme (ACT-UP)
This is a talent identification initiative to build a talent pool of effective leaders who will drive future growth. This has helped us live up to the Group’s philosophy of nurturing and encouraging talent, by building competencies, helping employees realise their potential and provide them with opportunities for organisational and individual growth. Once shortlisted, the talents undergo a one-day rigorous assessment to evaluate their potential on the Group’s framework of technical and behavioural competency. The objective of the assessment is to identify fast trackers and HiPo executives ‘Stars of Business’, who are then recognised and provided with enhanced roles. The identified talents also undergo a structured development through individual development plans (IDP).
We continually strive to incorporate new-age technologies into our processes, which provides the newest approach to assess and identify our talent and also eliminate biases throughout the processes.
Technical ACT-UP: To identify HiPo employees in the mining vertical, a mining ACT-UP initiative was launched. Employees were identified as HiPos in the domain of mining, geology, ore dressing, geotech and exploration. These selected executives were given cross-business movement, role elevation and monetary rewards, along with customised IDPs.
2. V-Build Workshop
This is a theme-based workshop, chaired by CEO, CHRO, CFO and respective ManCom members and head of departments (HoDs), to identify and promote young leaders who can undertake more challenging leadership roles, lead a high impact project and develop into future-ready leaders who will unlock value for the business. In FY 2022-23, we launched a one-of-its-kind V-Build only for women, to give an equitable platform and opportunities to our women professionals. These identified talents are being anchored by our senior leaders with a focussed IDP.
3. Job Rotations & Internal Job Postings (IJPs)
The purpose of this policy is to enhance employee development by providing diverse learning opportunities through exposure to business functions, locations and stakeholders, and guide the workforce across different aspects of business operations. Hindustan Zinc aims to develop its internal talent pool for future leadership roles in the organisation. To achieve this objective, it is imperative for employees to have exposure and experience in diverse functions and roles across the organisation.
Focus on Capability Building
Promoting Learning and Development
In an effort to consistently improve employee performance, we propagate a culture of continual learning in the organisation by providing structured learning opportunities, including partnering with institutes of repute.
Collaborating with the Best
- Hindustan Zinc offers its employees work integrated learning programmes (WILPs), which are of a longer duration, and provide them an opportunity to enhance skills and become future-ready, while working. We have also launched WILP for our executives. The courses under WILP, designed by reputed institutes focus on practical industry practices and are offered to organisations through collaboration. We have partnered with premium institutes like IIM-Udaipur and BITS Pilani to offer professional degree courses. The programme provides an opportunity to our working professionals to learn while they work
- To align leaders with our business goals, ‘Young Leaders’ Forum’ was organised for WILP graduates
To promote the continual growth of our talent, we organised a best-in-class course on ‘Metallurgy for Non-Metallurgists’ in partnership with Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, a university of national importance. Forty selected executives participated in this upskilling programme to learn the scientific principles and processes of metallurgy involving lead-zinc-silver extraction, and to apply the learnings in running efficient and sustainable operations at Hindustan Zinc.
Best Practices at Hindustan Zinc
Hindustan Zinc Mining Academy
During the year, we fortified the Hindustan Zinc Mining Academy at Zawar and Agucha. The Academy was launched to enhance the skills of our in-house talent. The unique initiative will enable the helpers on drilling jumbos in underground mines to become certified operators.
Employee Well-Being and Assistance Programme
This programme was introduced to promote employee well-being and mental health. The objective of this programme is to assist employees with early identification and resolution of mental stressors in their personal and professional lives.
Global Benchmarking Visit
A visit to one of the global smelters was organised for a batch of high potentials with a background in operations and maintenance (O&M) that included business partners, employees, women executives and enabling professionals. The objective of this visit was to enable learning on the best-in-class technology to be implemented at Hindustan Zinc smelters.
GRIEVANCE AND FEEDBACK MECHANISM
We have automated the procedure for capturing and redressal of grievances. An online query management system is used by employees for raising queries.
Queries/Grievances Raised
611
Queries/Grievances Resolved/Closed
611
MAINTAINING CORDIAL LABOUR RELATIONS
Since inception, Hindustan Zinc has had a single workers union, which is affiliated to Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and recognised by the management, across all locations. The Hindustan Zinc Workers’ Federation (HZWF) exists at the corporate level. It was constituted on October 23, 1982, and subsequently recognised by Hindustan Zinc vide letter dated November 27, 1982. HZWF, the sole negotiating agent for workers at the apex level, is a body that believes in the dictum that ‘If the company grows, our growth will be taken care of.’ It consists of core members from recognised unions across locations.
All matters pertaining to service conditions, wages and benefits, strategic policies in respect of workmen are discussed across the table by the Federation/unions, at the unit and at the corporate level. Discussions are driven by the philosophy of ‘organisation above all’ and we believe in resolving all matters through effective dialogue and mutual consideration.
All executive members of the Federation are either employees or ex-employees of the Company and represent the recognised unions in their respective units. They decide the strategy to deal with employee issues together with the management.
Further, there exist across our locations multiple bipartite forums, like Joint Consultation Committee, Welfare Committee, House Allotment Committee, Safety Committee, Canteen Committee and Transport Committee, that serve to deal with matters of workmen in all facets of life. These committees have equal representation from the management and the union.
Remuneration Governance Practices
Our Remuneration Philosophy
Hindustan Zinc has always endeavoured to build a workplace which provides an environment of entrepreneurship and well-being for all our employees. The foundation of this culture is trust and a sense of purpose, which serves to propel the short-term and long-term interests of the Company and its shareholders.
The remuneration philosophy at Hindustan Zinc is driven by the core objective of promoting a ‘Pay for Performance’ culture that is focussed on linking rewards with business priorities. The executive compensation at the Company emphasises operational/financial fundamentals, social licence for operations and business sustainability, with efforts continually directed towards wealth creation for all our stakeholders.
As part of our remuneration philosophy, we strongly believe that being valued and driven by the common purpose is vital not only for productivity, but also for profits. The rewards strategy operates with this belief at its fulcrum whereby all reward schemes are perfectly aligned with the Company’s performance-driven culture.
Performance Orientation
The exercise of business planning sets the tone for the year and we lay great emphasis on not just setting the key performance indicators (KPIs) but also ensuring the quality of such goals, coupled with a mechanism of continual performance dialogue.
- The key elements of environment, social, governance, risk and compliance are mandatory goals for all leaders across the Company and embedded in the various reward schemes, as we strive towards achievement of our ultimate vision of ‘Zero Harm, Zero Waste, Zero Discharge’
- The executive remuneration is benchmarked against comparable companies in the industry and reviewed each year by the Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC). Majority of the remuneration is linked with business delivery
- The Annual Performance Bonus is based on a balanced scorecard of financial, operational, sustainability and strategic metrics. Appropriate weightage is allocated to efforts towards our people and individual performance
- Long-Term Incentive Plan is a conditional incentive plan based on business and individual performance over a 3-year performance period. The vesting of the award is attributed to sustained business and individual performance against pre-determined criteria. The impact of carbon footprint forms an integral performance parameter to further our agenda towards carbon neutrality
- The multiplier concept has been introduced in the rewards programme to influence behavioural attributes of personnel. As a reinforcer, superior individual performance or a nil fatality during the performance period leads to a positive multiplier, whereas any incident of fatality in the business impacts the annual bonus of all the employees as a negative multiplier in the endeavour to ensure nil fatalities
- Voice of the stakeholder: Employees from diverse functions are involved in ideation and formulation of the Company policy. Timely communication ensures transparency and employees’ understanding of the policy. Best-in-class independent consultants are engaged to advise and support the Committee on matters of Board evaluation and leading reward practices in the industry
- Governance: Hindustan Zinc fosters a strong foundation of governance where the Board, key executives and compliance officers are vigilant, accountable and committed to ensure structural integrity, soundness and the highest standards of compensation and remuneration practices. Over the last few years, we have matured many of our reward practices in an attempt to raise the bar
- The composition of the NRC is compliant with listing regulations. Additionally, the majority of the Committee’s members are Independent Director including the NRC Chairperson
- We endeavour to make timely risk assessments of our remuneration policies for consistency with stated rewards philosophy, along with:
- Simulation of long-term cost of reward plans and their return on investments (ROI)
- Provision of the clawback clause as part of the terms governing the annual bonus and long-term incentive scheme for leaders
- Upper limit and caps defined on incentive pay outs in the event of over-achievement of targets to avoid windfall gains
- We continue to uphold the principle of equity in pay and maintain checks and balances necessary to confirm that our practices are legally and ethically compliant
Progress on Strategic Priorities and Sustainability Goals
High Potential Women Ratio Among Total HiPos
15.4%
Women in Hindustan Zinc ManCom
35%
Hindustan Zinc has been
recognised as ‘Kincentric Best
Employer India’
Hindustan Zinc won the ‘Champion’
award in the categories of ‘Diversity
and Inclusion Initiatives’ and ‘Talent
Management’ at the prestigious
PeopleFirst HR Excellence Awards
We have also been recognised as ‘Happiest Workplace’ and ‘Healthiest Workplace’ – a recognition for our best-in-class people practices
Hindustan Zinc was certified as a ‘Great Place to Work’ for the fifth consecutive year while employee engagement increased from 78% in 2022 to 85% in 2023
HR leaders awarded as ‘Leading Minds in HR’ award by PeopleFirst HR Excellence Leaders in the categories of HR Future Leader, Leading Minds in HR and PeopleFirst Leader
Hindustan Zinc has been recognised as a Company with Great Managers 2022 by People Business; this is the third consecutive year in which the organisation has bagged this coveted recognition for its managerial excellence
PROTECTING HUMAN RIGHTS
Our Approach to Human Rights
Upholding and respecting people’s fundamental rights is central to our business approach. We have formulated a human rights policy, which is aligned with the United Nation’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The policy provides for strict prohibition of forced labour, either directly or through business partners. We strictly pursue this policy across our supply chain, ensuring protection of the labour rights of our business partners at every stage. Additionally, we recognise our responsibility to respect and uphold the human rights of direct and indirect employees, and of the host communities directly or indirectly affected by our operational activities. To ensure that this responsibility encompasses business relationships and the supply chain, we have incorporated a mandate into our business ethics and corporate code of conduct, for the protection of fundamental rights of all our direct and indirect employees, communities and immediate supply chain partners. This mandate clearly communicates our expectations to business partners with respect to compliance with all relevant legislation and with our policies in the process of execution of any work for, or on behalf of, Hindustan Zinc.
Commitment to Adopt Programmes to Address Human Rights Exposure
As a socially responsible organisation, we are committed to implementing programmes that address the unique industry-specific human rights exposure. We understand the risks related to human rights in all areas of our business/operation activities, including those involving our suppliers, service providers, clients and other stakeholders. Our action plan demonstrating our commitment to protect human rights covers the following:
- Adoption of a comprehensive human rights policy defining our commitments and guiding principles
- Educating personnel about our human rights policies and practices
- Establishing clear and transparent procedures for tracking, evaluating and reporting human rights concerns and grievances
- Collaborating with impacted groups to ensure that our actions do not threaten their human rights
- Human rights due diligence to ensure that all human rights related issues in business activities are addressed and resolved
We are dedicated to continuously enhancing our procedures and guidelines.
Business and Human Rights
Equal Opportunity Policy
At Hindustan Zinc, we have aligned our people philosophy with Group’s policies, which recognise the value of a diverse workforce. We are committed to providing equal opportunities in employment, and to build an inclusive workplace and a trustful work culture in which all employees feel supported and are treated with respect, care, fairness, sensitivity and dignity. Workforce diversity is a business imperative at Hindustan Zinc, and we strive to ensure that our workforce is representative of all sections of society. We believe that by doing so we would be equipped to deliver better business results.
It is our stated policy to provide equal employment opportunities, without any discrimination on grounds of age, colour, disability, marital status, nationality, geography, ethnicity, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation. We strive to maintain a work environment free from any harassment, bullying, and direct or indirect discrimination.
Slavery and Human Trafficking
In line with the disclosure obligations under the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, we ensure that no form of any modern-day slavery prevails in either our business or supply chain. We stringently monitor all functions to ensure that our contractors, suppliers and business partners do not use any child, forced or trafficked labour.
Labour Rights
We completely recognise our employees’ rights to freedom
of association, collective bargaining, and to freely join a
trade union. The collective bargaining agreements are
negotiated and agreed by the management and union
representatives. These agreements include clauses relating
to remuneration, allowances, working conditions, incentives
and bonuses, in addition to provisions relating to health and
safety, manpower productivity, etc.
Environment
Our organisation favours a precautionary approach to environmental issues. This includes identification of any soil and water contamination at any of our sites, along with assessment of any environmental impact and remedies. We conduct systematic risk assessments of materials used, as well as the products and processes deployed, to implement the precautionary approach. We take active measures to prevent and reduce production of waste and ensure responsible waste management.
Communication of Human Rights Policy
We are committed to communicating our policy to all personnel and external stakeholders. To ensure that everyone is aware of the importance of adhering to the policy, we provide open communication and regular updates. To ensure that everyone has access to the information, we use appropriate methods of communication in the local language, including in-person meetings, emails, newsletters and other forms of communication. We also ensure that everyone becomes immediately aware of any changes or updates to the policy or procedures to ensure compliance.
Due Diligence
Hindustan Zinc identifies human rights risks through the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) human rights self-assessment tool, which is used to review and update salient human rights at the Company. Any concerns identified during the due diligence process are addressed through corrective and preventive action planning.
Zero Tolerance to Human Rights Violation
We expect all personnel to adhere to the principles of human rights as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This includes the right to life, liberty, and security of a person, freedom of thought and expression, and the right to be free from discrimination. We expect personnel to promote and respect the rights of all people, regardless of race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age or disability. Additionally, we expect all our personnel to abide by all applicable laws and regulations related to human rights. We do not tolerate any form of harassment, abuse or discrimination. Appropriate action is undertaken if any personnel is found to have breached these expectations.
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