For these SMEs focusing on skills development, employee too is king
This Teacher’s Day, SMBStory has drawn a list of a few examples from the SME sector that help their employees enhance their skills through skill training and personality development programmes.
Virgin Group’s Sir Richard Branson famously said, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” And rightly so, as successful businesses are driven by happy employees. Employees are an organisation’s greatest asset and when they are satisfied, they become a brand’s ambassador, and stay loyal and committed to the company.
While profits and staying ahead of the competition is important, various small and medium companies define success not just by their revenue or brand reach but also by how well they can take care of their employees and their career goals. This is smart too, as hiring a new employee is far more expensive than retaining and nurturing an existing one.
This Teacher’s Day, SMBStory has drawn a list of companies that remind employees to never stop learning by providing them with continuous learning programmes, skill training, and personality development courses.
Wingreens Farms
Anju Srivastava, Co-founder, Wingreens Farms
Anju Srivastava and her husband, Arjun, started Wingreens Farms as Women Initiative Network (WIN) in Gurugram in 2008, with a capital of Rs 10 lakh. Today, this sauces and dips company clocks revenue of approximately Rs 8 crore every month. But the recipe for their success is not built just on their tasty condiments; the decision to engage farmers, village women and sales boys in their work paid off.
Anju wanted to work with farmers who had land but no money. Working with two farmers who are ‘Farm Managers’, and 150 village women, Wingreens manufactures variants in dips, sauces, pita bread, and flatbreads. The company provides its farmers wages of approximately Rs 10,000 per month, which is an assured income for them.
The women are trained and empowered with financial independence. Right from picking fresh herbs, to working on the recipe, these women are involved in all the manufacturing steps. The recipe training is provided by Anju herself.
Anju told SMBStory,
We employ boys who have no degrees in our facility as well who would otherwise be doing mean jobs. We take them raw and provide them with skill and personality development training. At Wingreens, we skill them unconditionally for their better livelihood and even promote them based on their performance.”
The brand has a presence in 10,000 stores located in 100 cities across India.
Safeducate
Divya Jain, Founder, Safeducate
Divya Jain was working in her family-run business, Safexpress, one of India’s leading logistics companies, when she noticed a huge gap in the sector: lack of skilled workforce in logistics. Divya, 35, then started Safeducate in 2013 to address this gap.
Brands of India winner Safeducate is providing training to truck drivers and other workers in the logistics and supply chain management sectors by working in skill development, and livelihood creation.
I always wondered about the growth of people in the logistics sector. The lives of people in this sector are restricted to earning money and not about growth and that’s why they are stagnant. I want each truck driver, delivery guy, warehouse operator, and logistics accountant to envision what more they can do,” Divya told SMBStory.
Safeducate provides training on skill development across India for a duration of three to six months. There are two types of courses: Entry-level, and management trainee programme. The entry-level course gets funding through CSR and Central government, while the company charges around Rs 30,000-Rs 50,000 for management trainee module based on the duration of the course.
“We have created around 60 ‘mobilisers’ to provide training in villages. We contact District Magistrates of those areas and they connect us to self-help groups. We convey to these SHGs about the future prospects in logistics,” Divya explained.
In a span of almost six years, Safeducate has trained around 50,000 people from 153 centres across India, including Allahabad, Chapra, Madnapur, Deogarh, and more. The company clocks Rs 30 crore turnover.
Bhojpur Mahila Kala Kendra
Anita Gupta (centre), Founder, Bhojpur Mahila Kala Kendra
Hailing from Arrah, Bihar, this Brands of India winner was just in her 20s when she took a bold step to stop gender-based violence. In 1993, with the help of her younger brother, Santosh Kumar, she founded Bhojpur Mahila Kala Kendra with a mission to empower rural women by providing education and employment training to them.
With the singular aim of educating and providing skill development training to women so that they are independent, Anita and Santosh conveyed the message of the power of education in every village they visited.
Anita’s path was strewn with several challenges, not the least of which was coming face-to-face with patriarchy. However, fighting against all odds, Bhojpur Mahila Kala Kendra has trained around 20,000 rural women in different skills and at present, it has 200 women in its cluster.
Today, these women are doing well for themselves. Anita told SMBStory, “Some women have opened their own boutique and a few have joined schools to provide training to other women. Some women even have formed mushroom cultivation clusters in collaboration and sell them in the market.”
She noted that it was a hard journey but, "jab bachpan mein he thaan liya, toh kaun rok sakta tha’ (I was determined to succeed since my childhood, who could stop me now?)"
Anita was conferred with an award from the Government of Bihar in 2008 for her work towards the betterment of women. She is also a member of USHA Silai School in Bihar and Jharkhand, where she provides training on sewing machines.
Whistle Snacks
Heena Thakkar (right) and Mishal Thakkar (left), Co-founders, Whistle Snacks
You don’t usually see a factory run completely by women. Many times, people think handling heavy machinery, large scale packaging, and complex logistical processes can only be done by men. But that is not the case. There are already some all-women factories in India and their operational efficiencies often rival factories that have a mixed workforce. The Whistle Snacks factory, run by Heena Karia Thakkar in Chembur, Mumbai, is one such efficient, all-women factory.
Whistle is a food brand that makes low-calorie snacks like puffed makhana (lotus seeds), rajgira (amaranth), and the traditional chana jor.
The business was launched in 2016 and Heena, 32, to give its women workers the complex task of processing the makhana. Now, incredibly, its entire production and packaging staff comprises women only.
I was spurred by the vision to empower women of India and enable them to make a difference to their lives so they could be financially independent,” Heena, CEO and Co-Founder, Whistle Snacks (a brand under Corvus international Foods), told SMBStory.
The company aims to quantify its business model by developing the skills of its employees. They provide computer training to employees who are now also able to manage the ERP system of the company.
Gobinda Dhupakathi Cluster
Fifty-two-year-old Jangyaseni Jena from Dhenkanal in Odisha fondly remembers working at a self-help group in 2009, where she advised women about the means to generate income for themselves while staying at home.
But, after working for two years and providing mentorship till 2011, Jangyaseni lost her job. She told SMBStory, “I was in the position of those helpless women.” With a chuckle, she recalls how giving advice was much easier than implementing it.
She saw a glimmer of hope when officials from Odisha’s Rural Development and Marketing Society (ORMAS) met her during one of their visits to her village.
They advised Jangyaseni to start making incense sticks (agarbatti) and form a women cluster by mobilising women from the nearby villages. Jangyaseni accepted the proposal. ORMAS also provided her with skill training and Rs 50,000 for purchasing the raw material.
With this, Jangyaseni launched her own venture, called Gobinda Dhupakathi Cluster, in 2012. She mobilised 10 women from the surrounding villages, trained them, and started making agarbatti with hands. ORMAS also helped and tied her cluster with ITC, which would buy from her venture.
Since then, there has been no looking back for Jangyaseni. She bought two automatic machines to make agarbatti herself and now employs 20 women directly and 50 women indirectly. Currently, her firm has a turnover of Rs 10 lakh and a capacity to produce 100kg of agarbatti a day.
(Edited by Evelyn Ratnakumar)
