Finolex: Bringing in more objectivity in PMS through tech

Ever since the pandemic, companies have been pressurised to digitalise and automate their HR processes. Not one to be left behind, Finolex Industries, the Indian PVC and fitting pipes manufacturer, is also in the process of automating its performance management system (PMS), for its more than 1300-strong workforce, across its plants and corporate office.

Talking to HRKatha, Raj Velarkar, CHRO, Finolex Industries, reveals, “In another month’s time, the system will be in place and ready to use”.

Objective evaluation: Once the system is implemented, a dashboard will be created wherein all employees will be able to see and track their goals. The system will enable the managers to evaluate their subordinates, and the HR team to see how the employees are being rated by their respective managers.

Like any other company with a relatively large workforce, there are challenges in terms of bringing in more transparency in the PMS and issues pertaining to subjectivity too.

Velarkar says that many a time, managers rate employees on the basis of how close they are to a particular team member, and not purely on the basis of their performance delivery. “Now, if anything like that happens, we will be in a position to question the managers on why they haven’t followed the right process,” says Velarkar.

“This will reduce subjectivity in the evaluation process and bring in more objectivity,” says Velarkar.

Daily tracking: Even today, many organisations evaluate their employees annually, which creates a lot of productivity issues and raises challenges at the time of appraisals. However, at Finolex, employees will be able to track their performance not just every quarter, but every day. “This creates a lot of accountability in the employees. There will be no need to remind them about their goals and objectives, as everything can be tracked automatically online on the dashboard,” says Velarkar.

Clarity of expectations: Moreover, Velarkar strongly believes that with automation of the PMS, the individual key responsibility areas or KRAs in the organisation will be crystal clear to each employee.

“Automating PMS will open doors to sharper KRAs in the company”

Raj Velarkar, CHRO, Finolex Industries

“This will open doors to sharper KRAs in the company,” shares Velarkar.

The moving of the whole PMS online will be a huge shift for the employees at Finolex, and they may need time to adapt to this new technology. Velarkar reveals that even people at the shop floor will be covered under this automation process. “Workers and employees at the plant will be trained on how to use this technology,” says Velarkar. The rest are quite tech savvy, and therefore, it will not be too difficult for the staff to adapt to these new changes.

“We have seen a lot of digitalisation in the past, especially in HR. Therefore, the mindset will not be much of an issue,” says Velarkar.

Upskilling: Apart from automating the PMS and making it more robust, the Company also plans to upskill its employees.

“Earlier, we were only catering to the agriculture sector, but now we will also focus on targeting the real-estate sector. Therefore, the sales team will be upskilled on how to deal with the customers in the real-estate space,” says Velarkar.

Succession planning: Further, the Company also plans to make its succession planning process more robust as many of the senior leaders at the plants will soon be retiring.