Sanjeeb Lahiri, CHRO, GRP, joined the company seven years ago to help transform a traditional recycling business into a recognised sustainability leader. Now in its 51st year, GRP specialises in reclaimed rubber and engineering plastics, maintaining an average employee tenure of 15 years across its 1,000-strong workforce. The company has successfully repositioned itself from “scrap business” to impact-positive sustainability partner, working with global tyre companies while maintaining strong family values and employee loyalty.
Lahiri discusses with Dr. Prajjal Saha, founder and editor of HRKatha, how purpose-driven talent strategies are transforming India’s sustainability manufacturing sector, bridging generational knowledge gaps, and creating meaningful careers beyond traditional corporate hierarchies.
Q: How has GRP’s sustainability positioning shaped your talent acquisition approach compared to traditional manufacturing firms?
A: GRP has been operating for half a century now—this is our 51st year. What’s interesting is that the term ‘sustainability’ or global awareness around green initiatives has only emerged over the last couple of years. Internally, we’ve always known we’re a sustainability organisation.
When I joined seven years ago, if you asked anyone within the organisation what we did, they’d say, “Yes, we recycle.” Some would even say we’re in the scrap business. I’ve heard people describe us as “the company of scrap”—and I really believe what you say reflects your energy and association with the organisation.
Consider this: if I’m waking up every day and telling myself I work for a scrap company, does that give me the energy I need? Our average employee tenure is very close to 15 years, which is significant. We have this tremendous strength of knowledge in the organisation, but we needed to change the narrative.
After COVID, we thought about how to really transform this story. We’d been signatories to the UN Global Compact Network India since around 2016-17, so we decided to adopt the SDGs. We realised we were already doing much of this work as part of our job—no rocket science involved.
We launched extensive communication campaigns across all leadership communications, one-to-ones, and addresses to people, focusing on the value we’re adding to the environment, to people around us, and to the ecosystem at large. We gradually brought sustainability to the core.
During our Golden Jubilee year in 2024, we announced our new vision: to be a trusted global partner offering innovative sustainability solutions, committed to adding value to our stakeholders. Now when I ask my colleagues what organisation we are, I’m sure I’ll hear much more about sustainability.
It’s about instilling pride—what other people call scrap is our raw material, and we’re turning it into something that contributes to future generations. When I speak to potential talent, I tell them we’re a sustainability organisation. We’ve been in the business of green since when green was just understood as a colour in the crayon box.
If you want to test your mettle, we’re an organisation that’s been there, done that, and we’re expanding. Sustainability is the fastest-growing sector globally. We have the agility of a startup, the pride of legacy, and the wisdom of experience in this sector.
Q: Do you see this sustainability pride across all employees?
A: I think all of them would achieve pass marks by now, though there are degrees of awareness. People who’ve been with us for long may have less appreciation initially because they sometimes revert to their earlier thinking. But when they see the output and work with new technologies, new packaging for clients, the pride definitely returns.
You can see the reflection in the seriousness with which packaging happens. We have business lines that do plastic recycling using end-of-life nylon and plastic, compounding it with rubber. We’re one of the very few in the world doing this with end-of-life materials—that’s where the pride comes from.
My talent pool often comes from organisations that previously used virgin materials. When they’re converting using the same machines but with end-of-life materials, it presents zone challenges. The specs aren’t common initially—it’s all chemistry. If your input specs are different, your output specs will be very different, and it’s difficult to maintain consistency. However, we do this for a living.
When a new compound comes and we successfully test market its usage, it gives a very different feeling. We’re creating something much more meaningful—it’s not just plain business and production, but something with purpose.
Q: What distinctive talent ecosystem has GRP cultivated that competitors can’t replicate?
A: The quantification of talent effectiveness shows in our innovation output, our client base, and our ability to convince names like Continental, Bridgestone, and Pirelli to be partners with us globally. That itself demonstrates the impact of our talent pool.
Beyond technical knowledge needed to run processes, what drives us in this sector is passion and purpose. An extrusion engineer could work with any plastic or nylon extruders using similar machines. Why would they join and stick with us? The important thing isn’t just joining—it’s being part of the journey. We proudly call it an impact-positive journey.
Being part of this impact-positive journey requires passion. Do I sign on to the purpose? Am I doing something different, creating something for tomorrow? The footprint of my work is also for tomorrow. That passion drives our entire workforce—all of us in the GRP family.
When I’m on campus recruiting, my pitch is to people who want to be part of an impact-positive journey. If you’re not interested, there are other places for you. My call is to those who can attach to the purpose I bring.
“We realised that once we chart out career paths for people, we’re actually restricting their growth. Why should I create a career path you may not even aspire to?”
Q: Do you want to try yourself in the fastest-growing sector today—sustainability? Do you want to work in an organisation where you can be an innovator with immense opportunities to contribute to innovation that’s not happening elsewhere in the same way?
A: From our procurement side, we work with the humblest strata of society. Would you want to create value there? Create entrepreneurship? Touch people’s lives? What we do gets rippled manifold in parts of society where opportunities don’t usually reach.
Everyone has choices—join a global conglomerate, join us, or be an entrepreneur. If you want to join us and sign on for the purpose, you’re more than welcome. If you want to be an entrepreneur in this space, we can discuss co-creation opportunities.
Q: How does GRP facilitate knowledge transfer between veteran operators and digital natives?
A: I haven’t thought deeply about this, but GRP has two great strengths I’ve experienced in my corporate life: care and warmth. We call ourselves the GRP family—not for memes, but because information passes here like within households, from father to children.
We actually have second generations working with us. When a new-age operator comes in with dreams, agility, and digitalised knowledge, it’s interesting when they see someone senior who may not be as educated or privileged as them, but can talk about product grade just by feeling it.
Experience talks. When some out-of-syllabus machine problems arise, a 58-year-old person might say, “Maybe you want to do ABC,” and that will work. This care and feeling for humans, this standing up for each other, is somewhat unheard of in organisations like ours. That’s one of our greatest strengths.
Q: There must be conflicts between this multigenerational workforce. How do you resolve them?
A: There’s no specific formula. This comes up particularly in my new-age businesses like plastic compounding, where incoming engineers have studied compounds but still need to understand why a particular granule behaves a certain way.
During inductions and onboarding, we tell people: “Each one of us is here to contribute. First, learn what it is, because what you’ll do here isn’t taught in school. Even rubber engineers or polymer engineers haven’t studied reclaimed rubber. So learn first, and you can learn from this person who’s already here.”
Dignity is one of our values. Each of us is responsible for our own dignity and our colleagues’ dignity. As an organisation, we uphold this first. You can challenge and contribute, but to contribute you need to learn. At the same time, you’re digitally savvy—this person may not know that, so you teach them.
You’ll have opportunities to make changes, but things take time. There’s something you don’t know that they might know, and vice versa. The handshake must happen—we’re not boxing.
“For organisations in my sector—MSMEs—one plus point we offer new-age talent is the ability to prove themselves in multiple sectors and ways.”
Q: How has GRP reimagined career progression models as manufacturing becomes more integrated, automated, and cross-functional?
A: We realised that once we chart out career paths for people, we’re actually restricting their growth. In today’s age, each of us brings wisdom. We’re a thousand-strong workforce, and each person has different aspirations. Why should I create a career path you may not even aspire to?
We try to ask people what they want to do next. We have internal job postings and lateral transfers. I’ve had people move from documentation to front-line sales. One person spent two years in something nobody else had the opportunity to do—working with lawmakers in the sustainability space—and then moved to front-line sales.
By qualification, this person is an engineer. If I said, “You’re an engineer, you go to the shop floor, do production, then maintenance, then packaging, then head operations,” I don’t think that works today.
We run programmes for managerial staff—future talent programmes. In these programmes, people write their own career paths, what they want to do next. We have very interesting success stories of cross-functional movements.
Q: Can you tell us more about this leadership development programme?
A: We call it the Future Leaders Programme, which we repeat every couple of years. It followed mentorship programmes we ran with internal mentors. We kept the list open—if you wanted six months of mentorship, you nominated yourself, chose your mentor, and chose the area where you needed mentorship.
About 40 people participated. Mentors had multiple mentees across the organisation. A supervisor in the plant might choose the head of compliance or sales as a mentor to understand how the business works.
After seeing the power of this mentorship programme, we created an overall development scheme—essentially a classical assessment centre with some twists, plus 360-degree feedback. We asked people to create their own development plans with coaching questions like, “What do you think you need to do next?”
People wrote their development plans, and wherever support was required—exposure to different businesses or functions, courses—they were allowed to experiment. About 42-43 people went through this journey. The sweet spot was that I didn’t have to do any external leadership hires for new businesses—people transferred and moved from the existing programme.
Q: Where does Indian manufacturing stand regarding smart factories versus dark factories?
A: Manufacturing is at multiple levels depending on organisation and products. In our sector, smart manufacturing is still far due to process types and machine availability. We’re making conscious ROI-based investment calls. What I see happening extensively is machine learning usage—a precursor to the smart world.
Q: What safety measures have you implemented?
A: With 70 per cent export business to Europe and Americas, ESG aspects are crucial. We focus on extensive drills because safety must become habit. We have leadership communications, Gemba walks starting with safety, and strict PPE discipline.
Getting 20-30 year veterans to wear masks and helmets is challenging but essential. We have safety oaths before each shift and ask: “Do you want to go to the hospital or go home in an ambulance?”
“I call sustainability a sunrise sector with maximum growth happening here. The opportunity for new-age talent to prove themselves, experiment, and find their strengths is huge.”
Q: Has modernisation made shop floor life easier?
A: Definitely. Even low-end improvements such as conveyors, pulleys, and mechanised weight management work significantly. We use fogging systems during summer, provide buttermilk, and constantly try making workplace easier. These small comforts make a real difference.
Q: How has the relationship between shop floor workers and management changed with younger employees?
A: In GRP, I haven’t seen that angst—we’re really blessed. Our collective workforce is actually a strength because it helps us address issues and there’s immense trust. The founders created this trust from day one.
Our workforce is unionised, yes. We fight during settlements—it’s part of the game—but I’ve never seen people going against the organisation because here the organisation comes first. This is what the founders instilled in all of us.
Younger people have generational aspirations. If I have a young person on my shop floor, they want to be a supervisor tomorrow or do something else the day after. They’re much more aspirational and want to reach their aspirations faster than predecessors did. We have to play that balance game.
It’s like cricket—the ball needs to get old to spin, and your pitch needs to settle and flatten before you can bowl those deliveries. If you don’t wait, it won’t happen. This cricket example works well with our people.
There are lots of comparisons: “Organisation X is doing that, organisation Y is doing that, they’re getting this benefit.” There are realities of this organisation—some things we can do, others we cannot. If you’re comparing, compare the complete life in this organisation with your comparator.
Don’t only look at wages or environment. Look at everything. If your heart lies elsewhere, I’m not stopping you. But there have been times when this organisation stood behind you—behind each one of us. There have been times when we did things differently than others, when other organisations shut doors.
Q: Do you see younger talent preferring manufacturing over new-age sectors due to stability concerns?
A: My experience in certain campuses shows no change in mindset. More than students, families play a role when choosing first jobs. “Why manufacturing? Go to IT or elsewhere. Even in manufacturing, go to pharma or automobiles”—those cushy, branded consumer brands.
There’s a slight tilt happening towards manufacturing, seeing what’s happened to subsectors like IT services over recent years. Unfortunately, that sector is still declining.
When people come into manufacturing from campus, the expectation is often to be the boss immediately, or to jump the ladder in a couple of years. You need to prove yourself first.
For organisations in my sector—MSMEs—one plus point we offer new-age talent is the ability to prove themselves in multiple sectors and ways. You start with one job, but based on interest and contribution, the role can change within a couple of years. This is difficult in larger organisations where you follow a stream or set pattern.
I call sustainability a sunrise sector with maximum growth happening here. Government schemes towards Aatma Nirbhar Bharat and Make in India have given manufacturing the boost it badly needed. Within manufacturing, sustainability is limitless because not much movement has happened yet.
The opportunity for new-age talent to prove themselves, experiment, and find their strengths while working is huge—something this sector and organisations like GRP definitely provide.
Q: Looking ahead five to ten years, what fundamental shifts do you anticipate in required skills and capabilities?
A: I’m very optimistic because of the number of startups coming into the sustainability sector doing amazing work, experimenting with new-age technologies. I foresee lots of talent—both classical and new-age—coming into this sector for two reasons: the sunrise effect it can offer for the next couple of years, and the awareness kids are growing up with. Sustainability is being taught in schools now.
The taboo of getting into a sector considered “non-sassy” is going. Has it completely gone? Maybe not, but I’m very optimistic about the next couple of years.
Organisations that have started today, like ours, are diversifying within the sector in multiple ways. There’s scope for immense innovation. These opportunities exist today and will grow multifold because of strengthening environmental laws and commitments by governments and industries. Things need to be done differently.
In India, we’re at an amazing demographic dividend that we’ll have for the next two to three decades. In the immediate future, I see no dearth of talent. It’s now up to us to create and retain that talent pool. All of us need to work together—academia, industry, families, government.
Q: Do you find favour from Gen Z given their desire for purpose?
A: When final-year mechanical engineers want to join voluntarily, or premium institution students with AI/digital solutions want to experiment with us, I know we’re there. When interns find solutions to workplace problems, that’s the calling of purpose.
My talent calling isn’t necessarily about skills you bring, but passion. Do you want to do this? If yes, doors are open. Today competitors might have better policies, but why choose us? It’s the call of purpose.
Q: Have you identified digital skill gaps? How can academia help?
A: We use buy-or-build models for digital adoption. As a sector with limited digital work previously, we’re upgrading machines extensively. Where I might have had eight machines for output, I may have one integrated line now.
Rather than changing all lines immediately, we create new lines with newest technology, settle them, then gradually move legacy lines. I’m tilted towards developing skills internally—it takes time but won’t upset culture and productivity.
Q: How has your ITI programme worked?
A: We worked with National Skill Development Corporation running skill programmes for extrusion technologies and boiler operations. For long-term employees who couldn’t complete school, it was like a magic wand. Most satisfying is when they suggest machine improvements.
Creating ITI courses faced bureaucratic challenges, so we’re developing purpose-driven people in-house. The solution requires conscious effort from academia, industry, and parents—take internships, and organizations should offer more.
Q: Final Thought
A: When mentoring youngsters, I learn immensely. Gen Z and Millennials have different aspirations. My question as mentor: “You have aspirations—how will you get there? What do you need to build?”
It’s like wanting to climb Everest—you need shadow practice like Sachin did. That power belongs only to you. Grow yourself professionally. What value are you bringing? Why you? When I ask this, I often get silence. If you can answer “Why should someone hire you?” you’re halfway there.