IMB 883

GHCL: NAVIGATING THE PANDEMIC

Debolina Dutta

Debolina Dutta, Professor of Practices, OB& HR, IIM Bangalore, prepared this case for classroom discussion. GHCL cooperated
and provided information to the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore in connection with the preparation of this case and
it was reviewed and approved before publication by a company designate. No funding was sought or received from GHCL for the
development of this case. This case was also developed from available and permitted sources of information. This case is not
intended to serve as an endorsement, source of primary data, or to show effective or inefficient handling of decision or business
processes.

Copyright © 2021 by the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. No part of the publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (including internet) – without the
permission of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

The sweltering heat and humidity of the first week of July 2020 was not bothering Biswarup Goswami, the Chief
Human Resource Officer (CHRO) of GHCL Ltd. (erstwhile Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Limited) 1 as he prepared for the
monthly senior management meeting. While he quickly worked on redesigning the new “work from home” norms
to be applied across the organization, what was bothering him was the potential impact of business continuity
measures adopted by the organization on employee morale, retention, and organizational culture. R. S. Jalan, the
much-respected Managing Director of GHCL, announced in the virtual live communication broadcast (MD Speaks)
that GHCL would not retrench or lay off a single employee to manage the organization’s COVID-19 crisis. 2 Many
other organizations had resorted to retrenchment and other cost-cutting measures during the pandemic. The overall
sentiment of uncertainty and fear about the virus had resulted in many organizations providing the work from home
option to their employees. The social isolation, economic uncertainty, and environmental sentiment had led to
concerns about job security. While Goswami appreciated the urgency of boosting the morale and employee
sentiment, the reality of the working capital condition of GHCL highlighted by Raman Chopra, Chief Financial Officer
and Executive Director, GHCL, had Jalan concerned and required some radical thinking by the top management team
of GHCL.

After the communication broadcast, Jalan called Chopra and Goswami.

Raman is working to create a war chest of nearly INR 4 billion to fund the contingencies arising from the
COVID-19 pandemic. I have asked all other function heads to check on any discretionary costs sitting in their
areas. Biswarup- I know the board had approved your proposal to invest in a new cloud-based HRIS system,
Success Factors, which will cost us INR 7.73 million and your team has started a phase-wise rollout. Do we
need to do this now or can we defer the rollout and reduce some of the immediate financial burden? You
have also proposed our Talent pool assessment which will cost us another INR 3.6 million. What are the
other investments required to sustain our “Great Place To Work” ranking within the top 30 Manufacturing
Organizations, which we have won for the fourth year, and now it is the fifth year running? 4 I would not like
the current sentiment and uncertainty to drop on this important people parameter. Having said that, I
would like you to evaluate all means to manage our people and office administration costs, now that our
offices are closed, and we are working from home, without cutting jobs.

GHCL LIMITED

GHCL had received recognition for four consecutive years as a “Great Place to Work” (GPTW) by the Great Places to
Work Institute. Established in 1983 with a corporate office in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, 5 GHCL was a diversified group
with revenue of INR 32720 million with an EBITA margin of 23%, spanning chemicals, textiles, and consumer products
(Exhibit 1). With the announcement of lockdown and anticipated business uncertainty concerning continuity, on
March 23, 2020, market capitalization dropped to approximately INR 7687 million. 6 According to Jalan:

At GHCL, we are a family that looks out for all its stakeholders. We believe in creating a work-life balance,
so there is ample time for personal growth as well as health and wellness pursuits. We are continually
empowering colleagues in ways that inculcate a spirit of ownership and provides them a conducive
environment for innovation and growth.

1
https://www.ghcl.co.in/ last accessed on 29 Jan 2021
2
Please refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_India to see the timelines of the pandemic and its impact in India. last
accessed on 10 August 2021.
3
including the license and implementation cost by partners PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
4
GHCL Limited was certified as one of the Best Places to Work, 2020-21 for the fourth year in a row. The recognition highlights GHCL's phenomenal
success in driving an environment of trust, respect, fair compensation, camaraderie, training, and diversity within the organization.
5
Uttar Pradesh is a state in North India, close to the national capital region.
6
1 USD = INR 75.45 as on July 02, 2020.

Page 2 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

GHCL manufactured soda ash (anhydrous sodium carbonate), a primary raw material for detergents, glass and
ceramics industries, and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) for food and pharmaceutical industries. GHCL was the
second-largest manufacturer of soda ash in India, with a 25% market share. 7 The manufacturing plant was at
Sutrapada in Gujarat8 with an installed production capacity of 1.1 million metric tonnes per annum (MTPA), and the
company was expanding it by another 125 thousand MTPA. GHCL soda ash was available in two grades (light and
dense) and marketed in India. GHCL also had lignite mines at Khadsaliya in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district to supply raw
material to produce soda ash along with saltworks at Amrelli and limestone quarries, primarily near Sutrapada in
Gujarat. GHCL produced 60 thousand MTPA of sodium bicarbonate, an essential raw material for industries like
bakery, pharma, fire extinguisher manufacturing, cleaning agents, etc. Besides, glass was used in the real estate and
the automotive industry. These industries were significantly impacted by COVID-19, reducing the demand for GHCL’s
prime business of soda ash and losing revenue for the year.

In March 2020, the textile operations at GHCL had revenues of INR 10679 million 9 (Exhibit 2). It was an integrated
setup from spinning yarn to weaving, dyeing, printing, and processing finished products like sheets and duvets. They
had an in-house spinning unit at Madurai, Tamil Nadu, 10 which processed the yarn and sent it to their textile facility
at Vapi, Gujarat, with a weaving and processing capacity of 3.75 million meters of fabric per month. GHCL processed
cotton and blended fabrics. In March 2020, there were 304 executives and 1439 roll workers in the home textile
division and 199 executives and 2101 roll workers in the yarn division (Exhibit 3). The products were exported to the
United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, and other European Union countries, and they would
also take on jobs locally. The textile division had been profitable in 2016 and 2017, but recently turned unprofitable
with a loss of INR 300 million and a dilutive EBITA margin of 9.3%. 11 They had an ambitious growth target for 2021,
but as of the end of June 2020, the textile division had only achieved INR 2920 million, mainly due to the impact of
COVID-19 and order cancellations from the US and European retailers.

The consumer products division manufactured and sold edible salt and industrial grade salt. It also marketed spices,
blended spices, and honey in the country under the brand names Sapan and i-FLO. GHCL had its salt manufacturing
facility at Vedaranyam in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu and a refinery at Chennai for edible salt
manufacturing. In March 2020, the revenue from this division was 518 million, and the manpower in this division
consisted of 67 executives and 46 roll workers (refer to Exhibit 3).

Soda ash constituted the primary revenue generator, contributing to 67% of the revenues, and the remaining 33%
came from the textiles units. Within the 67%, the consumer product division contributed around 2% of the total
revenue.

Their core elements of the business strategy were robust and profitable growth, focusing on their value systems and
sustainable, inclusive growth. The company’s vision was to grow its business responsibly, with governance,
sustainability, and core values as its foundation. GHCL’s stated mission was “responsibly maximizing stakeholder
value”. The organizational values were a familiar Hindi acronym ROTI (meaning bread), which stood for respect,
ownership, trust, and integrated teamwork for business success. The HR function’s mission was “to create a value-
driven, high-performance learning organization, in an engaged and digitized environment, so that we are an
Employer of Choice.”According to Goswami:

A GPTW certification just doesn’t happen overnight. It is a result of years of building and sustaining a high-
trust and high-performance culture. Ours is a value-driven organization. With our employee-friendly
policies, open and transparent culture, and a conducive atmosphere for learning and growth, we hope to

7
https://www.ghcl.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Integrated-Annual-Report-2019-20.pdf last accessed on January 29, 2021.
8
Gujarat is a state in West India.
9
https://www.ghcl.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/result2020.pdf last accessed on January 29, 2021.
10
Tamil Nadu is a state in South India.
11
refer Integrated-Annual-Report-2019-20, note 47, p. 292 last accessed on January 29, 2021.

Page 3 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

raise the bar and surpass our own benchmarks in the years to come, including a leap towards HR digitization
in a big way.

Over the years, GHCL accumulated several awards while covering several milestones. The company’s vision, values,
culture, and strategy were the benchmarks of its policies. They placed their core values at the forefront and looked
at employees not as resources but rather as humans first. The company had a robust employee talent management
process, and they had partnered with a leading assessment firm to conduct annual assessment centers to assess 180
talent pool members for mapping critical position succession planning across businesses and locations in 2020-2021.
The assessments gave importance to leaders demonstrating the four core values across 11 leadership
competencies.12 Goswami had also planned to launch gamified induction process in the form of a jungle safari to
elevate the new hire employee experience. The company also focused on trust, respect, fair compensation,
camaraderie, internal communication, training, and diversity, which were key attributes to winning the GPTW
accreditation. The organization’s culture prioritized employee care, and GHCL was known for its fairness and
transparency. The organization’s people-friendly ethos provided an ideal environment to work, resulting in single-
digit attrition levels that were less than the industry standards.

MANAGING DURING THE PANDEMIC

After the government’s first lockdown announcement and subsequent lockdowns, GHCL’s logistics were severely
impacted, as the lockdown brought almost all the economic activities to a halt. The supply chain and the end-to-end
value chain were affected. To reach the customer’s door was a massive task as with the lockdown, interstate, as well
as the intrastate movement of trucks, were stopped. This impacted the customer deliveries, and thereby revenues
and immediate cash flows. Even when they were able to reach the goods to their customer, payments were held up,
or payments were getting delayed. Further, suppliers were unable to reach raw materials to GHCL – forming a vicious
circle. The cash flow was impacted on all sides – the suppliers, the customers, and the company. During April-June
2020 (the first quarter of the financial year of 2020), the anticipated drop in sales of soda ash was 50%, along with a
reduction in the product’s price. Careful financial planning was required to prevent massive losses. The decision to
reduce production and inventory levels was taken suo moto. However, the slow sales and adverse market sentiment
seemed to indicate a forecast revenue and profitability of around INR 27 billion and PBT 13 of around 3.25 billion,
respectively, clocking 22% EBITDA 14.

The worst part was not just that the business was impacted, but the employees’ lives were at risk due to COVID-19.
The GHCL soda ash unit in Sutrapada had a staff colony of 550 employees and their family members surrounding the
factory. They had to handle COVID-19 as otherwise the colony would be affected. The outbreak hit Gujarat badly,
and like other cities in Gujarat, Sutrapada was at a high risk of severely getting impacted by it. The entire scenario
was much more than a standard business recession. In his broadcast in May 2020, Jalan acknowledged this event as
much more than recessionary:

We’ve seen many economic cycles, ups, and downs in our business – we have stood by our people, and
they stood by us. It has helped us sail through many difficult waters. But, now, things are different. We are
dealing with a microbe that has brought nations down to their knees. For how long, we do not know. But
this I do know – the GHCL spirit that helped us navigate previous crises like 2008 and is still within all of us.
Jointly, we will figure out what to do. We need all of us first to stay safe, continue to believe in each other,
and, holding hands, albeit virtually, fight this together.

Despite catering to the pharma industry, the manufacturing initially got shut down, with the government not
allowing them to operate. The soda ash business was severely affected as it was not an emergency life-saving

12
GHCL used the “Aspiration, Ability and Engagement” model (AAE) as dimensions to calibrate high potential (HIPO) employees.
13
PBT: Profit Before Tax
14
EBITDA: Earnings before Interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization

Page 4 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

product. While GHCL tried telling the government that the soda ash was used for manufacturing hand washes, a
critical need of the hour, no exemptions were received to run their plant. They faced the same problem with their
textile industry. In March 2020, the textile industry took a hit as the government had withdrawn an export incentive
called MEIS (merchandise exports from India scheme), and they took a hit of approximately INR 100 million, as the
textile industry operated on meager margins. Neelabh Dalmia, the Executive Director - Textile of GHCL’s textile
business, said:

The MEIS scheme floated intending to offset infrastructural inefficiencies, and the costs associated with
exporting products made in India should be in place at least till the end of the current financial year (2020). 15

The United States and United Kingdom, which were essential markets for the GHCL textile business, were severely
affected by the COVID-19 as death tolls and infected cases rapidly rose in these two countries. Departmental stores
canceled all their orders.

The GHCL management team created a GHCL COVID Catch-up (GCC) task force to deal with the immediate business
crisis. The GCC was supposed to make a presentation to the Strategic Leadership Forum called DISHA. 16 The GCC task
force was headed by Bharat Awasthi, the head of the management resource group, and mentored by the CFO and
the Executive Director Chopra and supported by CHRO Goswami. The task force comprised senior leaders from all
functions and businesses. Jalan and his senior leadership team led the strategy team of Disha. DISHA’s agenda for
2020 was to define actions for organization sustainability without compromising on the people agenda by scanning
the suggestions given by GCC Task force and work on GPTW action points.

There was a need to maintain high levels of precaution, and ensuring safety discipline was adhered to while
assuaging the fear rampant among the employees. All businesses and offices together, the employee strength at
factories located in Sutrapada, Madurai, and Vapi was approximately 5000 permanent and an additional 4000
contingent workers. Of the 5000 permanent employees, 1,000 were executive staff, and the rest were all blue-collar
workers. In the textile factories, over 35% of the workforce were ladies (Exhibit 3). GHCL management informed all
their office employees to work from home as was the norm countrywide during COVID-19. Advance paid leave was
sanctioned to plant employees as they did not have anything to do from home.

RECOVERING FROM THE LOCKDOWN

With the United States and United Kingdom markets not accessible, the marketing team in home textiles thought
about alternative opportunities and discovered that Australia and New Zealand markets were still open for their
textile products. When the lockdown opened, exports to these markets helped GHCL’s textile division cover some
of the losses. Also, a new opportunity emerged, with the government needing personal protective equipment (PPE)
kits. In Vapi, the home textile factory used its machines and infrastructure to manufacture PPE instead of sheets,
serving societal demand and helping the GHCL business. With the plant capacity utilized, the morale of employees
also was lifted. While only a few employees were able to work in the factories in March 2020, by the end of April
2020 and early May 2020, all the factories opened up for all the employees.

With factories reopening, extensive measures were initiated to maintain employee safety. The transportation
provided to the employees from the colony to the factories required maintaining social distance norms, resulting in
multiple trips and increased cost and time. Significant delays were seen at the factories’ entrances, while social
distancing, thermal scans, and sanitization measures were enforced at the gate and work locations. Despite the silver
lining, anxiety loomed large, with working capital under tremendous pressure.

15
Narasimhan T E “Govt likely to roll back MEIS incentive as part of new export-import policy “Business Standard, July 31, 2019,
https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/govt-likely-to-roll-back-meis-incentive-as-part-of-new-export-import-policy-
119073000862_1.html, last accessed on August 10, 2021
16
Disha in Hindi means Direction, but was an acronym for “developing integrated strategies for harnessing new avenues”.

Page 5 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

TOP OF THE MIND PROBLEMS

The pressing concern for Jalan, Chopra, and Goswami was how to pay salaries, especially for the white-collar
workforce (Exhibit 4). The annual performance cycle started in April 2020, but Jalan had announced that while there
would be no retrenchment to manage their finances, there would be no merit increase in the short term. The
organization was structured across 14 grades in 5 bands, with lower grade employees (Grade 1-7) not having any
variable pay component in their salary. However, the previous years’ variable bonus pay across their grades from 8-
11 ranged from INR 1.0 million to INR 3.0 million. Jalan and the senior management felt that disbursing the variable
pay, which was due to performance in 2019-2020, was not only justified but would also ease financial stress for
employees. Therefore, the variable pay was disbursed in April 2020. Many employees saw this action as a positive
signal of organizational intent. However, there were reports in the media of a few organizations giving on-time merit
increases and promotions such as Asian Paints.17 Within GHCL, there was dissatisfaction among some employees
regarding their merit increase expectations. However, many employees were comforted by Jalan’s reassurance that
the company was not considering retrenchment for managing the cost pressures.

Some tough decisions were required given the cash flow (Exhibit 5) and finance fund flow situation. Goswami clearly
needed to cut costs from somewhere. The options were between cutting specific components of salaries and some
benefits. However, the choices were between which components of salary, for which segment of employees, and
how much should be cut? On the other hand, high medical cost beyond insurance coverage was anticipated due to
the COVID-19 crisis. Options of topping up the ongoing medical insurance coverage were explored.

Understanding that they needed to control their expenditure, Goswami took some immediate steps to reduce costs.
Since office occupancy was sparse, they cut short on their housekeeping and security requirements at their offices.
However, this was judiciously done, as these workers were contract laborers, and they did not want to cut them off
totally from being paid.

The chemical division was the bigger and more profitable division. Some inevitable comparisons emerged, and a few
managers suggested that the less profitable division (and its people) should be either shut down or spun off as an
independent entity. Jalan responded to some of these murmurs in his town hall address:

We are a family. It is not in our Indian or GHCL’s culture to disown or disregard a family member when they
are in need. We had also supported a few divisions when they were not performing and helped them turn
around in the past. Today is no different. We will not discard a struggling business unit and its members but
look at how we can support them. We will share our ROTI equally!

The virtual way of working also meant an increased focus on digitization for the organization (Exhibit 6). Legacy
systems had run their course, including the old performance management and employee data systems scattered
over four separate systems. As part of the larger digitization agenda, to enable GHCL to embrace the Industry 4.0
standards,18 the human resource information system (HRIS) platform was considered a significant transformational
change. The fully automated processes and workflows of the HRIS system were expected to reduce manual
intervention and increase efficiency across the board. A single-platform single-user experience to all employees,
which was mobile-enabled, would provide a view of the employee lifecycle and organizational structure. For the HR
team, the HRIS would ease people’s administration processes, bring a single source of data truth, and harmonize HR
policies and processes across all plants and locations. Goswami expected the system to enable control of its
budgeted and unbudgeted headcount, enable HR analytics, standardization of job descriptions, better manage the
applicant tracking system for efficient recruitment, and build a dynamic and flexible continuous performance

17
Vijayraghavan kala and Mascarenhas Rajesh, “Asian Paints raises staff salaries to boost morale” The Economic Times, May 15, 2020,
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/asian-paints-raises-staff-salaries-to-boost-
morale/articleshow/75746239.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst, last accessed on August 10,
2021
18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKPrJJSv94M&feature=emb_logo last accessed on January 30, 2021

Page 6 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

management culture. He had prepared the business case for investment of INR 8 million in the cloud-based HRIS
systems of Successfactors,19 which had prima facie received board approval, and the phase-wise HRIS roll-out plan
had been scheduled to start in March 2020. However, that was before the COVID-19 breakout. While Goswami felt
this expenditure was critical, it was an additional burden on an already strained financial system. There was an
additional challenge of executing this implementation virtually. He needed to decide if it would be prudent to defer
the implementation (and thereby the cost) to a timeframe when such massive change management could be
enabled in a non-virtual manner. There were advantages and disadvantages to the timing of the implementation.

While there was a complete recruitment freeze, cost savings due to attrition were not much, as hardly anyone left
the organization. However, migrant workers had left during the start of the pandemic, even during the lockdown.
When the factories reopened, the HR teams at the factories struggled to staff and train new workers.

BUILDING AND SUSTAINING MORALE

In March 2020, with the lockdown imposed, Jalan immediately realized that strong communication was required to
build and sustain morale by each leadership team member. His practice was to conduct bi-annual town halls and
smaller people connect sessions when he traveled to any location with face-to-face discussions. However, due to
COVID-19, he went online and started a fortnightly webinar branded as “MD Speaks.” The initial intent was to
communicate honestly and transparently, apprise all employees on critical initiatives, the good and bad news,
reinforce safety messaging, and address any questions employees may have. These webinars appeased the fear
psychosis, influenced employees’ mindset, sustained communication channels, and helped lift people’s morale and
motivation. Since Jalan would actively invite questions from the employees, the initial and common questions were:
“What will happen to us; are our salaries secure; how will we manage; when will you give us increments; we see that
one or two companies are paying, so why don’t you?”

While Jalan addressed these questions, his innate honesty and transparency resonated with the employees and
seemed to bring down the anxiety levels. He also urged the employees to focus on avenues to reduce cost while
maintaining or enhancing customer-centricity, drive sustainability and process innovations, explore automation and
digitization opportunities. However, all of this was required to be done, keeping the spirit and values of GHCL intact
while maximizing growth and value for all stakeholders.

Apart from the “MD Speaks” webinar, multiple local, and functional WhatsApp groups were created. While some of
these existed before COVID-19, new groups focused on connecting to the last laborer. There were smaller groups in
Noida or Sutrapada, Madurai, one each for Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chennai, etc. WhatsApp communication was used
to keep all employees informed about the COVID-19 situation and obtain quick feedback about its happenings,
including employees’ health conditions. Moreover, the migrant labor from other states wanted to go back home, so
that needed good monitoring.

During the complete lockdown, Goswami felt it an opportune moment to focus on learning with people sitting at
home.

Positive psychology reinforces that investment in learning is seen as a positive signal, an affirmation in
future capability. So, we used this time to keep them fruitfully engaged and develop their skills and
knowledge. A leading E-learning platform has offered us some free e-learning modules, and we felt we
should leverage this to the maximum during this time.

While soft skills e-learning programs were popular, other functional skills and domain courses also emerged as
popular learning choices with INR 1.0 million being spent on employee learning. The e-learning modules had a
massive impact on the staff. Many of the certified programs helped build pride, with employees sharing their

https://www.sap.com/products/human-resources-hcm.html?src=sfsf last accessed on January 30, 2021.

19

Page 7 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

certifications on social media. Online yoga and meditation programs were also launched to manage stress. Also, the
GHCL HR started a program for employees who were superannuating. Called “GHCL ke saath bhi aur GHCL ke baad
bhi”,20 the program focused on effective financial planning and health management and was conducted by a famous
international training firm. The popularity of this program resulted in it being extended to the general staff of GHCL.
Another popular online program on customer-centric communication emerged as a popular topic during the
lockdown.

A team from their Ahmedabad office suggested that virtual games and exercises such as an online treasure hunt or
solving a murder trail mystery could keep the team engaged. Some employees invested in group learning through
case studies. So, the employees were kept engaged and happy. Goswami was pleasantly surprised to see the
enthusiasm and participation for all types of virtual games.

I kept hearing about zoom fatigue in the various HR groups, but I did not see this within my company.
Evidently, our employees would rather be virtually together than watch TV alone.

A helpline called “WeAssist@ghcl.co.in” was created for employees to reach out when in need. Apart from the MD
Speaks communication at the Sutrapada plant, a virtual platform named e-Milap brought all employees across the
company to understand the existing business scenario of the challenges and their strategy moving forward. e-Milap
stood as an electronic medium for interactive lateral, and actionable partnership, where suggestions were provided
by management and employees were recognized for good work. Reiterating the importance of festivals in the Indian
culture, Jalan said:

We need as many reminders of positivity, hope, and reasons to celebrate during these dark times. What
better than our Indian festivals. We must broadcast what all our people are doing, share these stories,
spread the cheer.

All festivals were celebrated in an e-format and telecast live, so people could see it while sitting at home. Stories and
images of these celebrations were published on the intranet, which helped sustain the camaraderie of the isolated
workforce.

GHCL’s CSR activities, with a spend of INR 0.97 billion in March 2019-2020 in addition to their existing programs,
distributed COVID-19 kits and food kits in the villages surrounding their factory, where people did not have access
to bare essentials due to the lockdown. They partnered with 17 NGOs and reached out to 0.124 million people during
April and May 2020.

SUSTAINING GPTW CERTIFICATION

In 2020, there were two lenses of employee perspective through which the GPTW analysis was done (Exhibit 7a).
The first was the trust index, which covered credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie (Exhibit 7b). Scores
are given based on an index of a randomly selected 15% employee base, who answered a questionnaire. For
instance, among the top three responses in the questionnaire, 88-89 was the score for the parameter “the
management shows appreciation for good work and extra effort,” another parameter which scored 80-81 was
“people are encouraged to balance their work life and personal life.” Out of the bottom-level questions, which were
still quite high, that which scored 67-81 was “I believe management would lay off people only as a last resort,” and
78-86 was “I feel I make a difference here (i.e., in GHCL).” Even though the bottom scoring questions were relatively
high scoring, Goswami selected the items, which scored less than 80 and needed attention.

The second parameter of the GPTW analysis was a culture audit, which checked for policy versus practice and the
uniformity of HR processes, policies, and experience across the breadth of employees. The starting document was a

This is a Hindi phrase meaning – with GHCL during and after (employment).
20

Page 8 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

questionnaire filled by the company’s HR team describing the current practices and policies adopted in detail. Again,
random sampling and qualitative interviews across all levels and types of employees assessed this parameter. The
output of the trust and culture surveys was collated to juxtapose employee experiences. Organizational cultures
were ranked into four quadrants of good cultural foundation, a great place to work, culture in the making, and
culture promoting trust.

GHCL had ranked among the top-30 manufacturing companies (Exhibit 8) and top-100 companies across all sectors
in the 2019-20 survey rankings, an accomplishment it had achieved for four consecutive years. Notwithstanding this,
Goswami wanted to work on areas, where GHCL was relatively lower in the survey rankings (Exhibit 9). He had
identified four areas from the 2019-20 survey results, which he wanted to focus on to improve the GPTW ranking in
the 2020-21 survey. The identified areas were both important for the GHCL context and areas where there was
significant potential to move the needle. During 2019-20, Goswami had driven multiple initiatives to address the
concerns with the leadership team’s support. Robust grievance redressal system, whistleblower policy, and digital
approval systems were introduced to hasten people's decision systems. A social media platform like Facebook (JAM)
within the Successfactors HRIS was launched, where employee-based requests were quickly addressed. The system
allowed all approvals to get digitized, enhancing the speed and becoming paperless. For instance, if a manager did
not approve an employee’s request within a stipulated time frame, it would automatically move to the next level.
Jalan’s commitment not to retrench workers was aligned to the GPTW 2020-21 action plan.

Local concerns that emerged from the 2019-20 GPTW report were also actioned with focused interventions. An HR
initiative in the Yarn division called “CARE” (communicate, appreciate, respect, and engage) had been launched in
2020 to reinforce employees’ perception of GHCL as an empathetic organization and to improve Yarn score, which
had come down a little compared to the previous year by two points. Supervised by a seven-member committee,
the CARE forum tracked and reported initiatives across all Yarn division locations and functions such as “know your
colleague,” weekly celebration and recognition of an employee for personal/professional achievements, best people
manager in a month, etc. These employees were felicitated in the monthly town hall meetings with a rolling shield
and a certificate, accompanied by a token gift voucher. In Sutrapada, a transparent employee grievance redressal
forum was launched for executives. Additionally, a detailed Covid Management Standard Operation Procedure (SOP)
document was published separately for the factories and offices.

DIFFICULT DECISIONS

The GCC task force that was instituted in April 2020 (Exhibit 10) had the prime objective of rebuilding the business
value lost due to the pandemic. The GCC focused on realigning each function and division’s strategy and business
targets and priorities, monitored each business’s operating levers, and established baseline performance targets.
With cost management as a central thrust area, constant monitoring of manufacturing cost, working capital, cash
flow management, reviewing capital expenditures, and treasury management were required. The company also
debated if the chemical and textile units should be demerged into two separate companies under the same GHCL
banner. While this may have resulted in better valuation for some of the entities, questions remained on various
operational and strategic benefits to the separate entities. Would it dilute or augment business synergies,
operational costs, and customer focus? As a part of manufacturing excellence, a focus on process excellence was
emphasized, which reduced the variability in critical process parameters. The initiatives around digitization to
achieve Industry 4.0 standards were also part of the senior management agenda. Goswami and his team contributed
to the GCC, with a focus on the new ways of working while safeguarding against COVID-19. He needed to quickly
institutionalize the new ways of working, emphasize desired behaviors, and identify the new normal competencies
across all work levels.

No one could say with certainty when the situation would normalize, if ever? Within this, Goswami had to make
multiple decisions. How should he manage the people costs in this uncertain environment? What initiatives could
help GHCL sustain its GPTW ranking for the fifth consecutive year? Should he defer the HRIS implementation until
people were back in office? The organization was already facing unprecedented change.

Page 9 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

Turning up the air-conditioning in his room, Goswami prepared for what was appearing to be a tough July 2020
monthly meeting.

Page 10 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

Exhibit 1
The financial balance sheet of GHCL: 2016-2020 (amount in INR million)

Year Mar-20 Mar-19 Mar-18 Mar-17 Mar-16

SOURCES OF FUNDS
Share Capital 950.1 980.3 974.2 994.7 1000.2
Reserves Total 20905.5 18539.2 15245.2 12518.5 9332.6
Total Shareholders’ Funds 21855.6 19519.5 16219.4 13513.2 10332.8

Secured Loans 10806.1 11257.1

11,982.0 14,306.9 13,251.9
Unsecured Loans 1590.2 1660.8 - -
1,153.5
Total Debt 12396.3 12917.9 13135.5 14306.9 13251.9
Other Liabilities 201.9 61.5 63.3 61.3 53.3
Total Liabilities 34453.8 32498.9 29418.2 27881.4 23638
APPLICATION OF FUNDS:
Gross Block 30809.9 29071.1 27224.3 25367.4 21268.6
Less: Accumulated Depreciation 4264 3256.3 2308.8 1376.9 793.6
Net Block 26,545.90 25,814.80 24,915.50 23,990.50 20,475.00
Capital Work in Progress 1217.2 1174.6 735.1 260 368.9
Investments 342.3 465.6 103.2 88.2 60.9
CURRENT ASSETS, LOANS & ADVANCES
Inventories 7242.7 6682.6 5878.8 5092.4 4076.3
Sundry Debtors 3575.8 3802.3 2855.6 3268.5 2465.5
Cash and Bank 1135.2 277.6 242.4 319.9 408.6
Loans and Advances 1123.5 1460.3 1079.1 1299.9 624.9
Total Current Assets 13077.2 12222.8 10055.9 9980.7 7575.3
Less Current Liabilities 4896.7 4762.4 4728.9 4269.2 3384.7
Less Provisions 128.3 244.7 150.8 166.9 107.7
Total Current Liabilities 5025 5007.1 4879.7 4436.1 3492.4
Net Current Assets 8052.2 7215.7 5176.2 5544.6 4082.9
Deferred Tax Assets 98.9 494.6 834.2 104 129.9
Deferred Tax Liability 2629.7 3024.6 2783.7 2463.8 2079.2
Net Deferred Tax -2530.8 -2530 -1949.5 -2359.8 -1949.3
Other Assets 827 358.2 437.7 357.9 599.6
Total Assets 34453.8 32498.9 29418.2 27881.4 23638
Contingent Liabilities 3083.1 3182.3 3360.9 2347.6 2656

Source: Capitaline

Page 11 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

Exhibit 2
Profit and loss statement of GHCL: 2016-2020 (amount in INR million)

Year Mar-20 Mar-19 Mar-18 Mar-17 Mar-16

INCOME:
Sales Turnover 32,560.10 33,711.80 29565.2 29,426.80 27,087.50
Excise Duty - - 508.7 1,886.90 1,765.60
Net Sales 32,560.10 33,711.80 29,056.50 27,539.90 25,321.90
Other Income 164.3 135.4 357.5 374.9 74.7
Total Income 32,724.40 33,847.20 29,414.00 27,914.80 25,396.60
EXPENDITURE :
Raw Materials 14,218.20 14,518.60 12,492.40 11,181.30 9,644.30
Power & Fuel Cost 5,131.70 5,053.30 3,903.00 3,065.20 3,558.90
Employee Cost 1,883.60 2,009.10 1,763.70 1581.3 1,332.40
Miscellaneous Expenses 3959.3 4429 4763.2 4873.1 4638.4
Total Expenditure 25,192.80 26,010.00 22,922.30 20,700.90 19,174.00
Operating Profit 7,531.60 7,837.20 6,491.70 7,213.90 6,222.60
Interest 1,181.80 1,263.20 1,241.60 1,337.70 1,628.20
Gross Profit 6,349.80 6,574.00 5,250.10 5,876.20 4,594.40
Depreciation 1,305.10 1,162.90 1,095.30 856.9 817.4
Profit Before Tax 5,044.70 5,411.10 4,154.80 5,019.30 3,777.00
Tax 979.70 1,800.80 509.7 1151.6 1210.7
Reported Net Profit 4,065.00 3,610.30 3,645.10 3,867.70 2,566.30
P & L Balance brought forward 16,726.10 13,699.20 11,426.30 8,178.70 5,886.20
P & L Balance carried down 19,710.80 16,726.10 14,070.40 11,426.30 8,178.70
Earnings Per Share-Unit Curr 41.51 36.88 37.32 38.22 25.57

Source: Capitaline

Page 12 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

Exhibit 3
Manpower and manpower costs

MANPOWER NOS. (JAN 20 TO DEC 20)

Division Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20
SODA ASH
Executive 447 452 450 446 444
Worker 609 605 604 600 594
Total: 1056 1057 1054 1046 1038
HOME TEXTILES
Executive 310 306 304 302 299
Worker 1568 1519 1439 1340 1327
Total: 1878 1825 1743 1642 1626
YARN
Executive 193 196 199 199 201
Worker 1954 2036 2101 2031 2029
Total: 2147 2232 2300 2230 2230
CPD
Executive 67 66 67 67 66
Worker 46 46 46 72 71
Total: 113 112 113 139 137
Total Manpower Nos. 5194 5226 5210 5057 5031

MANPOWER COST (in INR million) (January 20 to May 20)

Division Jan-20 Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 May-20
SODA ASH
Executive 54.6 57.3 57 50.4 50.3
Worker 20.4 20 20 25.2 18
Total (INR million): 75 77.4 77 75.6 68.3
HOME TEXTILES
Executive 19.3 18.2 18.3 17.7 17.6
Worker 22.2 21.5 20.5 19.5 19.1
Total (INR million): 41.5 39.7 38.8 37.2 36.7
YARN
Executive 10.2 10.2 10.3 09.9 10
Worker 18.9 20.9 23.1 10.6 10.4
Total (INR million): 29.1 31.1 33.4 20.5 20.4
CPD
Executive 03.8 03.8 03.9 03.7 03.7
Worker 00.6 00.6 00.6 01.4 01.3
Total (INR million): 04.4 04.4 04.5 05.1 05
Total Manpower Cost (INR million) 150.0 152.6 153.7 138.4 130.4

Source: Company provided documents

Page 13 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

Exhibit 4
Average annual salaries of white-collar staff at GHCL

Minimum Median Average Maximum

Levels* Employees CTC (Rs.) CTC (Rs.) CTC (Rs.) CTC (Rs.)
12 SR VP & CXO 4
11 VP 9 2,734,758 4,583,283 4,707,935 6,500,011
10 SR GM 11 2,276,269 4,443,208 4,334,364 5,215,192
9 GM 22 2,309,995 3,364,689 3,397,600 4,797,628
8 DGM 27 2,055,900 2,758,373 2,708,284 3,392,024
7A AGM 29 1,232,263 2,129,335 2,105,967 2,733,447
7 SR MGR 43 1,185,136 1,621,228 1,622,522 2,172,972
6 MGR 77 849,336 1,250,071 1,236,242 1,720,730
5 DY MGR 100 690,003 914,492 937,710 1,380,811
4 ASST MGR 131 350,009 657,324 667,213 1,099,870
3 SR EX 171 260,521 575,009 559,176 978,992
2 EX/OFFICER 108 275,012 473,388 470,652 711,259
1 JR OFFICER 99 190,562 340,120 345,993 640,043
SR ASST STAFF 33 213,508 339,122 356,588 587,977
FOREMAN STAFF 1 1,005,242 1,005,242 1,005,242 1,005,242
ASST/TECHN STAFF 80 142,921 244,928 247,657 370,998
ATNDR / DRIVER STAFF 21 160,915 287,507 313,871 484,910
Total: 968

 Level 13 was for CFO & Executive Director, and Level 14 was for MD. As these are unique roles, the compensation details are not included
in this table.
Source: Company provided documents

Exhibit 5
Finance cash flow of GHCL 2016-2020 (amount in INR million)

Year Mar-20 Mar-19 Mar-18 Mar-17 Mar-16

CASH FLOW SUMMARY
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of
44.4 90.1 51.4 371.5 283.1
the year
Net cash from operating activities 6282.9 5607.4 5643.7 4451.5 4935.9
Net cash used in investing activities -2151.1 -3060.1 -2792 -3744.8 -2488.8
Net cash used in financing activities -3280.2 -2593 -2813 -1026.9 -2358.7
Net inc/(December) in cash and cash
851.6 -45.7 38.79 -320.2 88.4
equivalent
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the
896 44.4 90.1 51.4 371.5
year

Source: Capitaline

Page 14 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

Exhibit 6
HR Actual Expenditure 2019-20 and Budget 2020-21

HR Budget
Sr. Heads Actual HR Cost Budgeted HR
no. (2019-20) Cost (20-21)
1 HR Digitization - 7,700,000
2 Gamified Induction, HR Policy & Campus Video - 650,000
3 Learning & Development 4,839,520 5,000,000
Sutrapada 3,419,343

CPD 50,295
Yarn 1,297,122
Noida 72,760
4 Recruitment 1,879,010 2,500,000
Psychometric assessments 1,530,000
Recruitment Consultant fees 58,310
Naukri (job portal) 2,90,700
5 Talent Management (assessment center charges) 2,50,000 50,00,000
6 Employee Engagement 20,85,000 20,00,000
GPTW (participation & assessment) 5,85,000
Club membership fees (fund creation) 15,00,000
7 Performance Management - 10,00,000
8 Salary Cost 1,84,44,00,000 2,02,88,40,000
9 Total Admin Cost 10,03,55,422 10,44,69,333
Noida Head Office 1,23,65,422 1,50,00,000
Sutrapada 8,79,90,000 8,94,69,333
Yarn 2,00,00,000 2,00,00,000
HT 2,00,00,000 2,00,00,000
Total Cost 1,96,61,74,374 2,15,71,59,333

Source: Company provided documents

Page 15 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

Exhibit 7a
GPTW Trust Index and Culture Audit Framework

Source: Company provided documents

Exhibit 7b
GPTW trust index parameters

Source: Company provided documents

Page 16 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

Exhibit 8
Top-30 ranked manufacturing companies in 2019-20 GPTW ranking (alphabetical order)

Source:

Exhibit 9
2019-20 GPTW ranking on specific survey items

GHCL Difference
Top 100 Scoring
Q. No. Question 2020 from Top
Score Comparison
Score 100
Q1 Management keeps me informed about important issues and changes. 78 86 -8 78/86
Q9 People here are given a lot of responsibility. 77 84 -7
Management has a clear view of where the organization is going and how
Q10 80 88 -8
to get there.
Q13 I believe management would lay people off only as a last resort. 67 81 -14 67/81
Q21 This is a physically safe place to work. 87 94 -7
Q31 I am treated as a full member here regardless of my position. 80 88 -8
Q36 People here are treated fairly regardless of their race or caste. 79 90 -11 79/90
Q39 I feel I make a difference here. 78 86 -8 78/86
Q49 People care about each other here. 79 86 -7
Q52 When you join the organization, you are made to feel welcome. 84 91 -7
When people change jobs or work units, they are made to feel right at
Q53 72 81 -9
home.

Source: Company provided documents

Page 17 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.
 GHCL: Navigating the Pandemic

Exhibit 10
GHCL’s GCC taskforce rebuilding journey plan

Source: Company provided documents

Page 18 of 18

This document is authorized for use only in Prof. Reeta Raina/Sriparna Basu/Anita Lal/Aanchal Sharma's Managerial Communication_ T1 at FORE School of Management from Jul 2022 to
Jan 2023.