I sat in the car on a warm April morning, looking out of the window at the fields and forests passing me by, as my cab drove me steadily toward Aditya Birla Insulators, Halol (Gujarat) unit: my summer internship company. My mind was buzzing with thoughts of excitement, nervousness and a little fear as I pictured the next two months in an insulator manufacturing plant as an ABGLP Summer Intern (HR). Little did I know at that moment of nervous anticipation that the next two months would be the best and most memorable learning experiences of my life.
The real start to my journey to this GIDC area for my internship had begun on campus when ABG had visited the campus for summer placements. The preparation for summers included intense studying and revision of the HR & IR concepts learned in the course along with the insights and self-reflection of my previous educational and professional experiences in life, which helped me face the interview with confidence and calm, making the experience more like a rich and insightful discussion. After the intensive and comprehensive selection process, I was placed at ABG under their Group Internship Program. Once the projects were assigned to the interns, we were taken through a day-long induction, that helped us get acquainted to the ABG culture and our fellow interns. The interaction with the ABG business leaders helped us bring more insight and clarity to our fuzzy plans for our internships.
The experience of my summer internship at ABI, Halol’s Insulator manufacturing plant was a roller coaster ride with many ups and downs, but it ensured that each day was an adventure. It is the largest Insulator manufacturer in India and the fourth largest in the world. I interned with the plant IR team and after induction with all the plant personnel, was given four projects to work on. Even though four projects sounded overwhelming and scary for a two-month period at first, the thing that helped me tackle them and see them to fruition were crystalizing the objectives and zeroing down on the deliverables to be achieved and thus planning my schedule accordingly to manage the same.
One of the most interesting and demanding projects was the curriculum development for an Industrial Skill Development Centre (IKVK), under the Prime Minister Kausalya Vikas Yojana. ABIH’s 2000 people strong plant, houses the art-like process of turning ordinary, insulating material like clay into an engineering marvel that helped to distribute electricity across the nation. This project demanded the most time and ensured the most learning during my internship. My projects demanded frequent plant visits and collaboration with the production and technical team, collaboration with the HR and IR sections as well as an opportunity to liaison with external government bodies like the Gujarat Labour Welfare Board, Gujarat Council of Vocational Training and the local ITI. People in manufacturing plants are extremely rustic and raw, and thus dealing with them needed a different approach coupled with empathy. My interactions with the workmen showed me that even though they were not qualified on paper, the tacit knowledge that they possessed was unparalleled, which we tried to tap into for the IKVK project.
These experiences forced me to break out of my shell and interact with people all across age groups, functions & departments, hierarchies and positions and taught me valuable lessons in people management that help to inspire the desired action. One of the highlights of my experience at ABIH was the support and respect received from the plant HR/IR and the production teams. Being the only girl in an all-male plant was one of the apprehensions that was immediately put to rest by the care and support of my colleagues.
Life at ABI, Halol was full of work but was also coupled with a lot of fun. Being the only HR intern at ABI, Halol never felt like a drag because of the fun I had with my colleagues who ensured that I explored the local cuisines and the sites. The leadership at ABIH was visionary and believed in an egalitarian work environment, a culture that percolated to the smallest unit within the plant.
My mentor had a massive role to play in the successful completion of my projects. Being a seasoned professional with many well-deserved accolades to his name, he helped me learn about industrial relations while enabling me to search for answers on my own. I learned how important an able IR team is to manufacturing business and that HR/IR can drive operational and business excellence by taking entrepreneurial steps.
In the cacophony of a bustling plant, my mentor taught me to make sense of the ongoings, the importance of taking a balanced approach in problem-solving and how at the end of the day people mattered the most. It is rightly said that “A lot of people have gone ahead than they could because someone else thought they could”, which I can confidently say was the role my mentor played in my internship journey.
From my own experience of working with the people and my projects, I believe that HRs can truly drive change by being agents that help bring the vision of the business to its people by ensuring end-to-end communication of that vision and inclusion, transparency & engagement of the employees throughout the journey.
One of the most important learnings that I have taken away from the internship & mentor is that one should leave any place a little better than when we came to it. As I reached my hometown at the end of the internship, on a similar cab ride back home, the many calls from my colleagues at ABI, Halol to ensure my safe return helped me feel that maybe I had achieved just that.
