EMPLOYEES
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A GOOD COMPANY AND A GREAT ONE, ARE ITS EMPLOYEES. THEY ARE THE ONES WHO ACTUALISE THE VISION. T VEDANTA, WE BELIEVE THAT HUMAN CAPITAL DRIVES CORPORATE PERFORMANCE, AND PARTNERING IN THEIR PROGRESS, IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVESTMENT WE CAN MAKE.
With a 78,000+ diverse workforce spread across four continents and multiple countries, we have fostered a unified performance culture. A culture that exemplifies our core values and nurtures excellence, creativity and diversity.
*Includes the Port Business and corporate office locations

OUR PRIORITIES

Our priority is to ensure that our employees remain motivated and deliver to their full potential. Their health, safety, and well-being are key focus areas for the organisation. The company also has put significant efforts to provide expanded career and leadership opportunities across all levels, with an emphasis on promoting gender diversity across roles.
Starting from recruitment to development, and engagement to retention, we are constantly evolving at all phases of the talent management cycle. Digitisation and user-friendly technology are our allies in upgrading and introducing best-in-class people practices.
WE HAVE SEEDED AND NURTURED A CULTURE OF TRUST, INTEGRITY, DISCIPLINE, EMPOWERMENT AND OWNERSHIP IN EVERYTHING WE DO.

TALENT ACQUISITION

Vedanta's push to become one of the most efficient and sustainable mining businesses on the planet can only be achieved if we have the right people managing our business. As our collective businesses mature, we need to ensure that we hire, train, and equip our workforce to handle the complexities of an increasing inter-connected business. We have put a range of initiatives in place for hiring quality talent.
VEDANTA'S GLOBAL INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME
The Global Internship Programme (GIP) seeks to attract the best talent from the world's leading universities. We want to on-board students who have exposure to the best and most current management thinking. Our GIP candidates are first-year MBA students from premier B-schools including Harvard, INSEAD, London Business School, IIM-Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore and IIMKolkata. The GIP is designed to create a symbiotic relationship wherein the students get handson business experience and Vedanta attracts emerging bright managers.
Internships provide these candidates with an opportunity to work with the top management, especially the C-suite, on live projects that directly impact the business. They work in a dynamic, fast-paced team environment, and gain broad experience in several facets of the natural resources industry.
VEDANTA LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (VLDP)
The Vedanta Leadership Development Programme for full-time hires aims to build organisational capability for the future by onboarding best-in-class young talent from the top management and technology institutes as full-time employees.
We nurture them to be the leaders of tomorrow by providing them with a tailored programme including induction, job rotation, and a range of roles, opportunities and anchoring.
During the first year of the programme FY 2016-17, 19 students were selected and in the second year FY 2017-18, 28 students have been enlisted.
RIGHT MANAGEMENT IN PLACE (RMIP) - STRATEGIC HIRING
We introduced a recruitment drive to fill several leadership positions including expat/specialist positions to realign the organisation structure and strengthen our management teams across the business. Hiring for these positions focused on recruitment of high performing individuals and domain specialists from leading global companies.

TALENT MANAGEMENT & DEVELOPMENT

We have a sharp focus on nurturing existing employees and grooming them to take up leadership roles within the organisation. An assortment of talent management and development initiatives are in place. These include training and development programmes, job rotations, additional projects and responsibilities, and mentoring programmes. These have helped us build a talent pipeline of future leaders across levels.
Employee Training man-hours
FUTURE LEADERSHIP
Nothing makes us happier than accelerating the careers of our people and witnessing their professional development, thus creating value for both the organisation and our employees.
CHAIRMAN'S INTERNAL GROWTH WORKSHOPS
We have always aimed to be an organisation headed by 'leaders from within'. Recognising internal talent and promoting them to leadership roles has been a driving factor in our rapid growth. Aligned with this philosophy, the Group conducts 'Chairman's Internal Growth Workshops' to identify potential candidates across the Group.
The Objective
Identifying young leaders for enhanced and elevated roles through a structured process
Developing highly competent leaders and motivating them to perform exceptionally well
Evaluating corrective actions, providing growth and recognition wherever required
These workshops have resulted in the identification of 500+ cross-functional, high-potential new leaders in the Group's businesses to date, who have taken up significantly enhanced roles and responsibilities.
Our Internal Growth Workshops have also enabled us to reduce our lateral hiring significantly for critical roles across the Group in the past two years.
An outstanding platform to identify talent and give them growth opportunities, Internal Growth Workshops shall be patented as Vedanta DNA. I personally felt very energised to be a part of this process, and thankful to the management for such a great opportunity and confidence in my capabilities. This move has motivated me to put forth my best efforts and surpass management expectations by delivering my best in the Gamsberg Project and by making Zinc International, a bestin-class business.
Pushpendra Singla | CFO, Zinc International
'V-CONNECT' INITIATIVE
This initiative was launched across the Group in association with Aon as an anchoring / mentoring and training partner, covering 12,000 professionals. The key output has been to derive enhanced engagement levels from employees.
As part of my group connects, I recently conducted an exercise with my talents to help them identify their leadership styles and build effective relationships with their stakeholders. V-Connect has given the opportunity for Anchors and Talents to learn together.
Anchor
Mr. Deepak Prasad
Head - Aluminium Operations,
BALCO
The V-Connect sessions are continuously contributing to enhance my leadership and functional skills by providing abundant opportunities to work in cross-functional areas beyond my area of expertise.
Talent
Mr. Subrata Dasgupta
Associate GM, MRSDS & Rectifier,
BALCO
NON-HR TO HR
One of our popularly christened programme, Non-HR to HR is aimed at 'developing and deploying diverse perspectives' in HR function for achieving next level growth and setting up a platform for aspiring leaders to get into General Management Leadership roles.
Over the last two years 9 non-HR leaders have been selected for this programme. These new leaders are encouraged to connect with the leadership team and are being anchored by the HR Heads at respective businesses.
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
At Vedanta, merit is the only criteria for growth. We provide equal opportunities to all our employees, irrespective of gender, nationality and background. We strongly believe that diverse individuals bring varied perspectives and new ideas to the organisation, and collectively can take collaborative decisions and create superior outcomes.
Since most of our operations are in remote areas, we place a strong emphasis on recruiting employees from among the local population. A significant percentage of our employees are recruited from the country in which our operations are located, creating jobs for people and partnering in the progress of the local economy.
n FY 2017-18, a majority of the individuals hired at our operations were local to the business. This strategy ensures that our business benefits from the socio-cultural knowledge that those individuals bring in their management approach. It also allows us to create a direct economic and skills-based impact for the individuals who live in the communities where we operate, which is a crucial element for our social license to operate.
Some of the women-oriented initiatives during FY 2017-18:
TARANG
We have a clear commitment towards a diverse workforce and priming our employees to take up leadership roles. A unique developmental initiative has been launched this year by the Iron Ore Business for our women professionals across functions including Geology, Civil, Mining, Maintenance, Finance and others. This programme aims to improve the gender diversity in businesses' Executive Committee through a structured intervention.
The individual development plans for these participants have been charted out based on psychometric assessment and career development plans, and further focus would be on building competencies in financial acumen, strategic thinking and leadership.
PROGRESSIVE POLICIES
The liberal parental leave policy wherein maternity leave is 26 weeks, adoption leave is 12 weeks and paternity leave is 1 week has resulted in better productivity and retention, especially of our women employees.
*Retention % is calculated based on the number of employees who returned and were in continuous service for the next 12 months / number of people who went on parental leave.
TUFemina
An initiative launched at Sterlite Copper, TUFemina is a forum where our women employees get an opportunity to learn, share and experience new things.
There are teams, divided and named after colours of the rainbow: Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red. A monthly meet is hosted by each colour where experienced women professionals share their journey at Sterlite.
For returning mothers, we also provide flexibility to move into another job profile or continue with the same role, to manage both professional and personal priorities.
These policies make them feel more engaged and motivated as a result, and their positivity rubs off on the entire workforce.
WOMEN ACROSS THE BOARD
Amongst the few global natural resources companies that enjoy a healthy gender diversity ratio across all levels, we believe women are critical to a healthy and productive work environment. With varied perspectives and patterns, they are helpful in providing a different set of solutions for the challenges we face, making us more responsive to future risks and opportunities.
28
of our top leadership positions are being held by women professionals
Over 500 individuals were identified at Vedanta as high potential,
10%
of whom are women
In our 'Club 100' of potential future leaders, we have
7%
women leaders
We have placed internal recruitment targets to ensure equal gender representation.
We are signatories of the 'CEO Statement of Support' for the United Nations' Women's Empowerment Principles (WEP) - 'Equality Means Business'.
We continually focus on improving gender diversity across the group, across grades and management levels.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND RETENTION

Engaged employees are more effective and efficient employees, doing well for themselves as well as the organisation. We realise the importance of an engaged workforce and work towards building an inclusive workplace through various initiatives, enabling our employees to make meaningful contributions. We also ensure that we monitor and reward performance.
The various internal channels of communication, including Chairman's workshops, town hall meetings, daily leadership update forums, HSE Leadership and Sustainability Steering Committee meetings, site-level risk sub-committees, employee engagement surveys, and the various engagement forums at site - both formal and informal, allow us to keep a pulse on the day-to-day functioning of the company.
Collective bargaining also offers the opportunity to build a constructive relationship between the Management and Union representatives. 59% of our full-time employees at BALCO, CMT, HZL, KCM, Sesa, and Zinc International are covered under collective bargaining agreements across the organisation.
ATTRITION RATE IN FY 2017-18 WAS LESS THAN 6%. ALSO, LESS THAN 1% OF OUR FEMALE EMPLOYEES LEFT US IN THAT PERIOD, WHICH IS A TESTAMENT TO VEDANTA BEING A GREAT COMPANY FOR WOMEN TO WORK AND DEVELOP THEIR CAREERS.
CAIRN LEADERSHIP CONNECT - EXPRESS | LEARN | INNOVATE
Leadership Connect is a highly engaging forum that gives employees an opportunity to learn about the company's leadership perspective in an informal & interactive platform with its leaders.
As part of this initiative, Cairn's leaders throw light on their personal career anchors and talked about the career trajectory, whilst also spending time talking about key approaches towards Cairn's short and long-term objectives. Three such Connect Workshops were organised with three different leaders. Each one of them received enthusiastic participation and a total of 360 employees attended these sessions.
To-the-point sessions clearing some very basic points and highly interactive, given by a leader who inspired me within an hour. Surabhi Paharia | PSCM, Gurugram
It was well-organised and an excellent session - planned, focused and transparent, with great replies on diverse questions raised by participants. Not only are these types of sessions good for getting to know more about our company direction, but also good for participant motivation. Navratan Sharma | HSEQ, Gurugram
V-PERFORM: ONE PERFORMANCE SYSTEM FOR ONE VEDANTA
V-Perform is a pan-Vedanta initiative to standardise our performance management system (PMS) and processes by leveraging technology. This assists the functions, teams and individuals in tracking performance, generating analytics and taking steps to ensure they are achieving Vedanta's overall business plan and targets
To enhance our safety performance in the workplace and achieve our ultimate vision of zero harm, a safety competency assessment process has also been initiated as part of VPerform to strengthen our existing safety management system.
ONE VEDANTA NETWORK
As an international company employing thousands of people working across a range of remote and diverse geographic locations, we recognise the importance of fostering a culture of transparency, collaboration and knowledge-sharing across the organisation to keep employees informed and engaged. As social networking platforms continue to grow in popularity, we have developed One Vedanta - a platform on Workplace by Facebook, which enables all Vedanta employees to share content with their peers using a range of interactive tools such as live videos, news feeds, posts and media upload options.
THE PLATFORM WAS LAUNCHED IN EARLY 2017 AND CURRENTLY MORE THAN 13,000 EMPLOYEES ARE SIGNED UP TO THIS EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT TOOL WITH 4,000 ACTIVE CONVERSATIONS PER WEEK. IN NOVEMBER 2017, A NEW 'CHAIRMAN CONNECT' BOT APPLICATION WAS LAUNCHED ON ONE VEDANTA BY OUR CHAIRMAN, ANIL AGARWAL.
This application aims to give every employee direct access to the Chairman and the leadership team to share ideas, feedback and to post questions. Mr Agarwal's vision is to tap into the rich pool of ideas and experiences shared by employees and to make Vedanta, an open and connected organisation.
During the year, Vedanta Resources Chairman Mr. Anil Agarwal interacted with more than
5,000
EMPLOYEES ACROSS
30
LOCATIONS IN
5
COUNTRIES
ADDING PURPOSE TO THE PROFESSION
Employee volunteering has been an important way for involving team members to go beyond their work and donate time, money and skills for the betterment of society. During the reporting period, nearly 2,500 employees of HZL were engaged through various CSR initiatives such as:
KHUSHI BAATIYE
A fundraising campaign held during the festival of Diwali to spread joy among the children of our anganwadi (child day-care) programmes. Employee contributions made it possible to donate new clothes and footwear to 64,000 children.
PAINT FOR JOY
100 employees volunteered to help children with hearing impairment, autism, and cerebral palsy showcase their talents in a painting event. While the children exhibited their ability, this one-on-one connect with the kids was very fulfilling for the employees.
EMPLOYEE STOCK OPTION SCHEME (ESOS) 2017
We launched an Employee Stock Option Scheme to reward our employees and enable them to share in the financial success of the company. The scheme was launched after obtaining statutory approvals, including shareholders' approval in 2016.
ESOS 2017 covers 2,832 employees of the Company and aims at rewarding them with wealth creation opportunities, encouraging high-growth performance and reinforcing employee pride.

HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

The World Health Organisation defines health as a 'state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease'. It is with this definition in mind that we at Vedanta have institutionalised various programmes across our locations.
EMPLOYEE WELLNESS PROGRAMME - NCHINGILILE UBUMI | HEALTH
Nchingilile Ubumi, a Zambian phrase which means 'I will protect my health', is a 100-day wellness journey aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of our people at the Zambian operations.
KCM's intent behind launching the programme was to have the staff recognise that exercise is an important part of healthy living and should be a lifestyle choice, not a one-off event. Under this programme, while the main physical activity is walking, other forms of exercise such as aerobics, soccer, golf, netball, cycling and volleyball are also encouraged. This wellness journey was launched for all KCM staff and contractors.
FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP - HAPPY HOME | PERSONAL FINANCES
Concerned about the number of miners in the Nchanga & Nampundwe Business Units (BUs) who were heavily in debt, their Manager initiated a Human Capital Management (HCM) workshop focused on educating them and their spouses about wealth management.
Knowing that their financial status and personal life affects not only their concentration at work, but also their productivity and safety, she came up with the initiative where KCM as an organisation could help improve the quality of life in general, and the lives of impacted families in particular.
The workshop was designed to educate these couples on Property and Finance Management - causes and effects of debt, and ways of eliminating them.