Hr Sustainability Practices

 With an ever prevalent Indian population in ascension and a new age of reformed businesses strategies, future business owners must take aim at sections of their specific market that aim to maintain a successful triple bottom line (Profit, Planet, and People). Patanjali Keswani, founder, chairman, and managing director of ‘Lemon Tree Hotels’ was able to achieve this from 2002 till the current day through his identification of a weak mid-market segment in the Hotel market in India. Alongside this Keswani was also able to introduce a successful Special Needs aspect of his business which saw an array of opportunities for People with Disabilities (PwD) to thrive within a working environment among other employees. This emphasis on an all-inclusive working space was Keswani’s way of showing the world that a for-profit organization could be both socially inclusive and profitable.

Issue 1. Identification of HR sustainability practices

In 2007 Patanjali Keswani unearthed an uncommon business model incorporating the underlying philosophy of creating sustainable and responsible growth through a program that involved PwD’s. This initiative for a high level of social inclusion within the organization called for overarching recruitment, training program, and monitoring their performance in accordance with their Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). This created opportunity for Keswani to diversify his company with various forms of communication within the workplace, including English, Hindi, and ISL. From the years of 2007-08 to 2015-16 Lemon Tree Hotels saw gradual success in the number of PwD employee growth and maintenance as depicted through the statistics in Exhibit 1, going from 3% to 13% in the space of nine years. Furthermore, the effectiveness of this socially inclusive practice can be seen through the elaboration of Vijay Sharma (Srinivasan et al. 2018), “To run a shift efficiently, we needed to plan… a mix of different disability types like SHI, Down syndrome… and employees without disability. This helped to ensure that great customer service.”

Moreover, upon research into Lemon Tree, an expanded initiative in 2013 saw the introduction of a Traineeship program to include even more people with disabilities into the company. Subsequently, five young adults over the course of six months were taken on by being classified as either Down syndrome and slow learners. Staff within Lemon Tree realized quickly that special training and additional patience and empathy towards the employees with disabilities was crucial in order to achieve success in their given task. This HR sustainability practice is further supported through an article from the University of North Texas, which underlines the fact that proper training aids such as integrated teaching techniques applied to specific PwD’s, for example, “The television and VCR are an invaluable commodity…” (University of North Texas 1996) when developing skills.

Issue 2. The authenticity of the identified HR sustainability practices

Keswani’s socially inclusive workplace isn’t completely unique to just his business, however, has created huge value and accompanying benefits from a human resources perspective. In terms of authenticity, Lemon Tree hotels were able to enter a mid-level market with little competition. Therefore, their approach in incorporating a socially inclusive framework categorized them into becoming a marketplace leaders. Formally known as ‘The Initiative’ the PwD’s program aimed at, “providing an opportunity to those who were economically, socially, physically, or educationally disadvantaged” (Srinivasan et al. 2018). However, the process of combining both PwD’s and other employees is a key area in which this practice finds its success. In accordance with Aradhana Lal (Srinivasan et al. 2018), head of sustainability initiatives at Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd, “efforts toward cultivating a culture of true inclusion may help in ensuring that any bias, bullying, marginalizing, or unfair treatment does not happen towards PwD.” This is further supported through a Literature Review regarding ‘Factors Affecting the Acceptance of People with Disabilities at Work’, in which they highlight that the combination of the PwD’s and fellow colleagues, “increased overall company morale, and increased overall company productivity” (K Vornholt • S Uitdewilligen • F J. N. Nijhuis 2013).

Although Traineeship programs are common among all businesses, Keswani’s internships were special. In particular, this was displayed through their traineeship model that focused on employees with intellectual disabilities. This model was unique in the way it served a two-fold purpose. First of which was for PwDs and the development of their skills and an update on education and exposure to working with others. However, the unique aspect was the second segment which collectively saw similar training schemes for the hotel’s operations teams, enlightening them on the ways in which they engage with and train people with disabilities. This integrative training model is seen similarly through sensitivity training among corporate spaces. J Allen and M Walker (1996) believe that utilizing On-the-Job (OTJ) training allows for both thorough background training in ways that PwDs should be approached.

Issue 3. Contribution of practices to enhancing positive social & human outcomes for the case organization’s human resources

The first initiative leads perfectly to positive social and human outcomes for all employees within Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd. Overall the organization as a whole benefit from the implementation of these new Human resources sustainability practices through both an increase in improved revenue performances and a greater outlook onto the positive social inclusion among all employees. This is a given example to perfectly through the introduction of the People with Disabilities employees co-working with additional employees without disabilities. Through various programs in place, Lemon Tree has created achievable yet extremely effective positions in the organization catering for all needs whether that be through identification of specific skills and characteristics of the employee, and or the overall employee satisfaction gained. In doing so this initiative allows Lemon Tree to correspond with positive social and human outcomes, ultimately creating a better business.

The second initiative has led to some similar positive social and human outcomes for Lemon Tree employees. This can be seen through the varied partnerships made by Lemon Tree with NGOs in delivering effective traineeship opportunities. This can be given example through the development of people management and leaderships skills for both parties (Srinivasan et al. 2018). However, in saying so during the Traineeship program, former graduates were seeking job opportunities elsewhere, resulting in a high turnover rate within the business. Therefore, this displays that some employees under this program are not gaining the full social and human outcomes that they have set out for themselves. This is a section in which the Lemon Tree HR sustainability faculty could look into further amending in a hope of creating a fully satisfied employee base.

Conclusion:

In Summation, across the three issues within this case study, it is clear to see that initiatives are undertaken by Lemon Tree Hotels Ltd and in particular Patanjali Keswani, have seen an incremental boost to the business within the mid-market of hotels. Through the social inclusion of People with Disabilities into the employee ranks, the company was able to create a multifaceted working environment that incorporates accessibility to a variety of both hard work and success, overall creating strong employee satisfaction. This Further leads to the adoption of traineeship programs to further develop this social initiative. However, in doing so both these key practices have allowed the company to benefit both through financial performance and through a Human resource sustainability aspect.