EMPLOYEE MORALE AND ERGONOMICS IN TATA COMPANY

WHAT IS EMPLOYEE MORALE?????

DEFINITION : A measure seeking positive, confident, satisfied employees. Involves the overall viewpoint of employees while at work in the work environment. Description of the emotions, attitude, satisfaction, and overall outlook of employees during their time in a workplace environment. The morale of the employees directly effects productivity.

Dissatisfied and negative employees portray negative, low employee morale about their work environment.

Positive or highly confident employees that are happy and positive at work are said to have high morale.

Factors affecting employee morale

Quality of Supervision Quality of Work Environment Quality of Incentives

 Tata Code of Conduct Clause:8 Health, safety and environment A Tata company shall strive to provide a safe,

healthy, clean and ergonomic working environment for its people. It shall prevent the wasteful use of natural resources and be committed to improving the environment, particularly with regard to the emission of greenhouse gases, and shall endeavour to offset the effect of climate change in all spheres of its activities.

 A Tata company, in the process of production

and sale of its products and services, shall strive for economic, social and environmental sustainability.

ERGONOMICS
the study of the relationship between workers

and their environment, esp the equipment they use. Also called biotechnology the study of the relation of man to the environment in which he works and the application of anatomical, physiological, psychological, and engineering knowledge to the problems involved.

 For employees, only the best is good enough! Ergonomy Safety Productivity A man who would do the best work, must avail

himself of the best tools. (J.W. von Goethe) Ergonomics and productivity are directly related

 Employee health is a productivity factor Working speed

Technology must be adapted to people, and not vice-versa

 The focus areas of Ergonomics

at Tata Steel are seating and posture related areas such as mobile vehicles, cranes, control pulpits and cabins, the computer workstations, maintenance workbench and executive chairs. It also includes various tools used in operations and maintenance, manual tasks and the general ambience at the workplace.

The ergonomics pyramid

Changes at Tata Steel

The first sign of an inappropriate posture and

workplace, according to the pyramid of problems in Ergonomics, is fatigue, tiredness, uneasiness and discomfort, which are considered "normal" after a full days work. Then come soreness, pain, persistent pains and aches, which affect well-being and performance. At the tip of the pyramid or the final state is disability

 These include safe vertical platforms for the

mechanical staff who build vertical stands the result has been better employee morale and less time taken to build stands; modification of circuits to replace limit switches with easily accessible and adjustable Seimens electronic timers; operator fatigue at the 7.5 T cold-draw bench of PT Mill has been eliminated and efficiency improved with the use of a pneumatically operated trolley rather than the practice of them manually gripping tubes; there has also been a drastic reduction in the

 The objective of this effort is to enhance effectiveness

and efficiency at the workplace by bringing about increased convenience of use, reduced errors and increased productivity. It has at the same time brought about improved user safety, comfort and satisfaction, reduced fatigue and stress, provided better job satisfaction and an improved quality of life for the employees of the company.

A visual milestone in Ergonomics

For the first time in the company an ergonomically designed dumper,

with video cameras fitted in the front and back and a monitor within the cabin, was commissioned within the Steel Works. The cameras and monitor provide a 3600 view around the dumper and will reduce the hazard of road accidents due to inadequate visibility. The dumper was put into service on July 3 by Mr O B Krishna, Chief, Mechanical Maintenance and Mr M K Singh, Vice Chairman, GSC. In yet another initiative to make the workplace more ergonomically compatible, a pay-loader with an air-conditioned cabin for the comfort of the drivers was inaugurated by Mr A D Baijal, VP (RM & IM) on July 5. Mr S K Seth, Head (Eq. MS) told those present that the company intends to fit all dumpers with video monitor equipment and air-condition all critical mobile equipment by March 2004.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Change management is a structured

approach to transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state .

 How Tata Steel Made It To The Top Of The

World Tata Steel is the lowest cost steel producer in the world the company knew as early as the late eighties that it would be facing global competition at some point of time and, therefore, decided to start making the changes before they were forced upon the company

 Organizational Change Management of

tcs: Bringing business change at an organizational and individual level and shifting / transitioning individuals, teams and organizations from a current state to a desired future state.