How the owner of KPR Mills, Coimbatore turns thousands of women workers into graduates
How the owner of KPR Mills, Coimbatore turns thousands of women workers into graduates and builds a future beyond the mills.
Meet K P Ramasamy, fondly being called as the father to 27500 daughters.
From Sujith Kumar, Infosys HR
Delivered a very special convocation address yesterday in Coimbatore at KPR Mills. It’s not KPR College rather a convocation held for their women workers employed in their Mill.
I have witnessed many welfare programs, higher education assistance for employees from some big brands across the world. In all these programs, there will be an underlying statement – what will the employee give back to the company?.
We keep reading about some brilliant case studies across the globe but trust me, nothing will come close to what KPR Mills is doing for its employees.
It’s a silent revolution that their Chairman KP Ramasamy has taken upon. It was a chance encounter several years back when he was interacting with his women employees on what they want as a welfare program.
A young girl said”Appa(that’s how the girls call him),
I want to study.
My parents pulled me out of school to join this Mill due to poverty but I want to study further”.
This request left a lasting impression upon him and hence he decided to provide higher education assistance completely free of cost.
The girls work on a 8 hour shift and those interested can study further for 4 hours every day. Classroom facilities, full-time teachers, an exclusive principal for this program, computer lab, Yoga course are all provided to run this program effectively.
Now here’s the staggering numbers – In the last several years over 24536 girls have finished their 10th, 12th, UG, PG courses.
They have their alumni in almost all hospitals where the girls are working as Nurses, school teachers, some have joined the Police force and the list goes on and on.
Yesterday in the convocation over 350 girls received their degrees and out of which 20 of these girls are TN Open University Gold Medalists.
They received their degrees and Gold medals few days back from the TN Governor.
Now the natural question kicks in right – When companies are battling attrition issues if we provide free higher education won’t the girls quit and that will result in high employee turnover. Mr.KP Ramaswamy has an answer.
He says ” I don’t intend to keep them in the Mill and waste their human potential.
Many of these girls are smart and have landed here due to poverty. My job is to ensure that they get a good degree, get required skills and settle well in life. When these girls leave the Mill, they also refer girls from their Village and that cycle continues. Human resource is precious and we need to leverage it effectively”.
What profound thoughts and he simply nailed it….this is what true Human Resource Development is all about. As I finished my address and took my seat, the chairman held my hands and said “Sir, I normally don’t ask for favours and have never asked anything for my students studying in my college but these girls are special.
There are girls who have completed BCA, B.com, MBA, Mcom and several other courses. If you or your friends can hire them…it will give other girls a lot of hope to study further.
Can you please help”.
I was like dumbstruck…
here’s a man who runs a multi crore turnover successful business and he is asking help to place his own employees –
Have you heard something like this?
Friends….these are stories that the world needs to know…these are case studies that the Bschools needs to teach their students and HR professionals need to learn. If you are looking for potential hiring, then you might want to consider KPR Mills and I am sure you will not be disappointed.
Some of the most inspiring stories comes from unknown quarters and KPR Mills and their social revolution through education is a story that needs to spread like wild fire. It was a Sunday where I came back inspired.
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