Employee bonding and learning across India

Oorja is an initiative aimed at enhancing learning and development in — and cementing the culture of responsiveness and teamwork among — the 3,500-strong family of Tata Chemicals employees spread across India. Introduced in 2003, the project offers a platform for the company’s employees to display their talent while encouraging them to sharpen their competitive spirit and sense of achievement.

Oorja, which means energy, is an idea created and chiselled by the corporate communications department of Tata Chemicals with the broader objective of working as a force that binds the company’s employees together.

There are three ‘mini’ Oorjas and one ‘mega’ Oorja event every year. The mini Oorjas, which are regional functions, feature drawing and essay contests, quiz competitions and debates. The mega event, a pan-India affair, has as its highlight a theatrebased festival with a theme that is of importance to the entire company.

Employees enact thematic skits based on a given topic and these are presented at the regional events and then at the national function. The theme for 2008 was ‘The human touch of chemistry’, an idea that Tata Chemicals has taken to heart. This was one of the most successful in the Oorja series. Innovation, globalisation, SHE (safety, health and environment), business excellence and biodiversity have been some of the other subjects covered in this manner.

Oorja was always intended to inculcate a shared sense of purpose among Tata Chemicals employees across all its places of operation in India. These people come from diverse backgrounds and have different life experiences and educational qualifications. Theatre has become a means to move beyond regular channels of communication, such as the intranet and newsletters, and reach a varied audience through a more interactive and animated medium.

Cutting through organisational hierarchies, the employees display their creative skills at the Oorja events, bringing alive the theme in focus. Every year, close to 7,000 people — employees and their families — get involved in the Oorja initiatives. Oorja has helped Tata Chemicals fashion an environment that stimulates fresh ideas and innovative thinking away from the routine of daily work — and energised the entire enterprise.