Taking first steps in organizational development turned out to be a real win-win for both Women on Wings’ partners ROPE and SIRI and Joke Hartlief, expert at Women on Wings. Recently Joke worked with the two partners on HR related issues with the aim to realize organizational development.
Women eager to speak up at ROPE
The expert traveled with Shashank Teotia, senior business consultant at Women on Wings, to Madurai where they worked with the management of ROPE. ROPE makes environmental friendly home and lifestyle products, which are made by mainly rural women. The Women on Wings team was impressed by the high level of employee involvement at ROPE during the 2 day workshop. All female supervisors sat at the tips of their chairs and shared their ideas and experiences very openly. The workshop was concluded with a number of concrete action points, which were positively adopted by the director and the management team.
New organizational structure at SIRI
SIRI promotes livelihood activities to assist rural women. Women make readymade garments and products like liquid soaps, bleaching powder, raw and perfumed agarbathi (incense) which are being sold through multiple channels, e.g. SIRI’s own retail outlets. At SIRI’s office in Mangalore, the Women on Wings team was challenged to be creative and flexible as the setting of the 2 day workshop was very different from what they had expected. But it worked out all well; the SIRI management agreed to an organizational structure which ensured issues like reliability of deliverables, workforce management and the realization of sales goals. This new structure can serve as an example for SIRI’s other business units.
The expert gets lot in return
Joke Hartlief is senior HR advisor at Centraal Beheer & FBTO – Achmea, one of the largest suppliers of financial services in the Netherlands. Joke: “It was a great experience which also gave me a lot in return in my daily practice as HR professional. In practice everything was different from what I had expected, so I had to be flexible and change the workshop flow on the spot. I found out that I could rely more on my gut feelings, knowledge and experience than on my extensive preparation. It was a real win-win situation.”
Pic@ Joke at ROPE
