How HR Builds Culture in Factories and High-Pressure Operations

Welcome to the Vantage Influencers Podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Vantage Circle, the simple and effective recognition platform for employee engagement.

Riha Jaishi: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Vantage HR Influencers Podcast. I'm your host, Riha. And today we are diving into a topic that sits at the heart of people, performance, and operational excellence. That is how HR builds culture in factories and high-pressure operations. So when we talk about culture, we often think of office environments. But in factories and high-pressure operations, culture is built very differently. It shows up in shift handovers, safety practices, supervisor communication, and the way employees feel supported during demanding work days. But the challenge for HR is to balance productivity, safety, morale, and trust without slowing down operations. And that is what makes this conversation so important. Because building culture in factories is not just about engagement. It is more about trust, discipline, communication, consistency, and care. And to help us unpack this, I'm joined by Ana Carolina Mason, head of HR in UAE. Welcome. Welcome to the show, Ana. It's a pleasure to have you with us today.

Ana Carolina Mason: Thank you. Thank you. It's my pleasure, actually. Thank you very much. I'm really happy to be here. I'm really happy to be able to share something that I know about my background, about my knowledge on operations. So just let me give a brief introduction about myself. So I'm from Brazil. I have been in the region now completing seven years this year. So, I always worked in HR my whole career, my whole background have been in HR, in different areas, but mainly as HRBP, HR business partner. So currently I work in an organization in UAE and I look after the HR department across the whole UAE in the HRBP capacity. And in my background, and even in my current company, I have been working a lot with operational environments. Even back in Brazil, I was working in factories in operational environments. Even when I moved to the region, I moved to work in the operational environment, so I was heading the HR, admin, and facility department for this company. And as I mentioned, currently as well, I have a big background, I would say, on operational, and I'm happy to share and to help with some of the knowledge that I have.

Riha Jaishi: That's such an inspiring venture, Ana. Thank you so much for sharing your experience.

Ana Carolina Mason: Thank you.

Riha Jaishi: Okay, so now, with your permission, I would like to delve into our topic further. Shall we?

Ana Carolina Mason: Yes, yes, definitely.

Riha Jaishi: Okay, great. So Ana, what does culture look like in a factory or high-pressure operational environment, and how is it really different from a corporate office setting? What do you have to say about this?

Ana Carolina Mason: Okay, so I think in your introduction you gave basically the whole overview on how the factory, high-pressure environment works differently. Some of the points that I would like to discuss today, like as you mentioned, about leadership, about safety. So when you see culture in the corporate environment, and let's use the factory terminology, right, it's completely different. We know that the environment is different, right? We know that corporate employees, when I say corporate, the ones that are office-based employees, right, they have, it's much more behavior-based, you have more visibility, you have more fast reactions on the actions, right? It's different because you are always in meetings, I would say. This is my day-to-day environment, so you are always in meetings, you have a different kind of collaboration, you have connections with your co-workers, you have some flexibility, some innovation ideas, so you are much more integrated with technology as well, it's much more structured, I would say. And definitely, what I mentioned about the collaboration with everyone, when we see this in the factories, we know that it's a bit different. We do have the collaboration, we do have, we can bring different ideas, but we know that the environment, it's different, because we are talking about targets, the production targets are high, daily targets. I'm not saying that in the corporate employees we don't have targets, we do, we do have a lot, right, but it's different because we have production targets. How we can see this culture, we can see when we have a machine breakdown, when the shifts are changing, we can see how the people will feel the culture in a factory on a high-pressure environment in different situations, right, different from our routine laptop meetings and so on that we have every day. And how we can see this culture, this is what I really believe, we can see this when we can see how the supervisors treat the employees, you know, the frontliners, the workers. How is the collaboration, what I mentioned about the collaboration, how is the collaboration between the shifts. How we talk about safety, I think safety is one, when we are in factory environments and production environments, when we talk about safety, it's one of the most important ones. How we follow standard safety standards under pressure. How the employees, they feel the respect, you know, so are the leaders, the supervisors, the team leads, respecting the frontliners, and even how this can be treated when you have mistakes, right? So I believe this is how you can build a culture, a different culture. It's not only what you put on the walls, if you put, you have this culture here, safety first, etc, etc, but if you don't follow, you are not building the culture in the production environment. And definitely, this is, as we mentioned, it's completely different from the corporate office setting that we have. I don't know if it's clear for you.

Riha Jaishi: Ana, that is such an important distinction that you have layered here, like the distinction between the two cultures, the corporate and the factory settings. And through your discussion, it shows how these two settings are far apart from each other, like you mentioned in terms of safety, that safety thing is definitely a concern for the factories, right? Most of the time we hear about it, in terms of respect, how the workers are treated compared to the corporate settings, and that level of trust which employees have among each other, or the supervisors have among the employees that are involved in the work, is definitely important. So these are some important aspects that you have layered in your discussion. Thank you.

Ana Carolina Mason: Thank you.

Riha Jaishi: Okay, so now moving ahead, Ana, how can frontline supervisors and plant managers be coached to carry culture forward and not just enforce rules? What do you have to say?

Ana Carolina Mason: I would say the supervisors, the plant managers, especially the supervisors and the team leads, right, they are the voice of the company for the frontline. It's what I have to say, because look, when we see corporate employees, again, if you want to deploy any kind of communication, you want to share anything with employees, how will it come? It will come through messages, through meetings, emails, internal comms, and so on. This is always, if you want to share any policy, anything that you want to share from the company, I know how I'm receiving it, but how are the frontliners receiving it? They usually don't have access to connections, to network, and so on. So who do they trust to share the information? They trust the supervisors, they trust the team leads. They are the ones sharing the culture, and they are the ones sharing the information about the company. And how can they be coached, I think this is one point that I would say from the HR side as well. We know that this kind of leadership, especially in operational environments, is much more command and control. Like, you do it, you have your production targets, you have to do it, that's it. You have your productivity, you have your attendance, and that's it. If you are not doing it, you escalate to the supervisor, the team lead, supervisor, or plant manager, and so on. I do understand, yes, discipline is important, it's definitely important in this environment, because if you don't follow it, you can lose the track. If you are in a production line, when you have one person for each specific position, and the person is not there, yes, this is going to affect the whole production line. Yes, it's important, we know, and this is why the leadership is important, to follow and to be there to support. But I believe that it's important today that we look at leadership, the plant managers, supervisors, all the leaders from factories, that they look at communication, they look with the respect that we already mentioned in the other topic, they support and they have inclusion, right, they treat everyone the same, and they are there to support, not only with this command and control style, right? So, looking from the HR side, I believe how we can help the supervisors, because they are there to support the team, right? So we can support with, for example, on-the-floor coaching, some practical guides, we can give some kind of training on how to have difficult conversations, give some guidance for the leaders as well, how they can recognize their team members, not only correct or go the disciplinary way, right? And give this kind of support, it's something HR can support, the top leadership can support as well. But I would say one important point is to be open, right? To be as accessible for everyone. The leader needs to be open and needs to be flexible to listen, to understand the needs of the employees. We know that the needs from factory workers, from frontliners, are different from, again, what we mentioned from the corporate employees. So definitely they should look at it in a different approach. Another point that I would say, when we put in KPIs for leadership, you know, we keep KPIs, which kind of KPIs do we usually put up, productivity, you need to produce and reach the daily KPIs and so on. But one suggestion could be if the companies look to put some kind of KPIs like, okay, engagement, retention, safety behaviors, development. So the leader understands that they are also part of this culture, they are not only focused on performance. I'm not saying performance is not important, it is, for sure it should be there. But they need to have accountability on how to support these team members. So I personally believe that the culture, and the training on the supervisors, this is not something that comes through policies, through training rooms where they will have trainings and okay, then tomorrow you go back to the shop floor and nothing changes. This is a day-to-day change of behaviors, so I believe this is coming in a consistent way, every single day.

Riha Jaishi: Ana, you have laid down some practical pointers here, and like in the factories, we generally see that supervisors take the lead, take control, or look after the employees, right, to supervise the work of the employees. And there is definitely the absence of communication tools, right, and they generally rely on the supervisors for any kind of communication, information, right, and this is where supervisors take control of things, take command over them. So at that particular period, we see that the culture is impacted, or the employees are impacted, something is being enforced on them, and that's something employees do not want. But these things you mentioned, how these supervisors can be trained further to create that culture, that safe culture for these factory employees. The pointers you mentioned about support include inclusion, respect, giving them the proper guidance without enforcing on them, giving them their due recognition, being open and accessible to communication, to listen to them, right? So these are some very important pointers that leaders going ahead should keep in mind, particularly in terms of factories, right? They have to implement these. And I really liked how you mentioned these KPIs, keeping a track of engagement, retention, safety behaviors. These are some important pointers, yes?

Ana Carolina Mason: Yes, 100%. I think even HR, we are here to support, right, but this should come definitely from the leadership, from the top leadership, because if not, we will look only for production. And again, we have to look for production, this is definitely there, every factory, every facility is there for this, and in the end we are all looking for the profit. But how can we reach this in a way that is not so command-and-control behavior, right? We need to keep it, because if you don't keep it, you lose the track, this is definitely, so it's important to find a balance.

Riha Jaishi: Definitely, balance is the correct word here.

Ana Carolina Mason: Yes, balance. And I think, I always keep repeating this, for me it's how to treat the frontliners with respect. It's not because we are talking about different levels of employees, of positions, the respect should be for everyone.

Riha Jaishi: Absolutely. Well said, Ana.

Ana Carolina Mason: Thank you.

Riha Jaishi: Okay, so going ahead, Ana, what communication strategies work best for employees with limited access to email, tech, or formal meetings?

Ana Carolina Mason: I think based on what we were talking, right, we already mentioned the difference between corporate and frontline workers, it's different, we need to understand. One of the things I see in organizations, in my current one and in my previous experience, usually we do communication, we look at communication like designing something that will reach everyone, this is the intention, but when you go into the practical, day-to-day life, it's not right, because it's different, the operational environment is different. They will not get the message if I share something, even if I send internal calls, they will not get it. So it's what I mentioned before, how the supervisors can do this work, how HR can do this work, how communications can do this work, to make sure that all the information is reaching everyone, right? As we mentioned before, they are not in front of a computer, sometimes even those who have access to network, like the supervisors, for example, they are working shifts, they have limited time available, right? You are not there all the time because you need to be on the line, you need to work. So we need to think in a way that communication can be more practical, how to do practical communication, right? And this can vary by company, different companies can use different ways of communication. What I would say, from my previous experience, from my background in HR, but looking really closely at supply chain and production, where I have been working, for example, a daily meeting when you are changing shifts, like a five, ten minute alignment meeting between the end of one shift and the start of another, when they can share what is happening, they can share any information about the company, they can share any information about what happened in the production line and so on, especially if something is happening in the company. Some examples that I saw in my experience, you have safety boards, you have KPI dashboards, you have recognition walls, like employee of the month, employee of the quarter, how is the daily production, what is expected from today, like, okay, I'm joining my shift, I know what is expected and where we are, what is the recognition of the month, the KPI, the performance from these days. So, as I mentioned before, the supervisor is sometimes the communication channel, so if the supervisor is not there, because we cannot rely on the person 100% of the time, but I know that if I go to a board, a KPI board, I see how is the safety, what are the kind of acceptable behaviors they have in terms of safety, so this is a way you can do to reach more people, and again, not rely only on announcements, as we know announcements will not reach everyone. And I would say the language, we are here, especially in this part of the world, some of the workers, the frontliners, if they don't speak English, or they speak their specific language, to have the supervisor have communication in their language, to make sure they are really understanding it, is necessary, right? And I would say, on the other hand of communication, it's like, allow the employees to speak as well, to bring their doubts, what is their point, what they want to discuss, and listen as well. The top leadership, maybe take the leadership, not only the top leadership, but the managers, the plant manager, and so on, and go around the factory, go around the facility, do a floor walk, to listen to the people, because they have something to say as well, as all of us, right? So I think this could work much more than formal communication. So I think it's important to have a formal communication campaign, but sometimes companies are doing that and it's not reaching 100% of the population.

Riha Jaishi: Ana, I must say this discussion has highlighted more on the offline communication part, right? We are always online, sharing mails and having meetings, but this more focuses on the offline communication, strengthening that, particularly for the factory workers, right? And a key point that you mentioned here is to design communication in a way that is simple, that is timely, and it reaches everyone, accessible to all. That should be the prime focus of anyone in the factory trying to communicate or establish that strong communication, right? And these pointers that you mentioned, like having conversations between brief gaps, between two shifts, and having established safety boards, recognition boards, the KPI boards, and what is expected of today from an employee. So all these tiny steps can help strengthen the communication in a factory, yes? They might seem small to many, but these are like footsteps to strengthening the communication.

Ana Carolina Mason: Yes, 100%. I would say it's not small, because it looks like, oh, what is it, and which kind of communication, right? Could be anything that's happening in the company, any process that is changing, any structure change could sometimes not impact the frontliners, but could impact any kind of benefit, anything. And as I mentioned, if you allow me to add, it's important to have the communication in all languages, because we see this in this region, we see how it's important, because sometimes it will not reach everyone.

Riha Jaishi: Absolutely, well said, Ana. Thank you.

Ana Carolina Mason: Thank you.

Riha Jaishi: Okay, so now moving ahead, Ana, safety is often seen as a compliance issue, so how can HR really turn it into a cultural value instead of a checklist? What do you think?

Ana Carolina Mason: I think a lot of things on that. I will start by asking you a question. What would come first, the productivity, the performance, or the safety of the employees? If you have any kind of situation where you are putting an employee or something at risk, what would the company, the management, the leadership, or the supervisor put first? I think this is the reflection we should have, because we know, yes, sometimes people can say, no, we need to reach the production targets, we need to finish this, and okay, safety is just safety. I think this is where you understand if the company, the culture, is looking at safety not only as compliance, as a rule, or something that is on the wall, "safety first," or if it is something that is really in the DNA of the company and of the people. Because what would you decide, right? I would say we always have to decide on safety, but in reality, we know that sometimes production comes first, the targets come first. So we know, I'm not saying all places, all companies, because I don't know all companies, but we know that in the majority of environments, health and safety in some cases is a checklist, as you mentioned, it's a checklist, PPE, all the compliance and regulations, so, okay, this should be there, that's it, it's part of the process. But this is not how you build a true safety culture, right? So again, my perception, when you have a real, true safety culture, this is when it comes from the employee, when the employee sees that this is so much part of his day-to-day that he knows when he sees something that is wrong, something that should be adjusted, not only because there is an audit or a checklist to complete, and he has the ability to say, "look, supervisor, this is not right, this is not okay." And again, this needs connected leadership, because sometimes even seeing that something is not right, employees will continue to do it, because maybe they are afraid they will be penalized for bringing something to attention. Because we know we have production pressure, as I mentioned, and they need to continue, this is treated as more important than well-being. If I have employees working, I don't know, 14, 15, 16 hours, you should be able to say no, but how would you say no if your manager is saying you need to continue? The company, the leadership, should say, "no, I cannot keep an employee working 16 hours, this is affecting the well-being of the person, he will lose focus, he will be tired, he can make many more mistakes." So how does he have the freedom to say, "no, I will not do it," or if you see any kind of machine that is not working, or if your PPE is not in place, "no, I will not do this work because I don't have the proper PPE." It's an ideal scenario, but we know that day-to-day, sometimes they don't feel comfortable, they don't feel safe, because if they report this kind of thing, they think, "okay, this will come back to me." So this is what I believe, where you can build this true safety culture, and this is where HR should be there to support, to say, "no, you need to report this to HR, or the health and safety department, or the health and safety engineer, or whoever is responsible for the department." And we need to make this environment much more humanized, to say, "okay, you have the freedom," because I'm looking for the well-being and the health of my employee, because in the end, these are lives, right? These are the lives of our employees that we need to take care of. So it's not a checklist, absolutely not, but we know that in some cases, that's how it works.

Riha Jaishi: That's such a powerful perspective on safety, and I must say, like you emphasized about the necessity of safety, it's more than a checklist, right? Not just a checklist, but something we need to take care of for our employees, not just rush for productivity, but ensure that safety is there so that they can reach their productivity levels, right? And I really liked how you talked about connecting safety with leadership, more like a leadership behavior, because when leaders take the lead and model that behavior, emphasize on that, that is definitely going to make some change, right, when leaders propose and lead the way. And you mentioned about safety culture, having a safety culture in these factories is a must, and who will actually look after things, guide, supervise the employees, and see whether safety is ensured or not, and how HR leaders come into the picture to maintain that safety culture in place, and see how leadership is also embodying and implementing this in the factory setting.

Ana Carolina Mason: Yeah, and I think even HR and the leaders, they should be okay if you report something, if you have something, you will not be penalized because of this. And we know that some people don't do it because they might be penalized. And another point you mentioned, we were talking before, it was related to the KPI. At least for us, people recognize it, they can recognize it, because you cannot keep your eyes everywhere. Some companies really have leaders who have zero accidents or near misses, and it should always be zero, right? It's not, "ah, okay, you accept ten accidents," no, you should not accept ten, no, it's the lives of the people, zero should always be zero, and everyone should work to keep it at zero.

Riha Jaishi: Okay, so moving ahead, Ana, what wellbeing practices actually work on the factory floor, beyond just office-style wellness programs? What do you have to say?

Ana Carolina Mason: Again, if you look at corporate employees, I always say it's much more about support to keep them engaged, because we are more critical about things, right? We expect much more. If you see engagement surveys, for example, in companies, when you segregate by level, you see that mid-management and above always have results that are not always so positive, because the needs are different. I can say that because I'm part of this environment as well, we have different needs. If I look at wellbeing for a frontliner, for someone working in the factory, the environment is different. How can I work on wellbeing actions if I look at how they are working? They are working in repetitive activities, always on the line, doing the same job or something similar, changing across the line. They work under noise, they have different shifts, one day during the day, one day during the night, and so on. They work under operational pressure. For example, in the company I'm working at today, I have two different situations, one of the factories in the UAE where they work in a really hot environment because of the facilities, it's really hot, and another facility with a cold store, like frozen, so it's really cold where they work. So if you have employees working in such different environments, two different factories but the conditions are different, too hot or too cold, how can I support these employees with wellbeing? Again, the needs are different, but if I come with respect, if I come with basic conditions, if I have, for example, a sustainable shift plan, I will not put someone today in the morning, tomorrow in the evening, keep changing this during the week, this is not sustainable for us, how would you manage, one day you are sleeping during the day, one day you are working during the night. So have fair shift planning, or for example, don't keep a person, even against the law, working 16, 17 hours. We know sometimes it's required, sometimes you have a breakdown, but this cannot be the routine. We have proper breaks, breaks for people to rest between shifts, have some pauses where they can have a place to sit, a resting area, keep the employees hydrated, especially those working in heat conditions, really hot conditions, so we provide some kind of supplements, some kind of special drinks for them, like Gatorade, to keep working. What is the possibility for someone working in a cold environment? So you have rest, as I mentioned, a rest area, I will not go again into safety and facility, but have a proper place where they have the facilities, a place that is clean, where you have basic conditions for the employees. If the companies provide transportation, food, and so on, make this with quality as well. Ergonomic improvement, because again, they are working shifts all the time, sometimes morning and evening, the same activity, so how can it be ergonomic? We are in our AC environment, in the corporate environment, with our ergonomic chair, we have support for our laptop and so on, so how can we look at this for the factories, right? And I would say, always keep one additional one that will help in wellness, it's the mental health support, because the majority of these employees are away from their family, sometimes they just visit their family every two years or every year, so how can we support, sometimes it's just listening, sometimes it's just giving the intention to have a conversation, for your supervisor to talk. Not all, but the majority of them live in company accommodation, so provide good structure, provide support where they can at least have basic conditions where they are living. And for sure, I will always go with the leadership behavior, I think this is always coming from the leader, so if an employee is facing anything, bring this to the supervisor, bring it to the team lead, and how HR, health and safety, management, everyone, how we can support, I think this is where we need to look, that we are supporting. And if I could add something else, it would be recognition as well, recognize these employees, as I mentioned before, in any kind of different program, employee of the month, employee of the quarter, or something, even some special meal here and there, this makes a difference. And again, as I mentioned in the beginning, if I do this in a corporate environment, maybe this could be nothing for different levels of employees, but this is what I would say could be some suggestions.

Riha Jaishi: You've beautifully presented the practical scenarios, giving a distinction between what works in the corporate and what does not work in factories, right? So these are two distinct environments where the same thing is not valid for the other, right? And I know, like you emphasized, wellbeing in these settings definitely cannot be copied from our corporate settings, yes, so it has to reflect all the realities, be it emotional, physical, or the practical environment reality. And you highlighted some of the things about having better rest areas, proper hydration, providing clean areas, having more realistic shift planning, giving access to mental health and physical health support. And I believe this one particular point you mentioned earlier as well, giving them the opportunity to speak, to put their points, where the leaders or the supervisors can listen to what they have to say, what problems they are facing, what do they need, I guess this is also a valid point when it comes to providing that necessary wellbeing practice, right? And all these practical steps that the frontliners need, in the end, I think it's a very practical step.

Ana Carolina Mason: And it's what I mentioned since the beginning, everything that we were talking about today, it's respect, it's treat the people with respect, and it's basic, like, how you and I, I would say, maybe for me, because I come from a different culture, for me this is basic, this is like how we do it, and then actually when I moved to this region, I saw, no, this is more often than what I could imagine, because it's basic, but no, in some cases it's not, I see things and I say, no, this cannot be true, they cannot do this with the people, in different companies, I'm not saying in the reality that I am, but I've seen the market, you've seen the environment, right?

Riha Jaishi: Okay, so now, before we wrap up our session, Ana, how can HR foster real inclusivity across roles, shifts, and worker types in these hierarchical, high-pressure factory environments?

Ana Carolina Mason: I would say, if I could summarize everything that we talked about now, right, it's a diverse environment, it's a high-pressure environment, it's a command-and-control environment, it's focused on health and safety, it's recognition, it's leadership, so it's everything, right? So if we bring everything together, we need to look, HR, we are here to support, we are here to guide, we are here to support again with communication, with recognition programs, with leadership, but alone we cannot do anything. Sometimes, being in HR, I see that, ah, okay, this becomes always an HR issue, but it doesn't become a company issue, or a department issue, right? So how can I have this across all the factories, across all the facilities? It's supporting, I will support with programs, I will support with opportunities for development, I can support, as I mentioned, with leadership, communication, recognition, I can support as well with transparency, how departments are taking decisions, how we are having learning opportunities, it's inclusion, it's part of the inclusion, but HR alone cannot do anything, it's not only because you say, "ah, no, how will HR support and then HR will do it," no, no, we should always work together, we should discuss together and see what we are doing that is best for the people and best for the company. I always say that sometimes the best thing we are doing for the people is not the best one for the company, so again, the balance, in the end, companies are looking for performance, but how to find this balance, I think this is the main challenge, between HR, between supply chain, production, and how to work together. So from my point of view, as an HR professional, I'm saying HR is here to support, to work against all those gaps that we mentioned, the leadership, communication, and so on, but it's a partnership, it should be together.

Riha Jaishi: And, you know, your conclusion, you have framed it so powerfully, like, at the end, obviously, HR is at the heart of the organization, looking after things, recognizing those gaps, and addressing those issues, right? But definitely, HR alone cannot do it, yes, together, with the support of the different departments, the leaders, management, together, everything can be achieved through that collaboration, working together, and maintaining that inclusivity, right, to bring everyone together and work towards a shared goal, right, that is the result in the end, right, at the end the results are the shared goal, so we are always here to support and to guide, I would say, so it's how we can help.

Ana Carolina Mason: Absolutely.

Riha Jaishi: Okay, then Ana, we have finally come to the end of our podcast session. Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing such incredible insights. It's been more than a pleasure hearing your perspectives on the role of HR in building culture in factories and high-pressure operations. We truly appreciate your time and the expertise you've put into this session. I'm sure everyone tuning into this will be inspired by your expertise, your insights, and they're walking away with a wealth of information to ponder.

Ana Carolina Mason: Thank you, thank you very much, it was a pleasure for me, as I mentioned in the beginning, it's a pleasure for me to share a bit of what I know, a bit from my experience. Thank you for the opportunity, and please, everyone who wants to connect to discuss any kind of topic, I'm more than happy to support.

Riha Jaishi: Great, okay, so to our listeners, thank you for tuning in, we hope you found today's conversation as enlightening as we did, so until next time, take care, and we'll see you soon.

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