Workforce Resilience in a Disruptive Supply Chain World | Arvind Singhania | Chairman & CEO | Ester Industries Ltd

Supply chains globally are under steady strain: climate extremes, shifting trade policies, inflation, labour disruptions, and rapid technological change. India, as a major manufacturing and services hub, is exposed on many fronts. Disruptions aren’t just about broken transport or delayed raw materials. They reach right into how people can work, whether they are healthy, skilled, mentally prepared, and supported by leadership. In this world, companies that treat their workforce as central to agility are those that endure.

Recent surveys in 2025 show worrying trends: in India, nearly seven in ten employees carry at least one lifestyle-related health risk. This affects attendance, productivity, error rates, and the ability to respond when disruptions hit. Another recent report by the Institute for Competitiveness observed that 88% of India’s workforce is engaged in low-competency occupations in 2023-24, and vocational training is heavily concentrated in just five sectors. This means many workers are not ready for shifts in technology, process, or unexpected demands.

On the macro side, India’s labour market showed resilience in 2024: labour force participation rose to about 45.1%, with employment continuing to grow. At the same time, global reports like the World Economic Forum and Mercer emphasise that workforce health is increasingly tied to supply chain stability under climate pressures. When workers are exposed to heat, environmental risks, or stress, the whole chain can suffer downstream effects: delays, lower quality, and missed deadlines.

The Challenges Ahead

Many Indian firms are contending with structural challenges in people and workforce development. Because a large fraction of the workforce is in low-competency roles, transitions to automation, AI, analytics or digital tools often leave many behind. There is a gap between what technology demands and what many workers are trained for. Retraining, re-skilling, and cross-functional work are helpful but often uneven across industries and geographies.

Health and well-being issues are becoming more urgent. Lifestyle illnesses, mental strain, and conditions such as poor working environment (heat, air quality, safety) affect workers. Psychological safety is equally critical: employees need to feel secure in raising concerns, reporting risks, and participating in decision-making without fear of retaliation. When supply chain shocks hit, say a heatwave or a lockdown, workers’ health risks compound, leading to slower recovery. India’s human capital is rich, but health burdens, uneven access to preventive care or workplace wellness programs, and gaps in psychological safety weaken resilience.

Leadership and management practices are also stress points. Leaders sometimes focus more on cost, optimisation, supplier networks, inventory buffers, or digital tools without equal attention to emotional, physical, or mental resilience among their people. In many cases, workers are not part of feedback loops: decision makers may under-estimate the emotional impact of repeated disruption, or the stress caused by unpredictable schedules, supply delays, or changing job roles. Multi-generational workforces add another layer: younger employees may prioritise flexibility, learning opportunities, and well-being, while older employees may emphasise stability, structured processes, and clear communication.

Balancing these expectations requires intentional leadership.

Finally, cost and scale matter. Smaller and medium firms, or supply chain nodes in remote or informal sectors, often lack the financial or institutional capacity to invest in health, safety, continuous training, or measures that ensure psychological safety. Even where desire exists, resource constraints or competing priorities make consistent investment hard. And when these weaker nodes are part of larger supply chains, their vulnerabilities become system vulnerabilities.

Strategies for Building Skill, Emotional, and Organisational Resilience

To strengthen workforce resilience, companies can act on multiple fronts. First, continuous training and skill development must be built in. This means not only learning new technical tools (automation, data tools, analytics) but also preparing people to move roles, respond to supply disruptions, and take on tasks outside narrow specialisations. Scenario drills and simulated disruption exercises help: they let people practice responding under stress, to see what breaks, what communication works, and what does not.

Second, health, wellness, and psychological safety must be integral to operational planning. Given that many Indian employees carry health risks, firms should invest in preventive healthcare, wellness checks, mental health support, safe environmental conditions at work (ventilation, cooling, safe lighting), and rest periods when heat or weather conditions demand. Organisations should also foster an environment where employees feel safe to speak up, raise concerns, and participate in problem-solving without fear of negative consequences. Even small infrastructure improvements (shade, water, restrooms, protective equipment) can reduce downtime, improve safety, raise morale, and reinforce psychological safety.

Third, leadership must lead from the front in resilience. Transparent communication during disruptions, involving workers in planning for shifts, safety, leave policies, and being sensitive to mental load, helps build trust. Leaders can also recognise that when disruptions are frequent, the toll is not just on process but on people: fatigue, uncertainty, worry. Organisations where leadership treats people as partners in crisis tend to recover faster and maintain better performance under stress. Multi-generational teams require attention to differing motivations, expectations, and communication preferences; leaders who actively bridge these differences strengthen organisational cohesion.

Fourth, embedding resilience into organisational systems is essential. That means mapping where the weakest links are (locations, roles, supply nodes), including people vulnerabilities (health, skill shortages, psychological safety gaps), and putting in place redundancies such as alternate staffing, backup roles, overlapping skills. It also means using predictive data to anticipate risk (weather, health exposures, labour shortages) and build in safety nets.

Looking Forward

The future will bring more shocks. Climate events will intensify, trade policies will shift, and technology will move quickly. In that context, firms whose workforce is healthy, adaptable, emotionally resilient, and supported by leadership will better ride out disruption.

In India, this moment offers an opportunity: companies can build more sustainable, people-centred supply chains that not only survive but thrive. The path ahead is not just about building strong networks or adopting tools. It is about creating environments where people are safe, well, continuously learning, supported, and psychologically secure. Because in the end, supply chains do not operate by machines alone. They operate by people.