Workforce Planning, Commercial Awareness and Retention Key Priorities for India’s Apparel Factories

Your work with ND Garments in securing domestic brand partnerships underscores the need for commercial awareness. How can workforce training programmes incorporate market linkage understanding, so that teams across functions—from design to dispatch—are aligned with market realities?
Abhishek Yugal: One of the things we learnt while working with ND Garments on domestic brand partnerships is that technical efficiency alone is not enough — factories also need commercial awareness. A training programme that stops at teaching operators how to stitch faster or planners how to balance lines will fall short if teams do not also understand the market realities in which those factories operate. Lead times are tighter, demand fluctuates faster, and buyers — whether domestic or global — expect speed, consistency, and value.

The gap we often see is that operators, supervisors, and even mid-management do not always connect their daily decisions to commercial outcomes. An operator who runs late on output or makes repeat defects may not realise how this erodes buyer confidence. A planner who mishandles allocation might not see the link between a bottleneck and a missed dispatch. Even designers, if not sensitised, may create styles that look good on paper but are difficult to execute within time and cost constraints.

Bridging this requires training that goes beyond the technical and into the commercial. One way is to expose teams to the full value chain — design, merchandising, production, and dispatch — so they see how each function affects the others and, ultimately, the buyer. Case-based training is another powerful tool: for instance, showing how a late shipment or compliance failure cost a factory an entire buyer relationship makes the impact real. At the management level, commercial literacy modules can help planners, merchandisers, and supervisors understand costing basics, order profitability, and how efficiency gains translate directly into margins.

The key is to align every function to market-linked KPIs — on-time-in-full, first-time-right quality, wastage, and buyer satisfaction — rather than only internal metrics. When design teams balance creativity with manufacturability, when production teams see efficiency as a route to repeat orders, and when dispatch teams understand that punctuality builds brand value, the entire organisation works with sharper alignment. Commercial awareness is not just for merchandisers; it is a mindset every function needs if factories are to thrive in today’s competitive market.

Once upskilled, many workers are quickly absorbed by other employers or move to larger cities. What retention strategies have you seen succeed in keeping skilled talent within the companies that invested in them?
Abhishek Yugal: One of the biggest challenges I hear from factory leaders is that once workers are trained, they are quickly absorbed by other employers or move to larger cities. It can feel like pouring water into a leaky bucket — the factory invests in skilling, but the benefits are reaped elsewhere. Retention, therefore, has to be as much a part of the strategy as training itself. And importantly, it is not just about paying more. Retention comes from creating reasons to stay: stability, growth, and belonging.

The most successful factories are those that build clear career pathways. When an operator can see a structured progression from helper to tailor, to line supervisor, and eventually to floor in-charge, they begin to see their future in the same factory. Linking skill upgrades to increments and promotions gives workers both financial and emotional reasons to stay. Local hiring has also proven effective. When workers are recruited from nearby communities and their families are supported with housing, transport, healthcare, or childcare facilities, their attachment to the workplace is stronger than the lure of a distant city job.

Culture plays a powerful role too. Workers who feel respected, safe, and heard are far less likely to leave. This is especially true for women, who often face barriers outside work. Gender-friendly policies, grievance redressal mechanisms, and recognition programmes all build loyalty. In some factories, involving workers in Kaizen projects, quality circles, and problem-solving has created a sense of ownership — people don’t just work there, they feel part of the journey.

Of course, fair wages are a baseline. But beyond wages, it is the combination of career growth, community integration, supportive culture, and recognition that really holds people back from leaving. I’ve seen factories in both India and Bangladesh retain talent successfully when they shift their mindset: retention is not about locking people in, it is about creating an environment where they don’t feel the need to leave. When workers see growth, respect, and stability where they are, attrition naturally falls.

Groyyo’s work with TCL shows your ability to collaborate with government-owned entities. How can private consultancies and industry bodies jointly shape large-scale skill development initiatives that have both policy support and industry relevance?
Abhishek Yugal: India’s skilling challenge is simply too large for any one stakeholder to address alone. The government has the scale and the reach, but on its own, policy often struggles to stay aligned with the fast-changing needs of the industry. Industry bodies bring credibility and collective voice, but they need execution partners. This is where private consultancies can play a critical bridging role — ensuring that programmes are not just rolled out, but are designed around real market requirements and measurable outcomes.

Our own work has shown how this collaboration can work in practice. With TCL, for instance, we saw how a government-owned entity could benefit from private consulting frameworks to align training with modern apparel practices. More recently, with the Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission, the focus has been on creating structured models where state-level policy support meets ground-level implementation. And even now, as we engage with the Madhya Pradesh government, there is a growing recognition that consultancies can translate policy ambition into industry-relevant skill development.

The most effective large-scale initiatives are those built on true partnerships. The government provides policy backing, funding, and scale. Industry bodies aggregate demand, validate content, and ensure credibility across clusters. And private consultancies bring agility, technical know-how, and the ability to measure success through factory KPIs like efficiency, right-first-time quality, and on-time delivery. When structured as public-private partnerships, such programmes not only reach millions of workers but also remain anchored to what buyers and factories actually need.

In my view, the formula is clear: the government can create access, but only industry can create relevance. Skilling at scale succeeds when policy makers, industry bodies, and private consultancies sit at the same table — ensuring that scale meets substance, and ambition is matched with impact.

Looking ahead to the next decade, what three emerging skills—technical or managerial—do you believe will be non-negotiable for India’s apparel sector to sustain global leadership in both manufacturing quality and speed-to-market?
Abhishek Yugal: Looking ahead, I believe the next decade will redefine what it takes for India to sustain global leadership in apparel manufacturing. The sector will not be judged only on cost competitiveness, but on how smartly, how quickly, and how responsibly it can deliver. In that sense, there are three emerging skills that will be absolutely non-negotiable.

The first is digital and data fluency. Technology adoption is no longer optional — factories are already investing in MES dashboards, IoT tracking, AI-enabled quality, and digital WIP visibility. But unless managers and engineers are trained to interpret and act on that data, the technology will remain underutilised. We need a new category of professionals — “digital translators” — who can connect shopfloor realities with tech solutions and make data part of daily decision-making.

The second is agility, both operational and managerial. Order sizes are shrinking, style changes are frequent, and speed-to-market is becoming the single biggest differentiator. Factories will need multiskilled operators, modular line designs, and robust quick-changeover capabilities. But equally, mid-level managers must be equipped with change management skills to lead teams through constant shifts in product, process, and technology. Without this adaptive leadership at the mid-layer, factories risk getting stuck in old ways of working while the market races ahead.

And finally, ESG and inclusivity competence. Global buyers are increasingly benchmarking not just efficiency, but also environmental and social impact. Skills in resource efficiency, green manufacturing practices, and gender-inclusive workforce management will be as important as technical KPIs. Supervisors and managers must learn to balance productivity with sustainability metrics, ensuring factories are compliant, ethical, and future-ready.

To me, the message is clear: in the coming decade, India’s factories will not be judged only by how cheap they produce, but by how smart, agile, and sustainable they are. Digital fluency, agile operations, and ESG competence will be the new passport to global competitiveness.