Sep 30, 2026 · 14 min · 6 segments
#HRhelpdesk #IndiaHRGuide #MandeepSingh, with 25 years of HR expertise, Mandeep Singh explores a subject corporations often approach cautiously, religion at the workplace. But are we overlooking the…
Mandeep SinghHost
India as a country and as an economy has had religion for quite a lot of years.
At least from the known history that we can track, we know that religion has been an important part of our country, of our heritage and of our culture.
some of the things it has taught is how to be adaptable and be accommodative to others which means you would have people respecting each other's religion you would have people enjoying in other celebrations and you would have people living and celebrating diversity religion has also taught people to try and understand that not everything is a resultant of only and only physical labor or what we in today's world called as corporate work or you know something which is visible to us we leave something to chance we leave something to beyond the control of us which in a corporate world would also be called as market factors or economic factors or factors beyond the control of the corporate or the company Now if we were to talk how does religion then you know play a part or how is religion supposed to be focused at while as an employer I am trying to engage or work with the workforce in India.
Religion is something which can help an organization achieve two, three things.
One, you know, you would really want people to be role following and about India has about 90-95% people who would be following religion or who are religious, contrary to a lot of Western world where, you know, it is taking a huge impact of number of people religious going down.
In India, it is still there it is and not seeing too much of a gap in people not being religious.
So if about 90-95% population of the country is religious, it means that you have a wide variety of talent that is coming to you which is broadly rule-followed.
It also means that they are willing to accept that yes, their careers and their life is going to be controlled by market economics also, which means not everything is the fault of the employer.
Not everything is the fault of the organization that they're employed in because they believe that yes, there are forces that are running which are beyond the control of this.
The third thing which religion basically tells and which is again an advantage to the organization is about being dedicated.
Which means that if there is something which needs to be done, it needs to be done in a particular fashion.
That is also something which an organization would accept because if you expect safety rules to be followed in a particular fashion and you need to do something without being questioned and that is something that people will do.
So what India is therefore presenting is a workforce which would by and large fit into an organization's framework of having a workforce which is rule following, having a workforce which is not trying to pinpoint and find faults at everything that the organization does and every decision is not put on to the organization.
And most importantly, sometimes doing the activities which just cannot be justified and need to be followed.
sometimes doing unquestionable activities when I say unquestionable we are not talking about integrity we are just talking about following a certain process because it is a process you know if a safety harness need to be worn it just needs to be worn you cannot define and explain every time that what is the importance of a safety harness when you're climbing and you know going up and down just first flow okay people may just you know say that's irrelevant or having the markings of fire exit because people will say it's in any case so much of light i don't need this market irrespective there now as an organization how do i then deal with religion at my workplace now as i as i said india is a By and large, most of the people are accommodative to each other's religion and we have certain key themes.
India as a country and as an economy has had religion for quite a lot of years.
At least from the known history that we can track, we know that religion has been an important part of our country, of our heritage and of our culture.
some of the things it has taught is how to be adaptable and be accommodative to others which means you would have people respecting each other's religion you would have people enjoying in other celebrations and you would have people living and celebrating diversity religion has also taught people to try and understand that not everything is a resultant of only and only physical labor or what we in today's world called as corporate work or you know something which is visible to us we leave something to chance we leave something to beyond the control of us which in a corporate world would also be called as market factors or economic factors or factors beyond the control of the corporate or the company Now if we were to talk how does religion then you know play a part or how is religion supposed to be focused at while as an employer I am trying to engage or work with the workforce in India.
Religion is something which can help an organization achieve two, three things.
One, you know, you would really want people to be role following and about India has about 90-95% people who would be following religion or who are religious, contrary to a lot of Western world where, you know, it is taking a huge impact of number of people religious going down.
In India, it is still there it is and not seeing too much of a gap in people not being religious.
So if about 90-95% population of the country is religious, it means that you have a wide variety of talent that is coming to you which is broadly rule-followed.
It also means that they are willing to accept that yes, their careers and their life is going to be controlled by market economics also, which means not everything is the fault of the employer.
Not everything is the fault of the organization that they're employed in because they believe that yes, there are forces that are running which are beyond the control of this.
The third thing which religion basically tells and which is again an advantage to the organization is about being dedicated.
Which means that if there is something which needs to be done, it needs to be done in a particular fashion.
That is also something which an organization would accept because if you expect safety rules to be followed in a particular fashion and you need to do something without being questioned and that is something that people will do.
So what India is therefore presenting is a workforce which would by and large fit into an organization's framework of having a workforce which is rule following, having a workforce which is not trying to pinpoint and find faults at everything that the organization does and every decision is not put on to the organization.
And most importantly, sometimes doing the activities which just cannot be justified and need to be followed.
sometimes doing unquestionable activities when I say unquestionable we are not talking about integrity we are just talking about following a certain process because it is a process you know if a safety harness need to be worn it just needs to be worn you cannot define and explain every time that what is the importance of a safety harness when you're climbing and you know going up and down just first flow okay people may just you know say that's irrelevant or having the markings of fire exit because people will say it's in any case so much of light i don't need this market irrespective there now as an organization how do i then deal with religion at my workplace now as i as i said india is a By and large, most of the people are accommodative to each other's religion and we have certain key themes.
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