I am hopeful of a much more hygiene conscious society

Gaurav Dubey, Managing Director, Kimberly-Clark Professional, South Asia talks about how with the COVID-19 pandemic, industrial hygiene is in the limelight more than ever before, shares his views the road ahead, how he believes industrial hygiene is going to be viewed by safety heads with respect to the health of their workforce, changes he expects in protocols going forward, where India stands vis-à-vis global organisations as far as practicing the right industrial hygiene standards is concerned and how his organization plans to launch awareness around your industrial hygiene solutions in future.

Interviewed by Adeesh Sharma

1. With the COVID-19 pandemic, industrial hygiene is in the limelight more than ever before. What are your views on it and the road ahead?

– The importance of maintaining personal hygiene has been highlighted in all the guidelines issued by the WHO as well as by national, state and local governing bodies. I feel it will be eventually ingrained in the psyche of the Indian populace and may not have to be necessarily forced like the earlier top down approach in organization. I am hopeful of a much more hygiene conscious society, where personal hygiene and social hygiene is a personal choice and not an obligatory part of a “SOP set by the management”.

2. How do you believe industrial hygiene is going to be viewed by safety heads with respect to the health of their workforce. What changes do you expect in protocols going forward?

– I believe this will be one of the biggest paradigm shifts seen by the industry in recent times. I foresee this to lead to much more concrete SOPs of self-sanitization, more systems coming into place for equipment disinfection etc. The health of the workforce should and will assume an even higher position in the priorities of the organisation. As a responsible industry leader in safety and hygiene products, we plan to encourage and promote this habit by introducing more innovative products. We have recently ramped up our skincare portfolio while keeping the market need in mind – both for the present and future. I am also very excited about our new launches in skincare and hygiene this year (sensor-based sanitizer dispenser, hand rub, Skin cleanser, kitchen roll, patient wipers, pre-saturated alcohol based sterile wipers etc.).

3. Where does India stand vis-à-vis global organisations as far as practicing the right industrial hygiene standards is concerned?

– As compared to the more developed countries, India is still quite a distance away on maintaining good hygiene practice for the workforce and generally too. Sadly cost still takes precedence over safety and hygiene in most facilities. We still don’t understand that “Hygiene will come at a cost”. However, this is expected to change for the better post COVID-19, and as a society it is our duty to percolate it to the grass root level. This habit needs to be developed in the densely populated areas, rural areas and even the slums of urban areas.

4. How do you plan to launch awareness around your industrial hygiene solutions in future?

– We have been doing a lot of activation and awareness programmes in offices and production facilities all over India to promote hand hygiene. We call it the ‘Hygienify’ campaign, and until just before the lockdown we have installed sanitizer stands at several factories and offices, including our own. This has been appreciated by our customers and has been instrumental in inculcating a habit of personal hygiene among line operators and contract labourers too. We have also launched a retail pack of our tissue products for the ambitious markets last year, and are also making in-roads into modern trade. We are planning several marketing activities around it, including activation events, displays etc. in the months to come. We have already started emailer marketing campaigns in this lockdown period to connect with our existing and prospective customers and address their hygiene requirements.

5. Where do you believe expos such as OSH India can help in spreading the right messaging around Industrial Hygiene?

– We always strive to stand out of the crowd, and very recently in OSH 2019 we had a display of “ how our wipers are a much more superior and sustainable solution than rags”. The demos and meetings done by our sellers during OSH got us many encouraging prospects, many of which have shown conversion too. I believe that demonstrating such revolutionary ideas in events linked to safety can give a different outlook for our value proposition, which is hygiene, cost-in-use and superior performance.