The tournament was held in Gorakhpur, where the Aisshpra Gems and Jewels head office is located, and comprised six 15-member teams
Gorakhpur: Aisshpra Gems and Jewels recently organized the Aisshpra Premier League cricket tournament, as part of its employee engagement agenda, bringing together staffers across its retail stores, back offices and head office. The initiative was conducted at the end of the financial year, following the company surpassing its annual targets, and served as a group-level activity to integrate its workforce.
The event was held in Gorakhpur, where the company’s head office is located. Around 80 employees travelled from different cities to participate in it. The tournament had six 15-member teams, with each team comprisingstaffers from different stores and departments, enabling interaction across locations and functions. In addition to the players, around 40 employees supported the event at the venue.Womenemployees did not play, but were involved in hosting and organizing the event. Matches were conducted over three days, with accommodation and logistics managed by the company’s HR department.
Saumitra Saraf, Director, Aisshpra Gems and Jewels, said, “The Aisshpra Premier League was a part of our employee engagement programme. We have an engagement calendar and we keep doing activities through the year. We wanted to close the financial year with this event as we had also surpassed our targets.”
Aisshpra Gems and Jewels has around 1,000 employees. “People from different cities came together, and it helped them interact and work as one team,” Saraf added.
Beyond the event, the company highlighted that one of the ongoing challenges in staff performance and team building has been the geographical spread of employees across cities, which limits regular interaction and collaborative practice. To address this, Aisshpra follows a decentralized yet structured approach, where each store operates independently under store managers and cluster heads, while the HR team conducts regular in-store engagement activities to maintain motivation and team cohesion.
Saraf explained, “Every store performs individually, but we ensure that engagement activities keep the team motivated and aligned. At a larger level, initiatives like these help employees see themselves as part of one organization rather than individual stores.”
“The Aisshpra Premier League played a role in bridging the gap between teams working across different cities by enabling employees, many of whom were meeting for the first time, to interact and collaborate. It also created opportunities for informal knowledge exchange, where teams could share ideas and best practices across locations,” he added.
The team ‘Golden Gladiators’ won the tournament, receiving a prize of Rs 51,000. While the company has conducted cricket-related activities earlier, this marked the first instance of a company-wide tournament.
On future initiatives, Saraf said the company plans to institutionalize such engagement efforts. “This is a continuous process. We aim to organize at least two large events annually and one engagement activity every quarter at a regional level to keep our teams motivated,” he stated.
From Gorakhpur to Varanasi, Ayodhya,Sultanpur and Lucknow, Aisshpra Gems and Jewels, a third-generation jewellery brand established in 1940, operates 14 stores across Uttar Pradesh.
Written by Achal Chaubey
Retail Jeweller India Exclusive
