Prior to 2003, Bhel (Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd) used to have manufacturing facility and skilled manpower to undertake 5,000 mw capacity addition a year. It had little reason to scale up. So when the government decided to accelerate the pace of capacity addition in the sector in a big way post 2003, the company was not in a position to meet demand of equipment. That created space for more equipment suppliers, which was later filled by Chinese vendors.
Bhel cannot be blamed for its poor planning simply because no body knew at that time that the Indian economy would grow at 8-9% and that too in a sustained manner. Belatedly, the company undertook massive expansion of its manufacturing facilities and manpower to meet the increased demand. So when order flows slowed in 2011-12, the company turned cautious about its hiring plans. But, the slowdown of 2011-12 it may be just a blip in the growth of the Indian power sector.
Bhel, a human resource-driven company, plans to focus on improving productivity of its employees even as it raises headcount to tap the growing business opportunities. Indian has envisaged adding 1 lakh mw capacity under the current Twelfth Five-year Plan, up from 54,000 mw added during the previous Plan. This means business opportunities for power equipment suppliers will double in the current Plan.
Being the the biggest player in the Indian power sector, Bhel stands to gain the most from the capacity expansion programme. “We would focus on areas like skill development, employee motivation and employee engagement to increase systemic efficiency,” said R Krishnan who has recently taken over as director (HR), Bhel.
The idea is to help employees cut through unnecessary and cumbersome procedures so that they could focus on their core work in a better way. The company’s workforce was estimated at 35,000 in 2007-08, which has now increased to 49,000. The company has recruited over 20,000 people during last five years to boost its employee staff in preparation to tap the expanding business in the sector. However, the sharp slowdown in order flows reported for power equipment in 2011-12 has made the company a bit cautious about its hiring prgoramme. But still, the company added 4,771 staff. The company looks set to take its employee strength from 49,000 to 50,000 this year. On an average, 2,000-2,500 positions in the company become vacant, mostly due to retirement.
The company’s workforce shortage is not because of it high attrition rate but rather due to the unexpectedly high growth of the power sector. Despite poaching by private players for the company’s technical staff, attrition rate in the company works out to just 0.4-0.5%.
The company is working to upgrade knowledge and skills of its employees on a continuous basis. It conducted development programmes for 15 mandays per employee during the past financial year.
Competency assessment remained a focus area for the company in talent management. The company also held programme for assessment of leadership competencies. Some 160 senior executives were covered at the level of General Manager and Assistant General Manager.
According to the company, competency gaps identified under the programme are being bridged through individual development plans.
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