National HR Summit on Transforming HR in Power Sector

Transcription

1 National HR Summit on Transforming HR in Power Sector The National HR Summit on Transforming HR in Power Sector one of the first of its kind, was conducted successfully by NHRDN in association with BIMTECH, Power HR Forum & Deloitte in New Delhi. The main objective of the Summit was to deliberate upon important HR issues needed to re-align HR with the emerging changes and challenges in the Indian Power Sector today. A total of six themes which included four main Panel Discussions were conducted successfully by eminent speakers from the HR fraternity and the leaders from the Power and Infra industries. A gist of what the panelists and speakers had spoken during the session is presented in this article. Session 1: Inaugural Session The Inaugural Session commenced with the Welcome Address by Dr. H Chaturvedi, Director BIMTECH and Dr. Vishalli Dongrie, Sr. Director, Human Capital Consulting, Deloitte who spoke about the Theme of alignment. The Inaugural Address was delivered by the Chief Guest Mr. Piyush Goyal, Hon ble Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy, Govt. of India. introduced power trading and created and deregularized the power sector. Since then, amendments to the Bill have further helped in generating power for the country. In the last decade, we have managed to significantly improve our power generation capacity which is in line with our aim to rd become the 3 largest GDP in the world by Though, in order to achieve this, substantial improvements still have to be made in efficient execution of projects. Even with a high power generation capacity, there is significant power shortage in the country due to increase in cost of power generated through renewable sources of energy and also due to inefficiency of distribution channels which vary depending on the state. The power sector is going through a major transformation due to the emphasis of power generation through renewable sources of energy such as solar energy and wind energy. This has also led to a number of technological changes that have happened in the last few years. The power sector must also be supported with a well-built infrastructure to be able to cope with the many changes that are taking place. Inaugural Session Power Sector of India In the 1910 s, India had a very poor capacity to generate power which ultimately resulted in shortage of power all across the country. The Electricity Bill, introduced in 2003, was a major boost to the power sector as it Cross section of delegates Along with this, there is a need to focus on the HR strategy of all the stakeholders of the power sector which will pave the way towards inclusive growth and will help tackle problems such as skill development, talent acquisition and advanced learning techniques. Page 10

2 Challenges for HR in the Power Sector The effectiveness of dealing with rapid and radical changes hinges on the effectiveness of HR strategies that the power sector implements in the time to come. Attracting talent in the power sector is a major concern as attraction towards public sector enterprises has declined substantially over the years. The new generation of workforce, also called the Millennials, expects a dynamic workplace, a strong culture and a diversified profile. The transformational changes taking place in the sector would require employees to be well trained. Skill development becomes a critical part of the development process for the existing workforce. A culture of innovation needs to be built in order to imbibe the same within the employees. This is required as the sector is witnessing innovation in every aspect of power generation. With the emphasis on generation of power through renewable sources of energy, manpower requirement has increased considerably. It becomes the responsibility of the HR domain to ensure a balance of manpower cost vis-a-vis increase in manpower count. A major concern among the employees of the power sector is their lack of trust on the vision and strategy of the organizations. This concern needs to be addressed through various employee engagement sessions. Building a leadership pipeline also becomes a critical challenge area for HR in the current scenario. Unavailability of skilled people within the organization leads to outsiders becoming the leaders of the organization which ultimately affects the culture of the organization. Aging workforce is another concern in the Power Sector. Mr. Kamal Singh, Director General, NHRDN delivered the Vote of Thanks at the close of the Inaugural Session. Session 2: Challenges of Changing Power Sector Scenario The second session was chaired and moderated by Mr. R.V. Shahi, Chairman, Energy Infratech Pvt. Ltd. The Panelists for this session included: Mr. R S T Sai, CMD, THDC - Mr. K M Singh, CMD, NHPC - Mr. Anil Sardana, MD, Tata Power Co. Ltd. - Mr. A K Jha, CMD, NTPC - Mr. I S Jha, CMD Designate, PGCIL - Mr. B.P. Rao, CMD, BHEL - Dr. Rashid Al Leem, Chairman, Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority - Mr. Banmali Agrawala, President & CEO, South Asia, GE Power - Mr. Vineet Jain, CEO, Adani Power - Mr. Ravi Uppal, Group CEO, Jindal Steel & Power - Mr. S. N. Subrahmanyan, Deputy MD & President, Larsen & Toubro Session - I What are the Major HR Challenges? Power consumption demand is going to grow in double digits. This leads to people demand both in Quantity and quality. There are issues with old curriculum, not good relationship between institutes and organizations. Page 11

3 Attracting the people in power sector is a challenge. Out of top 25 best places to work, there is no power company. People no longer perceive us as great place to work.this sector provides - Job satisfaction, cordial relationship and work life balance, but the talent is not willing to join the sector. Gen Y and Millennials - we have not innovated enough in the sector. HR mindset is not aligned to the new challenges of sector. 75% of population in Tata power is millennial. HR should understand new generation challenges and aspirations of the new generation workforce. The sector is not perceived as great place to work by young talent. Once of the reason behind the same is that the power companies have a rigid structure and follow the same business model in the changing business scenarios. Finding new skill is very difficult especially when government has requested to add MW solar requirement and around 2.5 to 3 GW of nuclear every year Need to recruit people who have an aptitude of Session - II change especially as the sector undergoes significant changes day in and day out. What is the Way Forward for HR? D e v e l o p n e w c a d r e s a n d p e o p l e w i t h competencies such as customer connect, distribution relations to enable the employees be equipped with the new demands of the. Training people for new technologies, especially in the field of power distribution. Lack of consulting expertise in HR area specific to power sector is a challenge. Obliging a customer of whatever you have promised should be the mindset. Customer centricity is the competency that HR has to build especially for all distribution companies. Another competency to be built is Advocacy. There should be brand ambassadors of the distribution companies, who can minimize the voices that are raised against the distribution company by people with vested interest. What is the Role of HR in Changing Climate Scenario Across the World? Currently, 80% of the electricity comes from fossil fuel and 20% from renewable sources of energy. To bring down the portion of fossil fuels, we should look at the latest technology. Also, to adhere to the changing compliance norms, there are high investments and changes required in fossil fuel based plants. Focusing on training in new areas should be proactively managed by HR. HR should strategize on how to relocate and manage the employees of the plants asked to close down due to regulations. Promoting innovation should be the key focus for HR. HR should play a role of catalyst to invoke ideas relating to better use of emitted CO 2 and development of power storage and fuel cells. HR should understand business and dynamics thoroughly. They should predict the people impact of the changing business dynamics. Page 12

4 What is the Role of HR in Appointing People to Key Positions? People perspective of 2025 : 7 youngsters have been identified by Tata Power where they undergo grooming by external coaches. Brainstorming sessions are carried out with them to understand and mitigate various HR issues related to succession plan. Cross functional job rotation is a must especially in PSUs. When a person reaches GM level, he should have a strong cross functional experience to lead the organization as CEO effectively. There should be an institutionalized mechanism of identifying, grooming and tracking the successors to key roles. Session - III Session 3: Working for Talent Management The third session was moderated by Mr. Anujesh Dwivedi, Director, Deloitte and the panelists were: Mr. U. P. Pani, Director (HR), NTPC Ltd. - Mr. R S Mina, Director (Personnel), NHPC Ltd. - Mr. Adil Malia, Group President-HR, Essar Services India Ltd.- Mr. Ajay Mehta, CMD, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company ltd. - Mr. Vinod Behari, CEO, Power Sector Skill Council of India. - Mr. Deepak Bharara, CHRO, LANCO InfraTech. - Mr. V.C. Agarwal, President-HR, RPG. - Ms. Jyoti Arora, Joint Sectary Ministry of Power, Govt. of India. - Mr R K Verma Chief Engineer Distribution, Central Electricity Authority. Power sector has 90% of employees who are with a background of engineering technology. Current talent is so focused on their core technical area e.g. turbine engineering, they are not willing to think from business perspective. Building business perspective in the employees is very critical for talent management. 66% of employees from power sector belong to power distribution. Skill council of India is addressing the skill gap between the education provided by institutes and what is required by industry. Overall process include setting the skilling standard for all jobs, get them verified by industry, put in public domain for validation. And then implement along with credible learning providers. HR should actively participate in these initiatives by Skill council of India. VUCA being the overall theme of the organization, the same can be addressed effectively through Visioning, Understanding, Clear communication and Adaptability. These could be the core competencies that can help the professionals in managing VUCA world. Attracting and retaining talent especially due to remote locations and frequent transfers is one of the challenge that power sector faces. Clear career path attaining leadership position and building an employer brand through beliefs and culture are used as tools to tackle the issue of attracting and retaining talent. Page 13

5 Focusing on right talent is very much important. It is important to focus on non-engineering core talent which also is critical for power sector. Especially - Legal, regulatory and finance. A special focus should be given to build and grown this talent for power sectors. To address the issue of skill gap the engineering institute should look at some courses specific to Power sector. 90% of power sector population being form engineering background, it is essential for them to understand the depth of industry and way of operations. The courses could be of 3 years graduation in power sector or a sandwich course of mechanical and power etc. The government is designing state specific action plan for power sector companies which help in building 24*7 electricity network and other. These state specific action plans will help in estimating the manpower needs in power sector. HR should look proactively at these and make a strong talent plan. Session 4: Building Leadership Pipeline for Delivering Success The Chairman & Moderator for the fourth session was Mr. Ajith Kumar Seth, Chairman, Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) and the panelists were Mr. Dr. Pritam Singh, Chairman LEAD Centre - Dr. Santrupt Misra, CEO, Carbon Black ABG - Mr. Ravi P Singh, Director (Personnel), Power Grid - Mr. Yogi Sriram, Sr. VP - Corporate HR, L&T - Mr. Pradipta Panda, Group President HR, Adani Group - Mr. S K Biswas, Director (Personnel), THDC. What are the Challenges in Building a Leadership Pipeline? Stakeholder buy-in is necessary for HR without which no policy can be implemented. The ability to convince senior leadership is extremely important. A rigid Performance Management System can be an issue. If not implemented correctly, leadership pipeline will suffer as people might get promoted not on the basis of their performance but on other factors (such as tenure, age etc.). This results in a weak middle management which is incapable of handling bigger responsibilities and roles. Hence, succession planning suffers. Leadership development depends on how much committed the leaders are towards their goals. They must own the system, processes and policies as well for it to succeed over a long term. Strong Vision is critical to build character among the employees. Only leaders with a strong vision will be able to build a leadership pipeline. Aligning the purpose of the organization, the business strategy, the structure and policies / processes is necessary as well. Big data can help in identifying characteristics about individuals in an organization. For example, information about transfer, promotion etc. could be decided in a better way through big data analysis. Aligning talent management process with the business strategy and the organizational goal is important to build a strong leadership pipeline. Session - IV Page 14

6 What are the Traits of a Leader? Strong vision for the organization is required so that the same could be trickled down to lower levels thus giving a sense of responsibility to the middle management. Conviction A leader must remain focused on his/her goals. Character A leader must showcase positive attitude & must possess the ability to stand up during tough times. This will give confidence to the people who follow him/her. Empathy & Compassion Every leader must be able to connect with the people that work for them. An individual ability to get the work done depends on how compassionate he/she is towards the employees. Not be egocentric A leader must be willing to accept a different point of view. Session - V Session 5: Building Employee Relations and Engagement The fifth session was moderated by Mr. Sarat Acharya, CMD, Neyveli Lignite Corporation and the panelists for fifth session were Mr. Mohan Das, Director HR, Coal India Ltd. - Mr. Chetan Tolia, Chief People Officer, Tata Power - Mr. Rajeev Bhadauria, Director Group HR, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. - Mr. D. Bandyopadhyay, Director HR, BHEL - Mr. Paritosh Mishra, Director HR, AES - Mr. Amarnath Dogra,Central Leader, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS). Trends and Challenges in Employee Engagement The major challenges that the employees face in any organization is non-resolution of queries and grievances. An efficient mechanism to handle employee grievance should be the first step towards keeping employees engaged. Also, not all employees would readily share their problems with HR or any concerned body, hence it becomes even more important to implement good ground sensing mechanisms which helps resolve queries before they have any negative impact on employee morale. Formation of committees such as Joint Bipartite Committee for Coal India (JBCCI) is one step that Coal India took to handle issues between employees and the management. Every organization should ensure involvement of employees in committees such as canteen committee etc. to create a better workplace. Many organizations also conduct employee engagement surveys but do not take the necessary steps following the results of the survey. Appropriate actions needs to be taken to create a positive environment and keep the employees engaged. Minor activities such as birthday/anniversary, farewell celebrations etc. also ensure that employees feel valued in the workplace. Considering the above point, the various factors that drives employee engagement can be clubbed into three categories: Page 15

7 1 Relationship with managers: Organizations with a highly involved leadership body have the most engaged workforce. Because management has such an essential role in employee retention, it should be leveraged in HR strategies to attract and retain talent. Transparency and communication have been identified as the basis of building trust in leadership and gaining employee engagement. 2 Nature of work: It s impossible to be engaged at work if employees feel like the work they are doing is not engaging. Situations like these create strong feelings of unhappiness, inadequacy and frustration. 3 Organizational values: An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. A trend that has been observed in the last decade is decrease in commitment from the GenY or the Millennials. Reluctance to believe in the mission and vision of the organizations, inability of existing leaders to understand the new generation leading to less engaged employees are some of the reasons identified for the same. Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), one of the largest PSU s in India, has initiated a program called My idea to promote involvement of the newer generation. My idea promotes innovative ideas among them and gives them a platform to express them freely. Another vital point put forward was to treat employees as people and not as laborers. The fact that they are still referred to as labor and considered as physical entities is a flaw that needs to be corrected soon. Employee Participation Employee participation was unanimously identified as a reason for less engagement among employees. To improve in this aspect, the medium of communication must be strong in any organization. Involvement of employees in the decision making process, which is also referred to as participative decision making, is also critical for an engaged workforce. Another acute problem among organizations is the lack of a robust performance management system. An engaged employee would always look forward to appraisal system which fulfills the following things: Effective implementation at Organizational, functional and individual level. Based on meritocracy. Focuses on development of individuals. Understanding engagement and performance management is critical to success of any organization. It s up to the organization and its managers to fuel engagement, which results in improved performance and productivity. Having a diverse set of employees drives creativity and innovation. Innovation, as already mentioned, will keep the newer generation engaged. Organizations that effectively capitalize on the strengths of all employees and leverage their differences and unique values have the most engaged employees. Insights on the labor landscape. The focus should be towards having a committed workforce than a cheap workforce. In order to have a successful dialogue with the labors, 3 major factors have been identified: Delegates in rapt attention Page 16

8 Freedom of association. Freedom of representation. Effective grievance handling. As per CITU, demand creation should be the focus keeping in mind the economic situation of the country. Lack of demand has led to reduced investment from the private sector and export, too, has been plummeting. Demand creation cannot be achieved without ensuring unfettered trade union rights. An ever expanded indigenous demand can be achieved through guarantee of quality collective bargaining. An alarming trend that was referred to was the increase in number of contract workers for regular operational jobs. The proportion of contract workers has already crossed the 50% mark on an average in the PSU s and it is even more in the private sector. Even after the significant contribution of these contract workers towards production, productivity and profitability of organizations, they are victims of exploitation with respect to employee contracts including wages, benefits, social security etc. The continuous refusal, of the Government of India, to ratify the ILO Convention Numbers 87 and Number 98 has been identified as a major setback in establishing strong relations between the trade unions and the management. As per this, nonratification of these conventions cannot be a permanent feature and must be addressed duly to promote decent conditions of work. The merger of 44 labor laws into 5 labor codes effecting abolition, alteration and addition of the existing provisions of all the labor laws is seen as outcome that could hurt the trust that labors have with the management. The sixth and Valedictory Session ended with a Summary of the issues discussed, with Dr. Pritam Singh, Chairman LEAD Centre presenting the Welcome and the Way Forward and the Valedictory Address was delivered by Mr. P.K. Sinha Cabinet Secretary, Govt of India and the Vote of Thanks was given by Prof. K K Sinha, Dean - Development, BIMTECH. Cross section of participants Session - VI Page 17