Ravi P. Singh is director (Personnel) of Power Grid Corporation of India limited, (POWERGRID) a Navratna Government of India company under Ministry of Power. He has been the director(Personnel) in the Company for more than three years. In this interview, we explore with him how it feels to be managing the HR helm of India’s largest transmission utility.
Deriving out of your strong and commendable experience of 33 years in the company, kindly throw some light on the motivating factors in POWERGRID.
Ever since POWERGRID’s inception, when the pay-packages were not as lucrative as are today, our driving force had always been in the higher level need categories such as recognition and achievements. Apart from the basic needs and primary motivating factors such as pay-packages, job-security, perks, et al.,our real motivation has always been job-satisfaction, growth and sense of pride.
HR being an important service department and back-bone of any organisation, kindly share how it has been helpful as an important role-player in POWERGRID's growth storyIJ
Human Resource is the greatest asset for any organisation and HR has played an important role in nurturing and strengthening this resource and to create an atmosphere of self-motivation across all levels. Through various training programes, cultural events organised from time to time and open forum meetings, it is ensured that a strong sense of mutual trust and belongingness prevails among employees. Over a period of time POWERGRID has developed a unique work-culture for itself. POWERGRID was initially formed with the amalgamation of different companies. POWERGRID HR had a comprehensive job of converting the diverse work-cultures into performing team. At POWERGRID, it is not feasible for senior management level executives to be present at all the sites. So, it was important to develop decision-making ability in the first line executives to take instant decisions in consonance with company’s policies and guidelines.
POWERGRID has vast geographical spread of work and large numbers of complex transmission projects under implementationIJ How do you cope up with the demand for industry specific talentIJ
POWERGRID had foreseen this challenge coming its way many years ago, under its futuristic policy initiatives, the state - of - the - art “POWERGRID Academy of leadership (PAl)” has been established at Manesar, near Gurgaon. PAl has become operational this year. The facilities at PAl, apart from catering to in-house requirements, would also be extended to other organisations in power sector. In this endeavour, the company has signed MoUs with leading academic institutions to leverage capabilities and resources in the area of training and development.
Thus, the trained fresh talent is going to add energy and in turn accelerate the achievements. They will be asset to organisations with all their enthusiasm, exuberance and desire to excel. This will also help POWERGRID in building the talent pipeline and grooming the managers and leaders as per specific requirement of different verticals of the organisation.
World HR technology is undergoing major changes, how has POWERGRID adapted itself to keep pace with the emerging trends of the industryIJ
Human Resource function has been using technology in the recent times since the global business trends have adopted automated people management processes. The development of strong human resources is given absolute priority as it is seen as a vital link in its quest to achieve excellence comparable with world standards. The company has strong focus on leadership and teamwork. Employees are sent for management and personality development programmes in reputed institutes. Today POWERGRID is the flagship company in the power sector boasting of a dedicated team of more than 8,000 employees committed to a common cause. The company has adopted progressive policies and scientific planning, acquisition, utilisation, training and motivation of the team.
In today’s global HR environment, talent acquisition and retention has become a challenge in itself, how POWERGRID manages to have the best quality human resource and what will be its strategy in this direction in coming yearsIJ
With attrition rate around 1 per cent in POWERGRID, employee retention has never been a problem for the organisation. Good pay structure coupled with the kind of bonding the employees develop with the organisation ensures that employees see themselves as an integral part of the company.