SYNAPSE - 2014
SYNAPSE - 2014
Tata Motors: Keeping Pace with the Times
- Pramod Kumar, An Interview
Pramod Kumar has done his MBA from
XISS Institue of Management with a
degree in Law and more than 3 decades
of experience in HR. Currently he is
with Tata Motors as AGM, Employee
Relations & GM - Labour
Mr. Pramod Kumar was kind enough to take
out some time from his schedule and grant us
an interview.
“Entering the workforce by storm is a
new wave of Generation Y” – How does
Tata Motors seek to address their aspirations while sticking to its core values?
Tata Motors is
developing a
productive and
proactive work culture
which is mandatory
for long term
sustenance of our
position in the
industry.
Gen Y is bringing with them a set of distinct
values, assumptions, and behaviors to the
workplace and they want to achieve a lot in a
very short span of time. Businesses are competing to attract, develop, deploy and retain the
services of skilled people therefore It is crucial
to understand what matters to the employees.
We need to understand what things matter
most to Generation Y, the new entrants in the
workplace. Tata Motors places a lot of emphasis on its employee engagement and employee
connect to ensure employee satisfaction. We
have moved from measurement of employee
satisfaction to employee engagement surveys
because studies have revealed that a satisfied
employee may not necessarily be a engaged
employee but an engaged employee is always a
satisfied employee which eventually effects his
personal, social and professional life. We ensure that we provide them with challenging
work assignments, accelerated career growth,
socially responsible workplaces, flexible work
environments, freedom, and collaboration and
innovation from their jobs which we feel are
really important and necessary to keep them
motivated.
What HR measures Tata Motors is taking to stay competitive in the current
business scenario?
Automobile sector in India is going through a
rough phase and last few years have been very
challenging. Commercial vehicle business has
seen negative growth in the last two years and the
situation has become more challenging with the
entry of new players like Bharat Benz therefore
we are taking different measures to stay competitive in these market conditions. First is the use of
flexible workforce which helps us in adjusting
our output as per the market demand. We are
trying to develop a productive and proactive
work culture which is mandatory for long term
sustenance of our position in the industry. We
have also started outsourcing of some non-core
activities which provides us more flexibility and
is helping us in spending more time concentrating on our core business processes.
What style of leadership are you trying to
build into your organization?
We as Tata Motors believe in participative management where decisions are made after collection of ideas and suggestions from all stakeholders. We also believe that for our organization
employees are one of our biggest assets and for
bringing in constant improvement in processes
and product, participation of all the employees is
indispensable. Therefore we try to include all our
employees in the decision making process.
The role of human resources has been
evolving for some time .How do you see
its role changing in next two decades?
HR is set to grow as a strategic partner working
to align HR and business strategy. It also has to
take up the role of an administrative expert working to improve organizational processes and deliver basic HR services. As Dave Ulrich has very
aptly explained HR has to take up the role of an
employee champion, listening and responding to
employees' needs and a change agent managing
change processes to increase the effectiveness of
the organization. HR will act as a value enabler
therefore helping the organization in achieving
its vision and compelling motivation in the employees which are going to become the differentiating factors between successful and not so successful companies.