The roles and responsibilities of human resource management have changed significantly in the past decade.  The drivers for these changes have been globally competitive market, technology, e-business and ethics.  Previously known as personnel departments, organisation’s departments specializing in the management of human capital have evolved over the years.  HRM today has an entrepreneurial outlook to connect the HR initiatives to an organisation’s business goals through a transformational approach vis-à-vis the transactional approach earlier.

Based on the feedback from the Engagement Survey and Strategy Meets, EIL initiated focussed efforts to improve and align HR processes with our strategic business needs.  In the last five years, these efforts have successfully covered the following:

	1.	Manpower Planning and Recruitment EIL faced dual challenges of attrition of manpower and spurt in business in our core-competence area.  HR processes of manpower planning have now been aligned to business plan. e-Recruitment has been implemented to bring in transparency as well as reduction in recruitment time cycle.
	2.	Training and Development Structured training manual for new entrants has been developed to support the increased rate of recruiting personnel.  This training program covers both function specific modules as well as behavioural learnings to ensure that the young engineers can contribute in the production stream in a short time. The training program has been reinforced with the introduction of e-Learning system. Following e-learning modules are already available on Company’s intranet: a) Company Familiarization Program b) Project Planning and Control c) Plant Design and Engineering d) Quality Management System e) Information Technology Services f) Construction Management Modules relating to Project Management, Cost Engineering and Control, Contracts and Purchase etc. are being taken up. These will be followed up with the discipline specific training modules to deliver a comprehensive e-learning content. As part of absorption of MTs, on-line testing system has been implemented and institutionalized. a) Company Familiarization Program b) Project Planning and Control c) Plant Design and Engineering d) Quality Management System e) Information Technology Services f) Construction Management
	3.	Rewards and Compensation Pay scales, HRA, location allowances and other allowances/perquisites as well as system of Performance Related Pay have been implemented.  Pension scheme as part of retiral benefits has also been implemented.
	4.	Performance Management System Major HR initiative includes having competency based HR processes i.e. Recruitment, Training & Development and Performance Management. EIL specific competency Directory has been developed and proficiency levels required at various roles have been mapped. The potential assessment parameters as part of PMS have been aligned to role specific competencies.  PMS in itself has been improved upon to be an on-line system which is KRA based for senior levels, while for middle levels, concept of Baseline and Functional Responsibilities has been introduced. These steps ensure a robust and quantitative PMS for successful implementation of PRP system. Next steps would include competency based training and development programs as well as competency based interviews for recruitment.
	5.	Employee Engagement Transactional HR processes relating to Employees’ interface with HR are now on-line thereby resulting in faster HR response and employee satisfaction.  Further e-Care portal has been introduced for quick resolution of employee queries/suggestions.
	6.	Employee Productivity Knowledge Management and Work processes automation are the keys to improve productivity for an engineering and consultancy organisation like EIL. As a first step towards Pervasive Business Intelligence, Electronic Document Management System has been implemented which forms the basis for building up a Knowledge Management System.
	7.	Management Development Management Development Program and Advanced Management Development Program have been institutionalised in the Organisation with the guidance of IMI, Delhi and IIM, Indore respectively to develop management skills at middle and senior management levels in the organisation.  About 300 officers have undergone these programs as part of their learnings.
	8.	Leadership Development Leadership Development Program (Aarohan) was launched in 2009 to build a leadership pipeline for Business Leaders, Functional Leaders and Young Leaders. Business Leaders program run as a pilot has been successfully completed. Participants of this pilot program have come up with extremely useful recommendations as part of their Action Learning Projects.  These include Value Engineering Program, Learning Management System, Project specific Risk Management Process, Key Account Management Process and improvements in systems/processes relating to EPC projects and Projects in N-E sector.  Presently second batch of Business Leaders and first batch of Functional Leaders are undergoing Leadership Development Programme.
	9.	Way Forward Business Strategy, Learning and Development Strategy, People Management Strategy and Leadership and Management Strategy are essential for improving the performance of an organisation. These require actions to improve the management effectiveness, recognition and reward, involvement and empowerment and Learning & Development. The concept of SBUs for successful diversification into new business areas is being looked into. Leadership Development program supported at senior levels in the organisation is being institutionalized to ensure its cascading to the development of young leaders. Work process automation is essential to improve productivity.  ERP implementation is planned to be undertaken after completing Business Process Re-engineering to minimize issues related to change management and to reduce customisation effort of a commercial package.