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Work culture
Competency based HR
L&T Infotech is one of the ten companies in the world to get the PCMM level
5 certification. Sudipta Dev writes on how the company provides continuous learning
opportunities to its people for developing competencies
 For an organisation
which takes great pride in its rich HR culture, it is not surprising that many
of L&T Infotech’s centres in India have achieved the coveted PCMM level
5 certification. Incide-ntally, L&T Infotech is among the 10 companies in
the world which have earned this batch of recognition. The company got the award
thanks to its people processes and practices and a dynamic HR team which actively
spearheads all people-centric activities.
The company currently has a workforce of more than 4,000 professionals. “L&T
has always been focused on HR,” states Dr Devendra Nath, executive vice
president of L&T Infotech. The organisation believes that there are four
major pillars of HR—acquiring talent, enabling talent, grooming talent
and building ‘the culture’. Nath asserts that competency-based HR
is the essence of good HR. “It is the dream of all HR people that everything
in the organisation be linked through the competency matrix. Competency for
every role is well-defined (technical as well as behavioural), even at the time
of recruitment and succession planning,” he says, adding that once people
are shown a particular career path, they should be equipped with the skills
to reach that particular position. And this is enabled by enhancing competencies.
Competency development is at PCMM level 3. The HR vision of the organisation
is to maximise ‘Sigma motivation’ and the organisation believes that
implementing the PCMM model in letter and spirit will help it achieve that.
Training emphasis
 As a group, L&T
has always believed in a life-long association with its people. “Most of
our top brass have joined at junior levels and risen through the ranks. The
organisation provides continuous learning opportunities to its people to develop
competencies,” points out Vinod Khisty, associate vice president, Human
Resources, L&T Infotech.
There is a lot of emphasis on training. It is believed that
all those people who have been recruited in the organisation after the stringent
hiring process are already champions, consequently the entry-level training
is called ‘Enabling the champions’. This includes 100 days of focussed
training in classrooms. The modules range from technical to voice modulation
to team management, etc.
The soft skills training for L&T Infotech professionals is conducted at
the group’s Rs 10-crore training centre at Lonavala, near Mumbai. The e-learning
channel called Gyanpeeth, provides just-in-time technical as well as soft skills
training. “A person in Sweden might have to make a presentation to the
customer the next day. What he has to do is to just log in and learn from the
programme on presentation skills. Furthermore, based on responses the course
will keep getting updated to the next higher level. The sense of satisfaction
with training is very high in the company and is a great motivator,” adds
Khisty.
Stringent recruitment
One of the rules of the recruitment process is not to encourage nepotism. This
ensures that nobody enjoys a privileged position because of any relationship
or association—merit is the primary criteria. Finding the right person
is a painstaking effort. “During the selection process, a lot of elimination
takes place. Only 4 percent of the people who apply are selected,” informs
Khisty. Careful background screening of the candidate is done to judge the attitude
and mindset of the individual as the organisation only wants to induct those
people who want to be “happy doing the job.” Furthermore, when it
comes to finding unusual talent, for instance an IT professional with a financial
background, they hire CAs and groom them in four months to do the job.
Innovative HR initiative
The HR department has recently made an innovative initiative of inducting non-engineering
graduates (BScs) in the company, trained them for four months and then put them
on the job (primarily coding work). “The loyalty of these recruits will
be much higher as this offers them an opportunity to be a part of the IT industry.
The first batch of 30 people have just completed their training, and have done
exceptionally well,” states Nath. The quality of training can be gauged
from the fact that many project heads are now asking them to be included in
their team.
“We do a lot of innovation within the scope of HR. And, this culture is
prevalent throughout the organisation. This results in a belief that every employee
can contribute. Money is important but is not the end-all. What contributes
to satisfaction in the workplace is a feeling that you have made a difference.
I have invested 38 years in the company. Life is about feeling good about yourself—the
pride, the ability and the freedom to do things. [To make a difference] think
of a good idea and implement it,” says Nath with enthusiasm.
The rate of attrition in the company is 9 percent for confirmed employees. For
project managers and above, the turnover rate is less than 7 percent. “People
do not usually leave if they have been here for sometime,” says Nath.
sudipta@expressconputeronline.com
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