The Essar group ? one of the country?s family-run conglomerates with presence in sectors like steel, oil, power, telecom, BPO and retail ? is now increasingly focusing on bigger roles for professional managers at all levels. To make this successful and effective, the company is working on succession plan at all levels of the organisation.
An increasingly competitive market, little time for in-house planning and changing business paradigms are accelerating the process. The succession planning processes aim at a seamless transfer of roles to the next generation as the old guard hangs up its boots. Those identified for succession will get full professional training required to take up their new roles. Essar?s human resources head Adil Malia said his group has started mapping high performers for potential leadership roles through a development centre, for which the company has hired services of Saville & Holdsworth. ?The purpose is to benchmark and gauge the competencies and potential of internal stars with the market nationally and internationally. This will lead to the creation of a unique group called GenEssar, to be managed by a team of talent specialists like a unique talent key account,? he said.
Promoting in-house talent is central to the planning processes. ?We commenced our internal talent scouting programme called Next Moves and it is indeed giving a fast fillip to our young talent to grow to higher roles within the system. Vacancies thus exist for vertical or horizontal (job rotation) moves. Each vacancy filled internally creates another vacancy, and a domino effect of opportunities for our internal talent,? Malia added. Among India’s oldest business conglomerates, the Tata group is also following a four-part platform to groom prospective candidates for their next level or several levels ahead. Starting from goals provided to an employee, the platform model looks at execution of the goal followed by performance and business result. The group has even set up a strong team to identify key candidates from group companies across the globe.
? It is really encouraging that Indian business houses are taking special interest in employee management. In fact, employee communication is ruling the roost in all these companies. A key point Indian companies keep in mind ? like their western counterparts in recruiting and appraising talent ? is effective communication at all levels,? said Ram Subramaniam, India head of global HR solutions company Success Factors.