All in a day's work

Employee empowerment is the latest buzzword in business and a variety of Tata companies are working overtime to place their people in the driver's seat

The crowd holds its collective breath as Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar prepares to strike. But the batsman, B Muthuraman, is unperturbed. The delivery is sent flying into the stands. The cheers get louder as the Tata Steel managing director raises his bat in triumph.
Not real life, but an inspirational film. "It's a part of our Vision 2007 campaign," explains Niroop Mahanty, vice president (HRM), Tata Steel. Adds BN Sarangi, chief, HR/IR, Tata Steel, "The idea was to motivate employees to accomplish the impossible, like hit a six off Shoaib Akhtar." Or achieve EVA …show more content…

For example, TCS has a HR help desk where employees can call in with any HR-related questions. Currently operational in about three to four locations, TCS plans to expand this unique facility to all its centres.

Jobs are out, careers are in. And HR is assuming the responsibility for plotting the career paths and growth of the employees. Most software engineers have a three-point agenda: globetrotting, annual promotions and acquiring millionaire status. "This is the base aspiration and we have to address elements of it," says Mr Padmanabhan.

TCS, India's first billion-dollar IT enterprise, offers a host of other tangible and intangible benefits to transform its employees into world-class professionals. It supports a rotation policy where employees' discipline is changed every two years, to expose them to different geographies, projects and technologies. Training and continuing education programmes are compulsory. Likewise, the Taj draws up an extensive training calendar at the beginning of the year for its employees.

Knowledge sharing has acquired great significance in the corporate world. Today most companies allow some level of knowledge sharing through various media. While most of these programmes are usually aimed at the managerial level, Tata Steel's Aspire Knowledge Manthan is a rare programme that enables knowledge sharing among supervisors and workmen. The purpose of this effort