Companies across industries saw a drastic change in their talent management strategy – from mass layoffs in 2020 to mass recruitment in 2021. But some industries got the real meaning behind the saying “victory comes from finding opportunities in problems”.
Faced with uncertainties and pandemic-led disruption, the energy sector, being in essential service, faced immense threats to its business continuity. However, while interacting with ETHRWorld, industry leaders share how they have approached the challenging year 2021 and also how they are planning to welcome the optimistic 2022.
Hiring trends
Hiring activity in the oil, gas, petroleum and power industry in India saw a month-on-month (M-o-M) upsurge by 6 per cent in August 2021 as compared to July 2021, according to data from the Monster Employment Index (MEI).
At GE Steam Power, the approach to manpower optimization is tied to the long-term business strategy. This helped the company select the jobs or roles that may need to be reskilled or upskilled.
Speaking of the power sector, Pramath Nath, CHRO – GE Steam Power, Asia Pacific & India, GE, shared that the sector is going through an immense transformation driven by the goal of seeking lower carbon-emitting sources of electricity.
“This transformation has led us to take a look at our footprint and make adjustments from time to time to remain competitive and ensure the future strength of our business,” he said.
GE Steam Power conducted a competency mapping exercise of the employee population, prepared a skill inventory, mapped the current skills with the future competencies, and came up with interventions to enable its talent to bridge the skills gap.
Nath feels proud to share that 40 per cent of positions filled internally came out of this reskilling/upskilling programme.
Further, Venkat Rajaraman, Founder and CEO of energy storage company Cygni, believes the sector at large is going through a transition phase. “The shift to electric vehicles will force huge changes in the auto industry and require ‘reskilling’ programmes to help workers prepare for a zero-emission future,” he said.
Rajaraman further said that jobs at auto manufacturers and traditional suppliers focused on combustion engines will drop significantly and at the same time, employment at suppliers focused on zero-emission technology will rise.
What also has changed are the strategies.
For instance, at Gautam Solar, instead of doing a face-to-face interview, Gautam Mohanka, Managing Director, Gautam Solar, revealed that the company will conduct online interviews.
“During the hiring process, we will give our candidates the option of video interviewing, which will allow us to shorten time-to-hire,” he said.
Also, in an earlier interaction with ETHRWorld, global leader in power technologies Hitachi ABB revealed it has moved as many operations online as possible, recruitment being one such critical process. Like in 2020, the company aimed to recruit virtually and ensure that all white-collar staff are oriented and inducted in the best possible manner.
Further, Ashish Kapoor, Director – HR of power management company Eaton India, looks optimistic about the most pertinent issue: Talent attraction and retention.
He said in India, The Great Resignation concept is unfolding along with The Great Churn which is visible especially in the technology space.
Job security is certainly a factor, as per the 2021 GETI Report. It revealed that 69 per cent of power workers and 78 per cent of oil and gas workers feel less secure about their jobs, with the majority attributing this to the pandemic.
Kapoor said the pandemic has pushed the demand for tech skills; there is a mismatch between the open positions and the talent available.
But, he said, “With the right set of priorities in place to address flexibility, work-life balance, mental health, etc, we can expect retention to get addressed, and we will need to take a customised approach for the needs of each employee rather than a broad-brush approach, else we will lose them to competition.”
The GETI report also said 31 per cent of professionals and 29 per cent of hiring managers expect pay to remain the same, with 34 per cent of professionals expecting a pay rise of more than 5 per cent; 32 per cent of hiring managers also believe this will be the case.
“This is good news for employment in the energy industry, and displays hope for the future, despite the setbacks that occurred as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic,” the report said.
Trends in employee experience
Belonging to the essential services, the energy sector showed exemplary support to its employees. And experts believe this trend will continue going forward.
Take the example of consumer durable maker Havells. The company not only digitised most of its offline functions but also were cognizant of how it will need to ensure workforce safety and health guidelines once the lockdowns lift.
“We intend to continue our focus on investing considerable efforts towards ensuring our workforce is safe, healthy, and secure through several such initiatives,” said V Krishnan, CHRO, Havells India.
Havells created a feature on its Employee Self Service portal, where people could update their vaccination status in real-time. Once it was clear that a significant population had been vaccinated, the company started opening its offices in a phased manner, using a roster system to ensure at any given point of time only a certain percentage of people are in office and with social distancing.
While the offices were closed, Havells created acrylic partitions around all the open seats in its head office, so that social distancing is strengthened with a physical barrier without compromising on transparency.
With the resumption of the manufacturing process at its plants, Havells partnered with an enterprise AI and industrial IoT company to deploy “Trust AI”. The solution is the integration of camera feeds, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing to manage social distancing and mask norms across the plants.
Similarly, during the pandemic, Nath of GE Steam Power said organisations needed to stay even closer to their employees and their families and asserted that GE Steam Power was agile in its response to providing timely assistance by tweaking policies as well as extending help facilitating logistics around treatment.
“Clear priorities and expectations on both the what and the how, targeted learning and development opportunities and candid feedback/transparent assessment continue to be the foundation on which our people strategy and talent management is built,” he said.
As organisations chalk out a return-to-work plan in 2022, industry leaders say employee health and mental wellness will continue to be the top priority for companies to enable a smooth transition from an online work environment to an offline work scenario.
In the new year, Eaton will continue to leverage its Wellbeing resources, including Eaton’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), Eaton’s Mental Health Ally programme, Employee Wellbeing resource groups, among others.
The company said it will continue to curate sessions for employees to emphasise and reinforce the importance of wellbeing and support the employees with necessary aid.
“Additionally, Eaton continues to build a culture of empathetic leadership to sustain positive workplace relationships, foster diversity and inclusion, and encourage cooperation and collaboration,” Kapoor said.
Remote work trends
The GETI 2021 report said the pandemic response has shown to even the most sceptical that remote working – both for office-based staff and on-site professionals – is possible and often desirable.
“Some employees will be delighted to return to normal working days. Some will not. Remote working is set to accelerate, and hybrid teams are likely to be the way forward. Hiring managers will need to work with team leaders to ensure that everyone is engaged, supported, and motivated regardless of how they choose to work,” it added.
Mohanka of Gautam Solar believes the shift to remote and hybrid work methods has radically altered the workplace culture. “Working in a hybrid paradigm has a beneficial influence on productivity, communication, creativity, relationships, and problem-solving compared to working full-time from the office or home,” he said.
Gautam Solar will adopt a hybrid workplace that allows remote employees to work without fuss while keeping the risk of Covid-19 in mind and realising the necessity to focus on the organisation’s development.
In early 2020, GE Steam Power took quick measures for employee safety by moving to a flexible, hybrid workplace model. The company has been providing financial assistance in setting up a home office and reimbursing recurring expenses incurred while working remotely.
The exception is 20 per cent of employees based in the Noida office whose role requires collaboration, the remaining 80 per cent of the employees work in a hybrid or remote model.
“This is the new workplace and we believe it’s here to stay,” Nath said.
To further prevent the spread of Covid-19, Havells too had taken initiatives like clear work from home (WFH) guidelines, and staggered return to the workplace through the hybrid system with 25 per cent staff attendance.
Krishnan said Havells is defining hybrid working strategy as per the government guidelines in the states. “We are trying at Havells to keep a balance between the manufacturing and sales team presence in our offices and plants,” he added.
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