R Gopalakrishnan, executive director of Tata Sons, and member of the Group Corporate Centre, details the Group's new initiatives in developing human resources

With rapid technological change as well as global consolidation in industries from banking to telecommunications, companies need chief executives and managers skilled in running complex enterprises. Companies need to cast their net wider for managerial talent and have meaningful processes for grooming potential chief executives. They also need to do a better job of drilling down into the organisation to spot and nurture future leaders early in their careers and develop a system of succession planning on a continuing basis.

In order to meet these challenges, the Tata Group is taking some major initiatives in key areas. The group is focusing on human resources, as potentially the most important aspect of the group's change agenda.

R Gopalakrishnan, executive director of Tata Sons, and member of the Group Corporate Centre, who, is also responsible for the HR function, spoke to Christabelle Noronha about the group’s new HR initiatives.

tata.com: In his New Year message, the Chairman had said, and I quote: ''It has also been possible to finalize broad human resource development templates for the Group that will vitalise career growth through reward systems and job mobility." What steps are being taken in this direction?

R Gopalakrishnan: The Tatas have had a long tradition of managing human resources. The enlightened view they took with regard to labour in Jamshedpur as well as the early initiative they took in setting up the Tata Administrative Services, or TAS, have both been well documented. But times have changed significantly and with people-related knowledge resources becoming a key competitive advantage in today’s world, the Tata Group has felt the need to refocus its attention on leadership development.

Historically, leaders were developed in individual companies, and the group played only a small role. Only two activities were managed as a group — the Tata Management Training Centre, or TMTC, and TAS. With the formation of the GCC, the signing of the Brand Equity Business Promotion, or BEBP, agreement by group companies, HR has become a very important part of the change agenda in the group.

A survey was done to assess the needs of companies and managers in the group. The findings that emerged were:

• mobility for growth
• competitive remuneration;
• performance measurement system;
• potential assessment system;
• group training inputs
• group resourcing

While several Tata companies may have their own performance measurement systems their systems must be able to ‘speak’ to each other, and, likewise with potential assessment. Like computers speak to each other through an XML standard, we need a group approach to performance management.

tata.com: What is the Group HR mandate?

RG: To attract good people, retain the better people and advance the best people. We are seeking to construct an integrated HR system, in which the central backbone will be the Tata Work Level. Around this concept we will have a performance measurement system,(PMS) potential assessment system (PAS), career development system (CDS) and a remuneration policy (RP), all held together by an organised methodology to enable the system to operate in harmony.

We are now at the work-in-progress stage, and are piloting work levels in a few select companies.

A company manages its business through two kinds of work – managerial work, done by people with clear authority and accountability, and with influence over resource allocation; the second is supervisory work, done by skilled people who implement assigned tasks and report to managers.

To fit the proposed Tata framework, the whole group’s management jobs will be studied. There can be a maximum of six Tata Work Levels (TWL), though not every company will have all six levels. TWLs will be determined by the level of challenge in the job, so it is the backbone of the HR framework which will be implemented.

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Uploaded in January 2001