Sunil Hitech Engineers has carved a name for itself in the field of power plant construction and maintenance. But running a specialised business such as this comes with a huge challenge—a serious difficulty in attracting, hiring and retaining its senior technical and management manpower due to the dearth of specialised institutes for the same. To solve this problem, the company decided to start the Institution of Construction and Operations Management and coach potential employees on its own.
 

1) The Backstory

When financial constraints prevented Ratnaker Gutte to pursue college after school, he worked as a daily wage labourer earning just Rs5 a day. Fuelled by ambition, he slowly climbed the power industry ladder donning many hats including that of a helper, welder, fencer and foreman. Finally in 1954, while working for a local power contractor, he was told his employer had left a project incomplete. The client company wanted Gutte to form a team and take over. Since then, Gutte has never looked back. And thus began Sunil Hitech, which was converted into its present avatar Sunil Hitech Engineers in 2005. Today, SHEL contributes more than eight per cent to India’s overall installed power generation capacity and does everything from erection, fabrication and commissioning to testing and full maintenance of power plants.

2) The Problem

SHEL plans to contribute 10,000 MW for the country by 2015. But a significant factor that may scuttle its ambitious plans is the lack of skilled technical manpower. As the company’s Annual Report for 2007-08 noted, “The success of the company’s proposed expansion into BoP projects will be largely dependent on acquiring and retaining technical expertise”.
Consequent annual reports of the company have pointed how these and other linked HR concerns such as staff attrition and competition for senior management and skilled engineers could affect the company’s operations. There is a deep-set problem of the lack of adequate manpower in the power sector itself, as another annual report points out, “Looking at the tremendous growth rate planned in the power sector, developing human resources is one of the biggest challenges. Also, the number of engineers available is abundant but those with experience are quite scarce.”

3) The Next Steps

To get a head start in choosing its employees, the company decided to be more closely involved in teaching and training potential employees at all levels. So it joined hands with a leading local engineering college to start an intensive four-week training programme for almost 50 existing employees. The company also made a new HR policy of hiring at least 40 engineering students from the same engineering college every four months, to ensure that the company never ran short of talented manpower. However, on realising that the cost of training a smaller batch of students was more than anticipated, Sunil Hitech decided to open its own in-house power training institute to coach potential employees.

4) The Decision

Sunil Hitech set up I-COM or the Institution of Construction and Operations Management in 2011 in Nagpur. As the deputy manager, human resources, Aniruddha Pande explains, “Our requirements were not being met by the generic engineering graduates coming our way so we decided to train engineers suited specially for power plant engineering, management and supervision.”

The one-year course offers all students free residential stay, conveyance facilities, on-the-job training, specialised modules in computer, soft skills development, a stipend of Rs 10,000, and possible recruitment in SHEL.

5) The Aftermath

For a long time now, the company has seen almost zero temporary disturbances at project sites as a backup workforce is ready and can be easily relocated.
Also, Sunil Hitech no longer has to worry about filling its vacancies as every year trained students from the company’s in-house training school join the company. “Till date some 80 engineers from I-COM have found their way into Sunil Hitech. This arrangement has proved beneficial for us and the students, and enriched the power industry in terms of skilled and trained manpower,” says Pande.

6) The Takeaway

Establishing a training institute for a continuous supply of workforce does not translate into every student being hired by the company though. As Pande explains,“We only hire if we have to, as our priority will always be to promote in-house talent and expand their job profile. This works both as an incentive and as a reward, while keeping the attrition low”.