'Retention and attraction' policy at L

Mumbai, Aug 26: Defying the existing 'hire and fire' norm in business sector of the country, big industrial houses like L&T are working on a new policy of 'retention and attraction'. It comes at a time when the company is facing acute shortage of staff at senior management levels.

Talking to UNI on the sidelines of the 61st annual general body meeting (AGM) of the company, which was held here recently, CMD A M Naik said, ''Given the acute shortage of talent in the country, especially at middle management level, we have adopted a new policy known as 'retention and attraction', which simply means attracting new and young professionals while retaining those that have already reached the retirement age.'' However, he maintained that while adopting the retention and attraction policy, the board of the company will keep in mind things like the person's performance, health and the availability of replacements.

The problem is our officials to the rank of DGMs and senior GMs are getting lucrative offers from MNCs active in the country and abroad that are ready to make them MDs with a hefty package of 5-6 times more of what they are getting here. Another problem being faced by the L&T is the emergence of IT as a big paymaster. With a view to check the trend of attrition of managerial level staff in big numbers, the company has floated its IT subsidiary L&T Infotech Ltd, for which it is thinking of launching the IPO within next couple of years.

Mr Nayak further said, ''I can tell you one thing for sure that people don't want to continue for a simple reason that they want it''. In fact, people want to concentrate on lot more other things as they have planned for their post-retirement age, he said.

Giving the example of Delhi Metro project which was executed by his company, Mr Nayak said, we had to call a person who had already attained the age of 75 years. But it doesn't mean that the company doesn't want competent young professionals. ''My company believes that vintage of 60s and 70s are still available where there was dearth of competent young professionals,'' he said adding that still I'm the strong advocate for recruiting more and more young talents.

Keeping it in view, the company has launched several initiatives like accelerated career progression, compensation reviews, identifying and developing employees with leadership potential, revamping training and development programmes, he said.

On brain drain, Mr Nayak said earlier there was a trend of young qualified people migrating to other countries in search of a suitable job. But the trend has changed now, thanks to the arrival of a host of MNCs into the country. ''Now people are leaving companies to join MNCs in India to get a more lucrative package,'' added Naik.

UNI