‘As automakers strive to sustain a new era of growth, they must ensure that their talent can grow with them’

Shvetal Vakil, Executive Director, Setco Automotive

Staff retention and recruitment in India’s automotive industry is a challenge. How is Setco managing this crunch?

The auto industry and in turn the auto component industry have been passing through rough times recently. This again has taken its own toll as far as HR is concerned. While demand for skilled technical personnel is on the rise, profile is changing. Techniques required for retaining professionals is different and it is important that the industry focuses on that aspect.

Work environment needs to be more conducive and focus needs to be on innovative employee engagement programmes in order to keep them motivated. Needless to state, compensation is a very important component and needs to be well structured in a manner to retain people. Constant up gradation of skills too is important.

Employees can also be assisted by offering education for their children, especially to those employees coming from smaller towns and cities.

The concept of ESOPS in not so well practiced in the auto component industry and even amongst multi-nationals and large corporates, it is limited to the leadership team. However, if developed properly, this can be the key towards sustainable growth and employee retention.

Since this industry will be dominated by young talent in years to come, what strategies are companies working on to motivate this particular group?

Young talent, today, is innovative, business and tech savvy, quick on the uptake with an instinctive ability to network. They possess unbridled ambition, high expectation and aim at speedy career growth. This applies to both blue and white collar workers. The challenge today is how to lead them towards high motivation, ownership and commitment to the organisation.

It’s therefore important to recruit talent from prominent institutions and put them through the rigours of training and placement in jobs which are apt, keeping their skill sets in mind. We allow young talent to rotate within their jobs and the good performers are put through fast track of growth. There are other employee engagement activities that keep employees motivated in a sustained manner.

What has been the demand for talent in this industry during the first half of 2013? What does the future look like in terms of talent acquisition?

The country’s automotive sector, which currently employs about 13 million people, is projected to have a workforce of 25 million people within next few years, effectively doubling the total number of professionals it engages. However, talent acquisition and demand for skilled talent will always depend on how well the economy and the respective sector are doing. The auto industry has been facing a severe downturn in the past few months and hiring across the industry has dropped drastically. Various measures are being taken to retain current employees.

We see today’s slow-down as an opportunity to recruit promising talent and nurture them in a manner so that they are ready to start contributing when the company needs them.

What are the different roles/functions mostly in demand in automotive industry?

With advancement in technology the world over and global players entering into India, every auto component company has to focus on innovation, quality and cost. This clearly drives the industry to constantly identify talent and recruit them in areas of engineering excellence and enhancing quality at the global cost structure. While the industry cannot undermine the role played by procurement or marketing functions, technical continues to be the key focus area right across the industry.

What are the skill gaps? What are the solutions to plug this gap?

The automotive industry is fast evolving. New technologies and operations require new competencies, as well as experience with autonomous problem solving and decision making.

Creating a workforce with these new capabilities requires more effective human capital strategies and approaches. Better workforce planning is essential, as is a more innovative approach to job design. The ability to give existing workers new skill sets must go hand in hand with better recruiting. As automakers strive to sustain a new era of growth, they must ensure that their talent can grow with them. Our focus is more skewed towards softer skills and we recruit employees with relevant functional skills.  However, from time to time, we do put our employees through refresher programmes to acquire and bridge skill gaps.

Is ‘people management’ a challenge in automotive industry?

People management is an important challenge for the company such as ours, keeping in mind concentration of employees in a geography which is industrially backward. Key focus is to identify talent at campus level, put them through the rigours of training in different parts of the company so that due appreciation is received on various facets of business. Once we cross the hurdle of recruitment, focus shifts to skill building and talent enhancement.