NTPC unveils HR initiatives for employees to drive future growth: Report

NTPC has unveiled a slew of measures for its employees as it seeks to reposition its human resources function to align with the fast-changing business environment.
As part of the business strategy, learning and development has been chosen as a major plank to bring about transformation, with experiential learning, custom-made management development programmes, tech-enabled training among the many measures introduced.
“We are focusing focusing on preparing talent that will drive future business. Skillsets, competencies, knowledge, need to be renewed,” said Saptarshi Roy, director, HR, NTPC told a national daily.
Thus there’s the Young Leaders programme for people...
with 10-15 years of experience. These individuals are identified and taken through 10 different learning modules that provides them with exposure across various areas. “We are also leveraging technology in terms of reaching out to people in different power projects technology in terms of reaching out to people in different power projects across the country with Harvard Business Publishing designing the learning module to ensure they meet the requirements of managerial and functional competence. We are reaching out to 2,000 young executives in the second phase,” said Roy.
The success rate of this course, started in October 2017, has been quite impressive. Already 2,000 executives have been covered in the first phase with NTPC monitoring the learning progress of each learner through analytics.
People are also being given exposure to different jobs through the job rotation policy, Samarth, which is aimed at providing experiential learning. The organisation is simultaneously targeting senior people with management development programmes at various IIMs including Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Bangalore and ISB Hyderabad exclusively designed for NTPC.
This is targeted at about 350 senior people who will occupy leadership roles. For officials at the level of executive directors/general managers etc, NTPC has also tied up with the Harvard Business School. “Around 150 people have been covered through this. The way the business is changing, top leadership team needs to be more agile,” said Roy.
The NTPC School of Business, launched a few years ago for energy professionals and currently in its third year of operation, offers a 15-month programme that also caters to other organisations. This programme will see a significant change with IIM Ahmedabad handholding NTPC to take it to the next level. IIMA faculty will come down and design the programme.
“There is a major revamp of HR policies underway so they are able to deliver business outcomes. We are critically examining the system to identify policies that need to be changed, done away with or even launched,” said Roy. “Putting people first before the business is the key strategy,” he added.
NTPC, a Maharatna PSU under the administrative control of Ministry of Power, is India’s largest energy conglomerate with roots planted way back in 1975 to accelerate power development in the country. Since then it has established itself as the dominant power major with presence in the entire value chain of the power generation business. From fossil fuels it has forayed into generating electricity via hydro, nuclear and renewable energy sources. This foray will play a major role in lowering its carbon footprint by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To strengthen its core business, the corporation has diversified into the fields of consultancy, power trading, training of power professionals, rural electrification, ash utilisation and coal mining as well. NTPC was ranked 400th in the ‘2016, Forbes Global 2000’ ranking of the world’s biggest companies.
The total installed capacity of the company is 53,651 MW (including JVs) with 21 coal-based, seven gas- based stations, one Hydro-based station and one wind-based station. Nine Joint Venture stations are coal-based and 11 Solar PV projects. NTPC contributes 24 percent of total power generation due to its focus on high efficiency. NTPC is not only the foremost power generator; it is also among the great places to work. The PSU, according to its website, is guided by the “People before Plant Load Factor” mantra which is the template for all its human resource related policies. NTPC has been ranked as “6th Best Company to work for in India” among the PSUs and Large Enterprises for the year 2014, by the Great Places to Work Institute, India Chapter in collaboration with The Economic Times.