Faced with a severe staff crunch, central public sector companies have more than doubled their hiring plans for this year, with the likes of Air India, BSNL, Indian Oil and ONGC in the process of recruiting as many as as two lakh people at various levels. Oil sector PSUs alone are likely to hire nearly 6,000 people, with Indian Oil Corporation set to employ 1,000 people and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) offering 800-1,000 jobs, according to industry sources.
Besides, the railways, the country’s largest employer, will be hiring around 1.27 lakh people in 2019. Air India and BSNL are also scouting for about 1,000 people each. All together, over 2.5 lakh people could be recruited by CPSEs for various posts and categories across the country by the end of 2019.
These state-run companies are also tapping talent across the spectrum with specialised skills like wealth management, analytics, strategy, digital and customer services. All of which are now key areas important in ensuring that businesses can expand in a highly competitive market. Officials in multiple CPSEs also say that outsourcing has increased, which is why there has been a deliberate delay in refilling positions. The total number of personnel employed in CPSEs stood at 14 lakh in 2018, which was lower compared to around 15 lakh in 2017.
For instance, there has been a 23 per cent decline in headcounts of the nine defence PSUs combined, even as the number of contract and daily wage employees remained either flat or dipped. Hindustan Aeronautics, Bharat Electronics, Bharat Dynamics, BEML, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd, Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL) and Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL) have together employed 60,260 personnel in 2018, which is 17,522 fewer than the 77,782 employed in 2013, shows data from the Department of Public Enterprises.
The government is also set to begin the selection process for the post of human resource chief at state-owned telecom firm BSNL. With Sujata Ray, director, human resources, retiring in a week, it would essentially be CMD Anupam Shrivastava, who holds additional charge of the enterprise business and Vivek Bansal, who handles the consumer fixed access and mobility business, at the helm. However, Shrivastava will also be replaced by P K Purwar as CMD in June. Purwar is currently the CMD of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam.
Oil sector PSUs alone are likely to hire nearly 6,000 people, with Indian Oil Corporation set to employ 1,000 people and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) offering 800-1,000 jobs
Besides these, the railways, which is the country’s largest employer, will be hiring around 1.27 lakh people in 2019. Other PSUs like Air India and BSNL too are scouting for about 1,000 people each to fill vacancies this year