NEW DELHI: Having realised about something amiss in its human resources policy, the Railways is looking for clues on how to improve relations with its nearly 13 lakh employees. The Ministry of Railways is lining up brainstorming sessions with the top honchos of companies such as Jet Airways, Indigo Airlines and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), among others, to learn best practices from them.
Earlier this year, the Railways had set up a Transformation Directorate to infuse new ideas, streamline HR policy and adopt latest technologies to change the organisation’s working. The directorate has been holding roundtable sessions on issues such as green energy, catering and safety, where Minister Suresh Prabhu interacted with experts and officials on innovative ideas.
Invited for the series are some of the top people from the public transport sector, including IndiGo President and CEO Aditya Ghosh, Jet Airways Chief People Officer Rahul Taneja, BPCL Human Resources Director S P Gathoo, and Oil India Ltd HR and Business Development Director Biswajit Roy. The roundtable is scheduled for April second week.
“We plan to hear, share and discuss issues related to human resources. We would ask top officials to suggest policy changes in Railways and would adopt those based on merit and government approval,” said a senior Railway Ministry official.
In 2015, a systematic human resource audit was undertaken to enhance organisational performance and prepare the workforce for future challenges. The ministry has since launched a Transformation Lecture Series to provide guidance to officers and staff on the transformation to be brought in. The directorate also looks into the implementation of suggestions made during the Rail Vikas Shivir, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2016.
The lecture series, started in February, is addressed by transformation leaders from a wide spectrum of disciplines, including industry, academia and practitioners. The themes covered leadership, change management, motivation, problem-solving, negotiations, communication and ethics.
Some of those who addressed the series are O P Bhatt, ex-Chairman of State Bank of India; M Damodaran, ex-chairman of SEBI, UTI and IDBI, motivational speaker and writer Shiv Khera and Pramath Raj Sinha, ex-MD and CEO of ABP Group, partner at McKinsey and founding Dean of Indian School of Business.