ACMA’s first HR survey reveals pressing issues

ACMA has revealed the findings of its first survey on Human Resource Practices and Remuneration Benchmarking for its member organisations. The survey, conducted by Deloitte India, is aimed at gaining strategic insights into the critical human capital challenges, HR practices and remuneration trends in the industry. Over 90 ACMA members participated in this exercise.

Commenting on the initiative, ArvindKapur, president, ACMA, said: “As the auto component manufacturing industry in India steadily becomes global, the business strategies adopted by individual companies will be shaped to a great extent by workforce challenges. To be competitive, the industry will not only need a perspective on the best HR practices but will also need to benchmark its own HR systems and policies against the global best”. Some of the key findings of the survey include:

- Talent attraction and retention: Anxiety over retaining talent has emerged as a key concern and challenge across all management levels; it is relatively steep at the entry, junior and middle managerial levels. High turnover for lateral hires at the junior and middle management levels is also a cause of concern.

- Workforce capability development: The industry cites a critical need to constantly enhance employee skills in line with the changing business environment. Organisations are increasingly feeling the need to focus on the critical needs of employee skilling, re-skilling and redeployment.

- Managerial bandwidth: Currently a number of organisations lack leadership and managerial depth at the middle management level and there is a dire need for developing effective business and HR processes which will facilitate knowledge management and transfer. Limited cross-functional exposures too emerge as an obstacle in developing managerial and leadership competencies.

- Labour and industrial relations: Industrial relations, labour availability, wage levels and productivity are pressing issues for the industry that need immediate attention.

INTERVIEW WITH ARVIND KAPUR, PRESIDENT, ACMA

Why did ACMA commission Deloitte to conduct this survey? What was the brief?

ACMA commissioned Deloitte because it is good to know the industry's strengths and weaknesses in terms of HR resources. The brief was to look at the best practices being followed in industry and the best practices that can be adopted, as we have to learn from each other. This will help us to tackle labour problems and, from top to bottom, help take care of other HR issues.

What are the causes of attrition at the junior and middle-level positions?

Aspirations and opportunities are good today while there is shortage of trained and skilled manpower at the junior and middle level positions. So there is need to train more people and increase employable skills which the government of India is doing by setting up the Automotive Skills Development Council. The process has started and everyone in the industry is working on it.

How can ACMA and SIAM help reduce this problem?

Both ACMA and SIAM keep trying to increase fresh employment and make manpower employable besides upgrading the skills of existing workers. It is a constant process and both the organisations are involved in it.

What can ACMA do to help its members develop the much-needed HR processes?

We try to let our members know where the gaps are and where there is urgent requirement for HR processes. ACMA also has a Centre of Technology for improving skills of SMEs by handholding them so that they can keep pace with changing technical requirements of vehicles.

The councillors from the Centre visit SMEs and advise them on skill enhancements and HR practices. There are also cluster programmes where even competitors sit at the same table and learn from each other. For smaller companies, introducing HR processes and skill development is a challenge as they cannot afford HR people; so we have an SME committee to bridge skill-set deficits. ACMA is facilitating larger companies help smaller ones. Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp are doing this and Tata Motors is also looking at a cluster programme wherein it helps its vendors upgrade their skills and become employable.

What are the specific skills the auto sector lacks?

The automotive industry requires skills across a large gamut of sectors ranging from chemicals, press, castings, plastics and machining where there is a large gap between demand and supply.

SHOBHA MATHUR