NTPC takes lessons from Wipro on staff retention

Fearing an exodus of its engineers to private sector players, power major National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is tapping Wipro's human resource expertise in a bid to retain talent.

Some executives from NTPC's human resources development team have returned from a visit to Wipro's headquarters in Bangalore.

During the weekend, they took a crash course from the IT major's HR department on how one could retain staff despite poaching efforts by competitors.

At present, the Rs 20,000-crore public sector power utility's main worry is the manpower needs of Reliance Energy, which is planning to set up a 3,500 Megawatt plant in Dadri.

As a precautionary measure, NTPC has already recruited about 400 entry-level engineers. "We need to be prepared to tackle any crisis," an NTPC official said.

NTPC's worries are not unfounded. RV Shahi, before being appointed as the power secretary, had quit NTPC to head Reliance Energy.

Similarly, JP Chalasani, a director on the Reliance Energy board now, was roped in by the private power company from NTPC. In the past too, NTPC saw its personnel moving to companies like Cogentrix, EdF and Dabhol Power Company.

An NTPC officials say there is a shortfall of engineers in India and that a big project by a competitor is always worrisome.

NTPC employs around 24,000 people (including those manning the government's Badarpur and Sterlite's Balco stations), of which around 7,900 are at the executive level (including engineers), 2,800 are supervisors (mostly diploma holders) and 13,200 are employed as workmen.

NTPC utilises the Lev and Schwartz model to assess the value of its human resources, which has been tabulated at Rs 9,543 crore for 2002-03.

Training day

• NTPC's HR executives have taken a crash course from Wipro's HR department on how one can retain staff despite poaching efforts by competitors
• NTPC's main worry is the manpower needs of Reliance Energy, which is planning to set up a 3,500 Megawatt plant in Dadri
• As a precautionary measure, NTPC has already recruited about 400 entry-level engineers
• NTPC has seen its personnel moving to companies like Reliance Energy, Cogentrix, EdF and Dabhol Power Company