ROLE OF HR IN “MAKE IN INDIA” | Aparna Sharma | Senior HR Professional & Certified Corporate Director I Editor’s Collection

A country is what its people are, and therefore definitely the success of a project will depend on how the people involved in it set the goals and make efforts to achieve it. In fact, one of the most crucial aspects of a project management is its man power management.

The main agenda of “Make in India” is to take Indian Manufacturing on an exponential growth trajectory. “Make in India” has been launched with the hope of increasing GDP growth and tax revenue in India. The project also expects to attract capital investment and technological advancement. The main idea of the project is to concentrate on the 25 different key sectors of the economy for skill enhancement and job creation. Some of the sectors of “Make in India” are Automobiles, Chemicals, Construction, Aviation, Biotechnology etc. Skill development and Job Creation in 25 key industries would be focused for the employment and development of our youth. Simply put, the idea is create higher investment and activity in the manufacturing sector. This on the one hand, will create job opportunities for the ever increasing workforce in our country and, on the other hand, will become the engine of growth for the Indian economy. It will be a win– win situation.

The government, according to the Make in India website, intends to increase the growth rate in the sector to 12-14% in the medium term in order to push the share of manufacturing to about 25% of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2022 from the present level of about 16%. Encouraging global investors to make India an industrial hub is the prime feature of Make in India. Our Prime Minister has been urging investors that instead of FDI, they should set up industries in India. This will make India a destination for production as well as export of goods, all over the world. India has demand, democracy and demography. What we need is, investment, technology and exposure. Now, apart from other factors the success of Make in India depends to a great extent on the Human Resources attached to it.

India has a population of over 1.3 billion people. What is of great advantage to us is, that this population is quite young and thus we are a country of one of the largest young working populations in the world. But only the big number will not do. The people would have to be trained to increase their employability so that it can lead to economic growth. Investors would be interested in hiring skilled talent. What would be needed is a team of workers that can mould their talents to bring a large project to a successful end. Providing human resources to the Project to meet both permanent as well as short term work requirements will be the core area of human resource management.

The basic purpose of human resource management would be to make sure that the project has sufficient human resources, with the correct skill sets and experience, for the project to be successfully completed. Human Resource Management is in fact the end-to-end processes that this project will use to meet its requirements. The Human Resource Management is concerned with a broad span of areas, such as leadership, team building, and conflict resolution etc.

The key aspects which need to be taken care of would be-
i. To make an assessment of the resources required.
ii. The core skills and experience the resources are expected to have
iii. From where to pull the resources
iv. How long to retain the resources
v. How to develop resources according to the requirements of the Project
vi. How to cater to day to day management
vii. How to sustain the resources in long term.

Make in India Project requires general labour as well as specialized resources with competencies, skills and experiences to plug a variety of critical roles. While catering to the needs of human resources, different phases of its management need to be thoroughly considered.

1. Identification Phase- At the Initiation Phase, the human resource component required to successfully run the project will have to be focused. This would include planning, acquisition, development, tracking and transition. What type of skills Project Make in India would need, in what number and how long would be some of the questions to begin with.

2. Planning Phase- An exhaustive plan covering Project’s life cycle from beginning to close out would be required. More over the plan will include a comprehensive estimate of human resource requirements for the in- service support organization which will provide operational support and maintenance services. The detailed Human Resource Management process at the Planning stage would require the following four activities in alliance with the Identification Stage. The focus on the project now will be on designing, building and implementing the recommended solution, as follows:

• Develop HR Plan; • Acquire Project Team; • Develop Project Team; and • Manage Project Team.

3. Developing Phase- Detailed HR Management begins by developing the resources that will be used to execute the project. Staff planning is highly dependent on the development of a fully-elaborated Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and project schedule, which means they must be created in concert. The Project Manager needs to analyze the tasks and deliverables described in the WBS along with the Project Scope statement, organizational policies, historical information from previous similar projects, available resources, and activity duration estimates to develop resource requirements. The aim is to determine which roles, skills and levels of experience match this work. The Project Manager will then estimate the number of resources appropriate for the tasks. By referencing the schedule, and in consultation with resource providers such as Competency Centres, the Project Manager will have to make adjustments based on availability and organizational capacity.

4. Acquiring Phase – Staffing plan is normally finalized by this point. The staffing plan which is an output document of the HR Management Plan, captures details of the project’s resource requirements. Staff for Make in India Project may be acquired from two sources: from employee organizations or by contracting with an external service provider. Employees can be acquired from either the business/client organization or from the project delivery organization. In extreme situations external resources may be acquired from an integrator as a single, integrated team, or from smaller service providers as individual resources.

5. Orientation Phase–When new resources will join the project, the Project Manager will have to provide an orientation to the project. The orientation can involve discussing the following topics:  • background of the project; • current status of the project; • specific job duties and expectations; • introduction to the existing staff; and • overview of the project processes, including time reporting, attendance, and status meetings.

6. Managing Virtual Teams – Virtual teams in India would be composed of groups of persons with shared objectives who would come together to fulfill their roles with little or no time spent meeting face to face. Geographic dispersion can occur either within a region or in national projects across several regions. The management of virtual teams has its own set of unique challenges that would require additional communications and processes. It will be the responsibility of the Project Manager to try to take advantage of technological tools as well as some other options, to help bridge the physical gaps between team members.

7. Cultural Differences – Most organizations under Make in India are likely to face highly diverse cultural environments. It would thus be necessary to take into account the cultural sensibilities of various team members when assembling teams and subsequently managing them.

8. Conflict Management and Resolution – Conflict is both inevitable and to a degree desirable. Group thinking leads to bad decision making. Keeping the communication channels open helps confirm a team member’s sense that his contribution is valued. The freedom to contribute a differing opinion ultimately leads to more creative decision-making. It is each team member’s responsibility to manage conflict. However, when a conflict disrupts performance, it will be the Project Manager’s role to mediate/arbitrate and ensure there is no breakdown in the team, or to escalate that intervention before performance is affected.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the “Make in India” campaign on September 25, 2014. The Project, which is, expected to create the job market for one million people each month is in itself a challenging task. Jobs need to be created in both organized and unorganized sectors. Efforts will have to be made in improving the unorganized sector. Notwithstanding apprehensions and criticism by few the early signs look exciting for the future of India. India should emerge as the “human resource capital” of the world, as Prime Minister said while launching the ambitious Skill India Mission aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and equipping 500 million Indians with skills by 2022 that would enable them to find jobs.

Prime Minister Modi believes that, if China is like a ‘manufacturing factory’ of the world, India should become the ‘human resource capital’ of the world. He wants that to be our target and we should lay emphasis on that. He is of the opinion that the world needs skilled people, and there is a huge job market in India. What we need is to map and train our youth accordingly. India has the potential to provide a workforce of about 4 to 5 crores to the world if the capabilities of the countrymen are honed through proper and dynamic training in skills.

Road Ahead – The world and technology is changing fast, and thus, we need to have futuristic vision and prepare plans for the next 25 years. There is the requirement for regular interaction between industry and technology experts now. There are several developed nations which have wealth but have shortage of human resources. India, in the near future, will be the only country that can cater to this requirement if proper skills are developed here, and this in itself will give boost to Make in India.

We need several corrections at our own level also. India‟s education system urgently needs to come of age. India would require millions of skilled workers. But the fact is that when people come out of Colleges or various Training Institutes, they are unemployable. We also need good and quality basic education. A country like India requires a strong Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model to realize the true potential of „Make in India‟. Quality training institutes that are adequately staffed, with good infrastructure, adequate training tools and updated curriculum will now have to ensure that the students who graduate from such institutes are competitive. Such employees will obviously consume fewer investments on training.

A campaign like “Make in India‟ needs to be planned well to ensure the demand and supply equations match. The success of the campaign also demands greater collaboration between the state and central bodies. The focus clearly now ought to be on generating specialised, skilled and a global workforce that can catapult India into a manufacturing hub.

The road ahead is unlikely to be easy, especially when the contribution of manufacturing to our economy has come down to around 15 per cent, from its peak level of 16.9 per cent in 2009 – 2010.

– Outdated legislation needs to be replaced. The Government is working in this direction. It is also making efforts to reduce red tapism.

– A strategic framework needs to be in place with a clear roadmap across levels. Bureaucrats will also have to be given a free hand with their progress monitored closely.

– More infrastructure will definitely come up in the form of ports, surface transport for “Make in India‟ to succeed.

– Corruption, our biggest hurdle in any progress, will now has to be stalled at all levels to ensure files move fast and do not gather dust for months together.

All this cannot be achieved easily. But strong determination makes everything possible. . No, doubt it is a long road ahead, but I am confident that “Make in India” will gradually become “Made in India”, finally leading to “Brand in India”.