Bses In Talks With Hr Consultants

Power major BSES is planning to hire a consultant to suggest a possible revamp of its organisational structure and put in place a relevant human resource (HR) strategy.

The company is in talks with global consultancy majors McKinsey & Co, Ernst & Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Accenture.

All the four consultancy firms have made presentations to the BSES top management and the company has now invited financial bids.

BSES chairman and managing director R V Shahi said: "We have initiated this move as we are keen on implementing our corporate plan. Since this plan is spread over 10 years we will be operating in a dynamic business environment with which the organisation has to keep pace. The role of the consultant will be to suggest appropriate strategies for this."

The 10-year BSES corporate plan (2002-12) envisages, the addition of 9,000 mw of generation capacity, the acquisition of three transmission circles and the addition of another six distribution zones.

The company is planning to route its investments through a series of special purpose vehicles. The consultant will have to suggest an organisational structure that has the necessary linkages, a clearly defined chain of command that also lays down guidelines for delegation of responsibility.

BSES is also looking at streamlining its recruitment process and the consultant will have to come up with a credible strategy for this.

BSES has a 5,500-strong workforce of which 1,700 are officers. The average age of the employees is 40.5 years.

Incidentally, the mandate for the HR strategy will be primarily for the top and middle level management.

The company has already commissioned a study by the National Productivity Council regarding its workers.

The council is due to submit its report soon and based on its recommendations BSES may announce a voluntary retirement scheme, Shahi added.

The Rs 2,000 crore BSES has the right to sell power to large parts of Mumbai. The company has set up a coal-based 500 mw station at Dahanu in Maharashtra to supply power in its licensed area.

The company has also acquired three distribution circles in Orissa and is now planning to enter the transmission business.

The professionally managed company does not have any promoter but the Reliance group is the single largest shareholder with a stake of around 30 per cent.