Small units fret over quality of talent

The quality of human resources available to India’s small-scale industrial units, especially in manufacturing, is far from satisfactory. These units therefore perform below their potential.

The main problem is the failure of industrial training institutes (ITI) to incorporate the needs of industry into their curricula. The quality of their graduates is therefore not good enough. But they are the only manpower that small units can afford to hire.

Many of these units cannot attract engineers due to their inadequate infrastructure and working conditions. So, they have to look at those lower down, and are left with no option but to look at the ITIs. And companies are ready to spend 20 to 30 or even 40 man-days in just training ITI graduates after induction.

“ITIs do not give any training on how to be suitably employed. This forces companies to provide three to five days of training just to ensure that the new hires know how to mark their attendance,” said Sangeeta Lala, vice-president of staffing company TeamLease Services.

“There has to be a system that would make studying at ITIs more attractive. It should not be a place where the ‘leftovers’ come to study. This means our units are very inefficient and work much below capacity,” said the owner of a small-scale unit in the Peenya industrial estate in Bangalore.

According to Asim Handa of Korn-Ferry International, “In the last three or four years the manufacturing sector has grown by a large extent. This has meant a big demand for manpower.”

SMEs suffer from a lack of brand identity and good people are not keen on taking jobs with them. Maruti Suzuki has about 20,000 vendors. But their lack of marketing and financial strengths makes them unattractive to employees.

Since small units end up hiring people who are of poor quality, they need to train them. This calls for spending time and effort, but small units do not have HR departments.

The lack of HR systems is a problem at manufacturing SSIs, where HR is no more than industrial relations (IR). Small units do not have the capital to invest in even slightly sophisticated HR practices.

Capital is mostly redeployed to increase production, not in employee welfare or to meet HR needs. That’s why small-scale units often see a very high attrition rate. Most hiring happens by word of mouth and companies are unable to use professionals to hire people.

Entry-level hires need time to get accustomed to their work environment. “ITI pass-outs are very raw when they join. Most of them are about 18 years old and some 19 years,” said Edward D’Souza, managing director of Neumatica India, a firm that makes pneumatic presses for the auto sector.

The ITIs fail to provide them with hands-on experience. The task of training them and making them industry-ready therefore falls on those hiring them, added D’Souza. New hires often need training in measurement, tool handling and other trade requirements.