Birlas to complete VRS by 2003-end

The AV Birla group is expected to entirely accomplish its objective of becoming lean within a year. The group, which has been in the midst o...

The AV Birla group is expected to entirely accomplish its objective of becoming lean within a year. The group, which has been in the midst of voluntary retirement schemes (VRS) across companies, has already completed 80 per cent of the VRS, with the balance 20 per cent expected to be accomplished by next year, said AV Birla group director (corporate human resources), Santrupt Misra.

“Internationally, we are fairly lean in staff, but in India we have done enough of VRS now, and it will stop,” said Dr Misra.

The total strength of the group is

about 72,000 employees. Around 4,300 employees had reportedly left the group during the financial year ended March 31, 2002, mainly through VRS. The group has undertaken significant manpower rationalisation at certain units of companies including Indian Rayon and Industries and Grasim Industries. The activity of introducing VRS at various units had gained momentum over the last two years. For instance, it was successfully implemented at Jayashree Textiles and at Nagda, early this year. An increased level of manpower rationalisation in textiles industry was taking place, basically on account of enhanced modernisation of manufacturing units and outsourcing.

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Manpower restructuring has been an ongoing affair at Grasim Industries with sizeable reductions at the textiles and fibre divisions. The company had reportedly trimmed its manpower by reducing the workforce strength by over 2,000 employees last year, following the closure of its pulp and fibre unit at Mavoor in Kerala.

The group had introduced a uniform performance appraisal system which was put in place two years ago. A 360 degrees performance appraisal was brought in for increased transparency. As part of its HR initiatives, the AV Birla group has put in place a competency framework, wherein it adopted the CVA (cash value added) route as a measurement matrix for benchmarking, and put in place a succession planning in addition to fixing the retirement age at 60 years. These initiatives have been ongoing, as an effort to bring down the average age of the employees and to make the group look younger.