Talent planning to align the strategy at Air India

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 After the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines, the government promised no-layoff policy to the trade/labor unions which went on to strike to secure continuity in employment for the staff. So the rationalization of the workforce was not done. Not only that, the employees were not trained in new technology and digitalization. 

Now after the acquisition of Air India by Tata group, the management realized the need to rationalize the workforce to reduce redundancies and also to align the talent planning with the change in the strategy of the new management. The new management believes that to compete in the aviation market they would require the technology up-gradation of their fleet as well as the processes, and to achieve this talent planning is important. 

At the time of acquisition, Air India had 13,000 employees, out of which 8,000 were permanent employees and rest contractual. Out of these, 4,000 employees would reach superannuation in the next two years. The new management announced the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) with ex-gratia amounts for those who apply for VRS between June1,2022 and July 31,2022. This announcement led to the decision of 4,500 employees to apply for VRS. So, assuming some overlap between those reaching superannuation and those applying for VRS, it can be observed that out of 8000 permanent employees, at least 60-70 percent of the workforce would be exiting. This is a good sign for the management which needs to build the workforce around the right attitude and right aptitude, which matches the vision of the new management. 

Understanding the need to infuse in new talent to the company, Tata Group has initiated its recruitment drive across different cities in India and is also contemplating cross-company movements in the Tata group. To quote, Mark Martin, consultant in aviation sector,

"It has to become a modern airline and shed systems, processes and people from an era where the mindset has been set and cannot be changed. This is a digital era and the airline has to be revamped in terms of systems and people to be consumer-focused."

Reference

Acknowledgment: I thank Ms. Vaishnavi Krishna Mohan, Student of BA(Hons) Economics at Ahmedabad University for her support in content development

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