Competency mapping and its relevance to Indian railways

Abstract

The Ministry of Railways is service industry which provides the transport for the goodsand passengers especially for long distance. Therefore Railways is called lifeline of thecountry. Over the years the railways have played great role in connecting almost allthe remotest part of country like Jammu Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Railway Link.Ministry of Railways is not like any other ministry where you have to either earn therevenue (Income Tax Department, Customs and Excise Department etc) or you have toonly spend (Education, health, surface transport etc). Also in the age of competition itis always emphasized that railways should generate its own revenue. Over the yearsthe passenger fares are cross subsidized with the freight fares and therefore railway isnot able to compete with the road transport for goods traffic as the freight fares areexorbitantly high. The finances of the Railways are in very bad shape and wage billaccounts for 58% of the total expenses for year 2013-14. The recent move to form theIndian Railways Development Authority (IRDA)i as an independent regulator is in thedirection to achieve efficiency and resource mobilization through private participationand streamlining the procedures.The Indian Railways is largest employer in the country employing 13.34 lakh people.The proper utilization of human resource is precursor for any reforms to achieve theefficiency in the Indian Railways. The manpower in the railways is distributed indifferent groups. Management personnel (Groups AandB) constitute up 1.3% of the totalstrength of the railway employees, while Group C account for 89.0 % and Group Daccount for 9.7 %. Out of the employees in Group C and D, 3.74 lakhs (28.4%) areworkshop employees and artisans and 9.45 lakhs (71.65%) from other categoriesincluding running staff. Railway Protection Force/RPSF personnel are 57,312.There is plethora of literature which shows that the competency mapping in theorganisation enhances its efficiencyii. In the Indian Railways there are no efforts inthat direction. Under the present subject author tried to analyze the relevance of thecompetency mapping in the Indian Railways. Three categories viz. Station Master,Guard and Loco Pilot are taken from the Mumbai Division of Central Railway formapping the competency. To validate them two methods are used and it is found thatcompetencies of Guard and Station Master are almost same.Based on the result the Railways can think of merging these two categories. This alsosupports the recommendation of Bibek Bebroy committee. Further, it is suggested thatIR should engage the professional agency to undertake study of all major positions inrailways. Author has also studied the training attended by employees for the variouscourses at Zonal Railway Training Institute, Bhusawal. It is found that 219 coursesare cancelled due to non attendance in year 2015-16. These courses are mostlymanagerial skilled courses for capacity building in managerial jobs and were notprerequisite for the promotion. The two characteristics of competency namely knowledge and skill are taken carethrough railway training for Group C staff. But the more important characteristics likemotives, self concept and trait have not given any importance. There is strong case fortraining the people for the competencies of the position. The National Training Policy2012 also advocates the competency based training for the employees. Also on thelines of UK Central Government's competency management of civil servantsGovernment of India can plan the same for the civil servants in India.