Human resources in Indian railways re-railing for results

Abstract

Indian Railways (IR) – often touted as ‘the lifeline of the country’ is at a cross roads. Having been under financial duress for quite some time, the services it renders are under intense public scrutiny and comparison especially with the low-cost airlines that have mushroomed in recent years. Therefore, the urgency to perform is like never before. However, given the archaic structure that prevails in the top down organisation, a complete transformation is a prerequisite for the public utility to improve drastically on performance indices. This revamp would need to be across structures, policies, organizational control and certainly of culture.

One of the major reasons cited for the poor operating ratio of the Railways is, understandably its huge wage bill. Despite a steady reduction in the staff strength over the years, the organisation is still reeling under the weight of salary payments to its 1.3 million employees. The focus of this paper is not on Man power planning alone but how the HR arm of the organisation needs to be adapted to further the goals of the organisation and help achieve the vision laid down. More surprising, is the lack of attention that HR practices have received in a behemoth that prides itself in being one of the largest public sector employees in the world. The study attempts to elucidate the present structure, role and tasks of the HR organisation and identify the associated major problems, track the HR advances and sift through those that can be applied to IR.

Critical to this, would be the change in the organizational culture that would be driven by the Personnel Department (HR). Capacity building and performance management have long been ignored and the HR department would need to play a critical role in developing robust appraisal measures, training and motivational methodologies that construct a strong sense of ownership amongst the staff and officers and help foster a positive psychological contract with the employees and thereby develop organizational citizenship behaviour and also create an atmosphere for their enhanced performance.