The global economy has created a complex and dynamic environment in which organisations must learn to compete effectively in order to achieve sustainable growth. The global environment has not only changed the way business is conducted, but has also created the need for organisations to manage their talent within the global context.
India has its challenges: it will increase its working age population by an additional 200 million, and it is estimated that 70 per cent of Indians will be of working age by 2025. However, this could easily become a disaster if the substantial government initiatives aimed at enhancing the employability of these workers do not succeed. One major challenge for India is the currently limited employment options for its massive cohort of unskilled contract workers. India also has a problem with only a quarter of university graduates being considered, by industry, to be suitable for employment.
Coal India may be set to change these trends. The state-run mining company has decided to hire 4500 fresh graduates and 40000 labourers over the next three years. At the same time, the company estimates that around 45000 employees are set to retire over the next three years. About 15000 have been retiring each year for the past few years and the trend is expected to continue.
By the end of 2018, each of these employees who is retiring would have accumulated approximately 42 years of service.
The single largest cost to Coal India is wages and salaries. A few years ago, they represented 44 per cent of all costs, but with recent wage increases, this has now increased to 50 per cent.
The vast majority of staff within the company have been coal filers and coal cutters with no formal education. In fact, anyone who had their name registered with a private mining firm before nationalisation automatically became an employee of Coal India without any qualification or age certificate.
Questions
1 What are the recruitment and selection challenges for Coal India presented in this case study?
2 What recruitment and selection strategies should be implemented by Coal India to successfully employ the large number of employees needed?
