L&T: Grooming Leaders From The 'Bottom'

The engineering and construction major focuses on retaining talent with programmes and courses, grooms them to take on leadership roles early on.

- P.B. JAYAKUMAR

LARSEN AND TOUBRO (L&T), India's leading engineering, technology and construction behemoth, which has over 5 lakh employees, works on 800-1,000 projects at any given point in time from constructing refineries and pipelines to marquee infrastructure projects in the country and abroad. And to add to the gigantic workforce, around 3,500 civil, mechanical and electrical engineers are recruited from IITs and NITS and other reputed govternment/private colleges every year.

So, how complex is it for the human resources (HR) department to recruit, train and maintain such a large number?

Sitting on the 5th floor of AM Naik Centre, L&T's three-year-old corporate office at Powai in Mumbai, C. Jayakumar, executive vice president and head, corporate human resources, replies, "It is manageable because of our group structure and the concept of Independent Companies (ICs)." Each of the main verticals, at least 8-10 of them, functions with its own CEO, CFO, HRO, budget and five-year growth plan. "My job is to mainly coordinate with them seamlessly to meet HR needs across functions," says Jayakumar, a veteran with L&T for over two and half decades.