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    Military grade: Cos increasingly tapping vets to fill skills gap

    Synopsis

    The debate around Agniveers continues to rage, but India Inc has acknowledged the value of military experience for years now.

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    Representative Image
    Aveek Misra, a short service commission (SSC) officer who worked on surface warships for 11 years, has a unique blend of career experiences. At 35, he quit the Indian Navy to join KEC International, a group company of the RPG group. The idea was to stay professionally engaged in an environment that keeps him intellectually driven, says Misra, who works on the surveillance of KEC’s projects for the Indian Air Force, various smart cities and other defence projects.

    “Corporates are increasingly realising that qualities such as adaptability, sincerity, and integrity, which are core to the ex-servicemen, take a lot of rigour to develop,” says Misra.

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    Rajkumar Agarwal, a submarine specialist for 14 years, was also picked up by KEC from an executive programme that armed forces have with IIMs.

    Like Misra and Agarwal, an increasing number of army veterans are today a part of the corporate workforce and even while the debate around Agniveers rages on, several companies have been onboarding quite a few ex-servicemen across the ranks over the years.

    Mahindra Group, RPG, Hero MotoCorp, Sodexo, Maruti Suzuki, Godrej & Boyce, among others, have hiked the intake of army veterans in recent years as companies find them to be well-trained on process orientation, disciplined, good in execution and high on integrity.

    “Corporates value the discipline ex-servicemen bring and I see the trend of veteran hiring only increasing,” says ex-naval architect officer Agarwal.

    “Ex-servicemen are good fits as they are prepared to go to any ‘uncharted territory’ to work on a project,” says Harsh Goenka, chairman, RPG group, which onboards ex-servicemen every year at leadership positions.

    battlefield

    Meeting Manpower Shortage
    The RPG group has a ‘CORPS to Corporate’ specialised programme that helps in the smooth transition of ex-servicemen to civilian life.

    Hiring of army veterans also enables companies to widen their talent pool to meet a manpower shortage in the market, says Pradeep Chavda, director – HR – India at Sodexo, one of the largest food and facility management and technical service provider that hires ex-servicemen, mostly at the managerial level and department heads.

    “We have several heads of profit centres as well as people at the supervisory level who are from ex-service background. While many of these people come with a management degree, it is not a necessary prerequisite to get hired,” says Chavda. “They are already well-trained on process orientation. They have strong communication skills, excel in client interaction and project planning skills and are good in execution and closure of targets,” he says.

    Recently, the company launched a policy to sponsor the upskilling and further education of employees who have joined them from defence background in any domestic or foreign course.

    Companies across sectors such as auto, telecom, power, manufacturing and aerospace hire army veterans to manage their engineering/machining/tooling outposts.

    Mahindra & Mahindra appoints ex-servicemen in senior roles in functions such as strategy, supply chain, human resources, marketing, as well as in leadership roles.

    Edwin Lobo, VP-HR at the group’s logistics business Mahindra Logistics, says “Armed forces veterans have exposure to transportation management, warehouse management, contract management, procurement, inventory management as well as stores and line feed management where they have handled diverse portfolios.”

    In the last three years, the company has hired over 30 ex-servicemen and is in the process of hiring 1-2 batches every year comprising 12-15 veterans, says Lobo.

    Hero MotoCorp has had many ex-servicemen join its ranks. “Their leadership, strong work ethics and execution rigour is definitely an asset for us,” says a spokesperson.

    Rituparna Chakraborty, executive vice president at staffing firm Teamlease Services, says “There is a high scope of appointing army veterans in logistics, ecommerce, warehouse segments. “These people are good at managing crises and their ability to execute is seen to be very high.”

    About 60,000-70,000 armed forces personnel retire every year, with a majority being in their early 40s, say experts.

    Cmde. Sudheer Parakala, president, Tri-services Ex-servicemen Welfare Association, says, “Hiring ex-servicemen is beneficial for companies as they get a very disciplined staff at a relatively young age. Companies need to do background checks too, if they hire men directly out of the forces. Men who come out of the forces after 17 years of service are mostly hired by PSUs, banks and utility companies like BHEL and NTPC,” he says.

    Men coming out of short service commission programmes can get managerial roles in large corporates; many end up appearing for the UPSC examination and securing a high-grade government job.

    The defence industry is growing in India. Agniveers and military veterans are ideal for the defence industry. “Young Air Force personnel could be hired as ground crew, air traffic controllers (ATC), mechanics, machinists and even engineers. Navy personnel could be hired in profiles that may require electrical and electronic proficiency or skills. With some training and in-depth induction programmes, these people will be ready to take on their corporate responsibilities quite easily,” says Parakala.

    Companies also have orientation programmes to get them into the corporate fold. Harpreet Kaur, head & senior VP (Corporate Personnel and Administration), Godrej & Boyce, says “We have comprehensive orientation programmes to onboard and enable them in becoming actively contributing members of the organisation.”


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    ( Originally published on Jul 02, 2022 )
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