The confidence in achieving organisational excellence through human resources and an approach that reads, “People First”, have enabled India’s pioneer in power generation, the National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC), to leverage the full potential of its 25,000- strong workforce and become frontrunners in people practices as well.


Recognising the NTPC’s strong commitment towards the development and growth of its employees, the company was honoured with the SCOPE Meritorious Award 2008-09 for Best Practices in Human Resource Management on the occasion of India’s first PSU Day on April 10 which will now be observed every year. Founded in 1975 with the objective of stepping up the development of the power sector in India, the NTPC has managed to emerge as an integrated power major having built a significant presence in the entire chain of the business of generating power. It was in recognition of this growth potential of the NTPC that the Government identified the company as one of the Navratnas- a potential global giant PSU.

Here are some HR policies followed by the company towards realising its vision of making the NTPC a learning organisation.

• Formulated an integrated HR strategy which rests on four pillars of HR, viz. Competence building, Commitment building, Culture building and Systems building.
• All HR applications undertaken with the broad agenda towards attaining the vision, “To enable our people to be a family of committed world class professionals, making NTPC a learning organisation.”
• Were guided by the philosophy of “People before PLF (Plant Load Factor)”.
• Committed to the idea of an employee’s total well-being.
• Launched an initiative for personal counselling in the year 2009 and had a professional tie-up aimed at offering assistance to its employees through SNEHAL, an employee assistance programme.
• Introduced a “Tele medicine” initiative for its Kahalgaon Power Project in Bihar where patients had the facility to consult specialist doctors through tele-video conferencing.
• Grow your own timber- another initiative brought into practice where the company recruits freshers from management schools and grooms them into future leaders.
• In order to equip employees with competencies needed for a higher stage in their careers, interventions have also been inst­i­­­t­ut­io­nalised
• right from the junior management level to the Executive Director level.
• At senior management levels, a 360 degree feedback system along with the methodology to assess leadership qualities has been put in place.
• Organised executive development programmes at the IIMs, and middle level management interventions aimed at developing leaders across levels in the organisation.
• Kept revamping its talent pipeline in order to stimulate future growth and diversification plans.
• Put in efforts to develop and evolve recruitment strategies to meet changing needs.
• Kept updating its training and development system with an increased focus on hydro and nuclear power projects.
• Developed a wide-ranging IT-based knowledge management system, an attempt to converge multiple streams of learning experiences within the organisation into a more readily accessible storehouse of information, a move aimed at boosting creativity and innovation within the organisation.
• Constant renovation of HR systems based on employee feedback.

It is noteworthy that the NTPC is the only power sector company and the only public sector organisation to have featured among the top ten employer branding studies. The NTPC also ranks amongst the best companies to work for and also features among the top most preferred employers. The NTPC ranks among the top PSEs and also tops the list in the manufacturing and production sector.

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