Medical facilities: Free medical facilities for employees and their family, which continues even after retirement.

Housing facilities: Subsidised electricity, water and housing facilities to all employees.

Higher studies: Monetary incentives to employees acquiring higher qualifications in a related field along with study leave, scholarships etc. when necessary.

Holiday Homes: Tata Steel has five holiday homes for benefit of employees during vacation.

Tata Steel Officers’ Beach Club: All officers of Tata Steel are eligible to be members of the Beach Club that offers holidays in elite hospitality chains.

Family Benefit Scheme: In the tragic case of a fatality in the Works, a monthly pension equal to the amount of the last drawn salary of the deceased is given to the legal heir until the time the deceased would have attained the age of 60.

At Tata Steel, the process of training and development is focused on needs and outcomes with the objective of technical and managerial competency building. The Company recently adopted the Toyota concept of the ‘Four Quadrant Method’ across the organisation, in which the critical skills required to perform a job are identified and the employees are mapped against those skills by the Positional Training Facilitators, mentors or immediate supervisors. Training needs are identified on the basis of the gap between desired and existing skill levels and training is imparted accordingly. The process also provides a managerial tool for reviewing training effectiveness.

The training and development needs of the workforce are assessed regularly, for officers with a Personal Development Plan (PDP) and for non-officers with a Training Needs Survey (TNS). The process for addressing training and development needs follows this method:

• 70% - On-the-job inputs
• 20% - Conversations, Mentoring and Coaching
• 10% - Classroom training

Tata Steel has in-house training facilities both for technical and managerial training, through the Technical Training Institute and Tata Management Development Centre (TMDC), respectively. Advanced level training requirements, both technical and managerial, are met through external programmes.

For more information on Training and Learning opportunities at Tata Steel, click here.

Valuing its people as a great asset, Tata Steel is committed to their development, both in order to benefit the individual and to benefit the Company through increased knowledge and skills. In order to leverage maximum potential of human resource to achieve business objectives the Company recognises that enrichment of people will help retain a motivated workforce in a competitive environment.

Major highlights of the people development process in Tata Steel India during 2010 –2011 were –

• In an effort towards building a culture of coaching & mentoring, over 600 officers were trained in several batches of workshops through internal and external faculty.
• Focus on wider coverage for classroom training which included some unique programmes for laterals,
• lady officers, etc.
• Training maximum possible people on TQM.
• Over and above the normal training for employees, close to about 1000 persons recruited for the 2.9 mtpa expansion have been provided induction training.
• Introduction of ‘Value Education’ for the young recruits.
• To create fun at the workplace, functions like Technical Exhibition for all cadre trainees, ‘Parichay’ for fresh MTTs, ‘Varshikotsav’ for fresh TAs and ‘FROLICA” to celebrate Mentors Day have been organised.

Skills training is a process that begins at the time of an employee joining the company and continues throughout his or her career. Employees work in clusters of multi-skilled workers and move across and within clusters on improving their skills levels.  The Technical Training Institute imparts vocational and basic skills training; the departments impart on-the-job training.

In order to promote self-directed learning, the Company has introduced e-learning whereby employees can access electronic courses from their departmental e-Learning centres.

Tata Steel Management Development Centre conducts a number of managerial and functional competency based programmes for officers and supervisors. The objectives of these programmes are:

• To build individual capability by enhancing managerial and functional competencies which are critical to operations, service and support functions.
• To build a leadership pipeline in the organisation to prepare the people to meet the challenges of growth, globalisation and change.

Tata Steel is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, caste, religion, colour, ancestry, marital status, sex, age or nationality. The Company’s Affirmative Action Policy promotes equal access to its employment and opportunities and all decisions are merit based. Respect for equal opportunities as set out in the Tata Code of Conduct is followed. The HR Policy and Affirmative Action Policy are monitored by the Ethics Counsellor and supported by an effective grievance redressal mechanism.

Tata Steel encourages female employees to advance their career with initiatives dedicated towards personal development and professional advancement. The Women Empowerment Cell examines and addresses the issues and concerns of female employees and ensures that they do not miss out on any growth opportunity.

Apart from the ongoing 'Tejaswini' programme, an innovative scheme undertaken by Tata Steel in the past few years is the introduction of a Female Trade Apprentice course. Selected candidates are trained in various trades such as fitter, machinist (metal cutting) and electrician. On successfully completing the course, these young women are deputed to various departments as required.

Tata Steel respects the employees’ right to exercise freedom of association and collective bargaining and provides appropriate support for this.  There is an established system of joint working and collective bargaining, which ensures that every employee is able to exercise this right without any fear. Pioneering the concept in India, a system of Joint Consultation has been in place in Tata Steel for more than 50 years.