RIL to bring in more transparency among its executives

Welcome to the positive working environment initiative! Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has been working on a major human resources transformation agenda. It is in the process of rebuilding its performance-linked incentive scheme for its executives, as the company seeks to drive greater transparency, meritocracy and empowerment among its business heads.

An executive committee team headed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani is working over the HR initiative, known as "Objective Key Result", two people, who aware of developments, told the Economic Times.

Last month, the top 1,000 heads of RIL were asked to share their view about what they understood of their roles and mention four-five other businesses areas where they would like to contribute in the current fiscal. These notes were collated and shared for clarity on each executive's agreed contribution and the linked rewards.

"This was done to bring in more transparency and ensure the top brass performs the role expected from them and not that of their junior," one of the persons quoted earlier told the financial daily.

Another senior executive who did not want to named, said, "In Reliance, you can no longer say I did a great operation but, the patient died."

A spokesperson for Reliance confirmed the development. "As part of our continuing evolution of people systems, OKRs as a concept has been introduced for senior leaders,'' the spokesperson said in an email reply to ET.

"RIL has been working on a major human resources transformation agenda for the last 20 months. A complete revamp of our performance management philosophy and systems is one key pillar to enable our future readiness," said the spokesperson.

HR consultants say this kind of focused approach creates more employability. "This is a focused approach in creating more employability. Why you got promoted from previous role is very different from what your current role demands," said Amit Nandkeolyar-assistant professor of organisational behaviour at ISB.

"Also, as you climb the ladder, top brass should only have 2-3 large goals and not get cluttered by smaller targets that can be distributed among junior executives," Nandkeolyar said.

According to the Reliance spokesperson, employees and leaders are being equipped with tools that make them drive new behaviour and not just adopt a new system. At Reliance, which has roughly 25,000 employees, changes were started with performance management of group leaders and senior executives. This is expected to percolate across cadres as well. "Three words were popular during appraisal season this year when goals for the coming year were set at Reliance Industries — de-mechanisation, de-siloisation and de-bureaucracy, said one of the persons quoted earlier.

Earlier, the leadership had chalked out a set of 20-25 goals for themselves, which meant that they were keeping enough buffer to slip up. However, now the goals have been reduced to five to ensure that all targets are met.

ET had reported that the conglomerate had cut down working days from six to five a week. It had also simplified its leave structure.
(Image: Indiatimes)