Truck maker Ashok Leyland is rapidly moving towards new emission norms and electric vehicles with initiatives to engage and encourage employees
The automobile industry is facing two major changes: First, an incremental shift towards more stringent Bharat Stage VI emission norms, and the second, more futuristic, shift is towards electric vehicles (EVs), an area where no company has gone mainstream even in advanced economies.
Given this context, Ashok Leyland has set itself the target of not only becoming one of the top 10 commercial vehicle manufacturers in the world, but also of preparing for the more stringent emission norms that will come into force next year in India.
On the EV technologies front, in the past, hiring had been centred around mechanical engineering and related disciplines. Over the last two years, Ashok Leyland has shifted to hiring people from streams including electronics and electrical engineering and maths, for instance, to work on algorithms for EVs. Internally too, the company seeded programmes in electronics to re-skill a large number of people. More importantly, the EV team was carved out as a separate one.
There are three big-picture trends that have emerged as both opportunities and challenges for large companies such as Ashok Leyland, says NV Balachandar, head of HR. First, there is a lot of trepidation around automation and machine learning (ML) and whether they will replace humans. However, the company is looking to deploy data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and ML to complete routine jobs. “The aim is to free up our engineers to do higher-level thinking,” he says.
Second is the need to keep engineers and staff up to date with rapid changes in technology. Here, Ashok Leyland is tapping external experts as well as reputable academic institutions. Third, the company has to manage the combination of a demanding younger generation coming into the workforce along with millennials and older staff who are already part of the workforce. “Bridging these generational gaps and people’s expectations around work-life balance brings its own challenges,” says Balachandar.
The new EV team is an example of how Ashok Leyland is tackling these issues. Unlike the traditional ways of taking pride in ranks and cabin sizes, the EV team has an open office that is much more amenable to collaboration. “We wanted to keep them separate and incubate them like a startup,” says Rao. The team also has direct access to the managing director, who is the sponsor for the EV project.
(This story appears in the 16 August, 2019 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)