BHEL’s Participative Culture Pays Rich Dividends; Employees’ Suggestions Lead to Savings of Rs.400 Million in 2004-05.

Engineering major Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), has achieved significant savings of nearly Rs.400 Million during fiscal 2004-05, due to implementation of employee suggestions. The suggestion scheme was introduced with a view to institutionalize the culture of excellence in the company and to motivate its human resource - the most valuable asset to give competitive advantage in the fiercely competitive and rapidly changing business environment.

During the year, more than 57,000 suggestions were contributed by employees, out of which nearly 20,000 were found viable and were accepted.

BHEL employees’ zeal to excel supported by the company’s constant encouragement has also resulted in its employees winning a sizeable number of 40 prestigious Prime Minister's Shram Awards so far. These awards are the country’s highest honour bestowed on individuals for outstanding achievements leading to higher productivity, improved quality, greater safety and foreign exchange savings.

Significantly, this year, among Public and Private sector companies, the highest number of eight Shram Awards have been won by 14 BHEL employees. This includes the solitary Shram Bhushan awarded this year, also the highest award in the series declared this year.

Ingrained in all the employees of the company, the culture of excellence has culminated in a BHEL employee, Mr. B.L. Chouksey, being conferred one of the country’s highest civilian honours - ‘Padmashri’ for the year 2005, by the President of India, for his valuable contribution in the field of science and engineering.

A pioneer in Human Resource Development in India, BHEL realises the value of quality human resources and that the development of this critical resource has become imperative, in view of a business environment where globalisation, competition, customer expectations, fast pace of change and new economic policies pose serious challenges.

Aimed at encouraging individuals to take up improvement projects for capability building and for continuous improvement in every sphere of activity, an Improvement Projects Rewards Scheme (IMPRESS), has been introduced company-wide. The scheme is e-network based and has a very well defined, structured modus operandi. The scheme provides weightage for various aspects like relevance to the department, innovation/creativity, meeting targets, institutionalization, deployability and financial impact.