The Hindu Business Line : Armed forces, a hothouse of talent to tap into

Second carreer
Armymen trained in logistics could fit in supply chain management functions in the corporate world.
Since armymen dealt with people “24x365”, they would make “excellent HR people”.

Our Bureau

Chennai, July 11 Each year, about 60,000 people from armed forces come out of services. They are able-bodied, well trained and disciplined and are looking for a second career. There are engineers and experts in a range of functions such as logistics, HR and intelligence — a huge pool for the industry to tap into.

This was the substance of a seminar on ‘Defence-Industry partnership in Human Resource Management’, held here today jointly by industry bodies and Directorate General Resettlement (DGR), Ministry of Defence. The seminar was inaugurated by the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala.

The Director-General Resettlement, Major General Harwant Krishnan, told Business Line on the sidelines of the seminar that a large part of the industry was not aware of this talent pool. The directorate, he said, was taking steps to bring together the retiring servicemen and the potential employers. Speaking later, Commodore Ranjan Seth, Principal Director, Employment, DGR, said that the corporate world, once aware of the talent pool, was very enthusiastic. Mr Sajjan Jindal of the OP Jindal group, he said, had recently offered to take the entire 60,000 retiring people into employment.

The issues discussed at the seminar included whether ex-servicemen, who, having been away from their homes for 15-20 years, would be willing to work anywhere, whether they would fit into the corporate culture after being used to a hierarchical and do-as-you-are-told culture of the armed forces and whether their age would matter and what could be done to re-orient them to suit the corporate world.

Human resource

Brig (Retd) T.M. Sridharan, CEO & Board Member, Hinduja group, noted that ex-servicemen were “excellent, trained, human resource”. He said that the Government spent close to Rs 15 lakh in training a recruit “before he fires his first bullet”.

Brig Sridharan said (and other speakers agreed) that the ex-servicemen, not being too young, tend to stick to a job and hence help check attrition. Wing Commander (Retd) T.R. Shankaran, Consultant, Training, Reliance Retail, stressed that there were a number of jobs that ex-servicemen could fit into, with a little re-orientation. For example, people trained in logistics could fit in supply chain management functions. Those who have worked in army intelligence and military police would fit in fraud detection.

Above all, ex-servicemen, having dealt with people “24x365”, made excellent HR professionals, he said. Two other speakers, Mr K. Ganesan, Global Head, Learning & Development and M&A, TCS, and Mr S. Ganguly, General Manager (Pers & HR) L&T, agreed that ex-servicemen were “excellent HR people”.

All speakers stressed on the need for re-orientation. Mr Ganguly said that ex-servicemen needed to be more cost-conscious in the industry. Mr Ganesan noted that they could face a culture-shock in flat organisations, where rank was no material. He offered that TCS could take ex-servicemen on paid internship for about six months without any obligation on the internees to continue.

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