Summers is an exciting time in the B-school journey. I too had a mixed bag of feelings and notions about the company and place I was going to. It started with a train journey to Jamshedpur and a stay at the legendary GET hostel. Soon after our orientation session, we were cabbed out to West Bokaro which is a coal mining division of TSL. Here, my project was on “
Cost analysis of Amenities, Impact on employees & business due to outsourcing”. It was a 4-hour drive and my first view of Jharkhand’s enticing countryside.
My stay here was arranged alongside the officer’s bachelor accommodation, which I suppose was the icing on the cake. Here, I made friends, conversed & debated on random topics till late, learned the functional nitty-gritty, lore’s of this industry & life at TSL in general.
My project per se was unique in many ways as it fell under the “Mines Act” which unlike the “Factory Act” is not taught in B-Schools. More so, it included an in-person Morale survey of the employees, understanding the history & economics of the “Food at the workplace”, addressing the statutory obligations & doing a cost analysis of Canteen Operations under different models which in turn could save lakhs of rupees.
The project had a direct impact on employee wellness, productivity & work culture. Here I also got to observe first hand, the I.R scenario & day to day challenges for a BU-HR, the pulls and pressures in a unionized setup mostly directed at impeding change. Further, I even got an opportunity to visit “Jharia”, an underground coal mining location where the movie “Gangs of Wasseypur” was shot. Looking back, it was not all work; there were parties, dine outs, election banter and laughter and the occasional “Why HR”, “HR Why”. In local dietary habits there, I found a high intake of fish.
Going further, I observed that the level of trust in Tata is so deeply entrenched among its employees &and the community it touches (almost like a social norm). Shouldering this trust is a big responsibility for an HR manager, who in turn in common parlance is called P.O (personnel officer) there, a legacy hangover.
In the end, I don’t think I would have come out this enriched from my Summer Internship without the mentorship of my guide and support from the entire staff of West Bokaro, who were approachable throughout my stay.
"If I have any merit, it is getting along with individuals, according to their ways and characteristics. At times, it involves suppressing yourself. It is painful but necessary. To be a leader you have got to lead human beings with affection." - JRD Tata