Tata Steel has been ranked sixth at the 'Best Employers in India 2003'Award Function held in Mumbai today. Mr. Niroop Mahanty, VP (HRM) Tata Steel, received the award from His Excellency Mr. Mohammad Fazal, the Governor of Maharashtra. "We are delighted to be recognized by the prestigious Hewitt-Business Today survey for the Best Employers in India. This is a milestone in our journey, which has not been an easy one, since steel is generally seen as having more of an IR as opposed to an HR focus. Tata Steel's standing today is based on robust people processes, which are administered with total transparency. Such transformation can only be possible with committed support from the top management and in that we are fortunate that our CEO is in fact the 'Chief HR Manager' for the Company! " Said Mr. Niroop Mahanty, Vice President, HR, Tata Steel. Over the years, Tata Steel has made substantial investments in human resource development and training. Screening for the Best Employers in India is conducted by Messer's Hewitt Associates and Business Today each year, where several companies, including multinationals in India, are assessed. The applicant companies are assessed on the following attributes: recruitment, development & learning, work environment, rewards and recognition, health and well being, balancing work & personal life, financial security, and organisation information. Responses were taken from over a thousand officers in Tata Steel and the CEO after which Hewitt Associates sent a team to assess the HR systems in the organisation. Securing a position in this survey is extremely significant for corporate houses, but it was decidedly easier for a company like Tata Steel, which has been a pioneer in introducing and promoting various human resources, related initiatives long before they were made statutory. The eight hour day, free medical aid, establishment of a welfare department, leave with pay, provident fund, workmen's accident compensation, technical training, maternity benefits, gratuity, social audit, pension scheme are some of the measures that were first instituted in Tata Steel. Of late, several initiatives have been taken to further improve the motivation levels and participation in the decision making process of the officers, greater impetus to training through a formalised system of a personal development programme, talent review and job rotation systems, compensation linked to the performance management system, formal rewards and recognition systems, knowledge management systems linked with appraisals, leadership opportunities in quality circles, continuous improvement and value engineering programmes and an extremely transparent and credible multi-path communication system to address queries and concerns of all employees through various dialogues both formal and online, with such tools as video conferencing, "MD Online", special dialogues with senior management, meetings, conferences and seminars. These initiatives have helped to build a homogeneous and focused team in Tata Steel, increased motivation and binding to the vision of the company and spurred employees to deliver targets on a participatory management basis leading to ownership of processes. Tata Steel is a company that has a deeply rooted and ingrained value system and has a strong philosophy of Total Returns to the Community (TRC), we are one of the very few business houses to have a formal, documented moral and social Code of Conduct, Ethics Counselor and coordinators. It actively promotes freedom to work, freedom to innovate and even the freedom to fail. It is a nimble, fast, modern and forward-looking company on a strong growth path. The Steel Company has undergone a revolutionary change in terms of its production facilities and the technology in the manufacturing process. These changes have resulted in creating greater opportunities for taking up newer challenges for young recruits work and for performance based on IT enabled systems and high levels of automation. These have led to making the company one of the lowest cost producers of steel and the only Indian company to be recognised by the World Steel Dynamics as one of the top most " World Class" steel makers. Tata Steel hopes not only to consolidate but better its leadership by robust leadership development systems that have seen the company create many CEOs for other companies, Tata Power's FA Vandrevala, Tata Chemicals' PK Ghosh, TQMS' J. Ardershir, Tata Metaliks'Mr. HK Jha, Tata Incorporated's Bharat Wahklu, Telcon's Rana Sinha, Tata International's S. Deoras, Tata Limited's SA Hassan, to name a few, have all been nurtured and fostered at Tata Steel.