Bharat  Electronics, the navaratna public sector under the ministry of defence, is planning to recruit 400 engineers additionally during the current financial year to augment its technical capabilities. The move is aimed at keeping in tune with the company's futuristic growth outlook.

M L Shanmukh, director (human resources), BEL, said that the company has planned to go around the engineering colleges across the country to recruit fresh talent.

With this BEL's headcount is likely to go past 12,800. In 2007-08, the company added 435 employees. "To compete with global firms, we should have the right talent. The challenge before us is to recruit and retain right talent within the constraints faced by a PSU and also create value. In this direction, we have reworked our hiring strategy and going around the campuses to recruit fresh talent," he said.

Last year, BEL spent close to 15.38 per cent of its annual turnover or Rs 633 crore (Rs 6.33 billion) as manpower cost. Today, the company is offering an entry-level salary package of Rs 500,000 to its technical staff, which is comparable to the salaries offered to freshers by the technology companies.

"We are able to attract and retain good people by paying them handsome package, 6 months of on-job training and other facilities such as food, uniform among others. By adopting this strategy, we have been able to bring down the rate of attrition from 5.10 per cent in 2005-06 to 4.80 per cent in 2007-08," Shanmukh said.

As part of its efforts to retain key technical personnel, BEL has chalked out various new programmes such as deputing important engineers for management training at reputed institutes such as Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, International Management Institute, Delhi, and Project Management Institute in Bangalore.

At present, about 100 key engineers of the company are undergoing project management training at the Bangalore centre of Project Management Institute, an American institution offering certifications. "Our aim is to keep our engineers ready to take up the jobs emerging out of new business areas. The PMI training will help them execute orders effectively in a time-bound manner," Shanmukh said. The company is spending around Rs 33,000 per engineer for PMI training.