Human Resource

Development Department-
VSSC
A management project report
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SPACE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Submitted by:

Vinti

SCO7B105

Avionics
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Shri. S Sukesh Kumar

(Sci/Eng.-‘SG’), for his esteemed guidance and supervision. I also owe
special thanks to Smt.J Geetha (Head, HRDD) for her invaluable help and
support. Without their guidance, this report would not have been possible.

I would also like to thank Sanjitha mam and other staff members of VSSC,
for giving a supportive environment that helped in completion of this report.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. SCOPE OF REPORT.................................................................................1

2. THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................2

3. DETAILS OF ORGANISATION..................................................................4

4. METHODOLOGY OF STUDY....................................................................5

5.FINDINGS AND OBSERVATIONS..............................................................6

6. CONCLUSION..........................................................................................9
 SCOPE OF REPORT

Human Resource development is a dynamic process which continues

evolving out new knowledge and practices.HRD has become very important
not only in administrative but also in corporate world. Human resource
development is one of the most dynamic fields within management arena
and there are immense potential within human development. Managing the
human resource development examines the managerial side of HRD, how to
organise, implement and evaluate. It plays a crucial role in preparing and
developing people to meet the challenges of external and internal
changes.HRD helps in building and nurturing culture of excellence and
organisational learning.

This report provides a relevant perception of HRD department in VSSC and

tries to study the current system in use. The HRDD here is responsible for
various human resource management activities. The processes of training
management and a gist of recruitment process, which are the two major
tasks undertaken by the HRDD, have been focused upon in this project and
a sincere effort has been made for the same. Due to the constraint of time,
space and resources available for disclosure by the authorities, only an
outlook of the process has been covered in this report and it provides a basic
idea of how things are done and managed in the current system in use.

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 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

HRD plays an important and effective role in optimising the human

resources towards maximum productivity of the highest quality and
ensuring that the employees grow with the organisation. It plays a
meaningful role in key activities like manpower planning, career planning,
succession and development of workers and managers. The goals of an
effective HRD system is to develop the capabilities of each employee as an
individual in relation to is present role and future expected roles. It also
ensures collaboration among different units of the organisation and promote
inter-team collaboration and aims at maintaining a high motivation level of
the employees. It is imperative for the HRDD to identify the needed activities
and functions and device and organise instruments to facilitate such
activities. Some of these instruments include performance planning,
recruitment, induction training, training, potential appraisal, stress audit
and stress management, worker education programmes, frequent review
meetings etc.

Since a detailed study of each is beyond the scope of this report, it focuses
on human resource training and gives a gist of the recruitment process,
the major activities of the HRDD of organisation under study.

Human resource training is a continuous and on growing process which

involves the following process:

 Develop job standards

 Identify needs.
 Determine objectives
 Develop curriculum
 Select methods and materials
 Obtain instructional resources
 Conduct training
 Evaluate feedback.

A well executed and well- planned training programme helps in personal

growth of the employees and results in wider awareness among participants
by enlarging their knowledge and skills. Formulation of the training policy
should be based on the aims objectives and missions to be accomplished
through training.
2
Recruitment: The recruitment and selection is the major function of the
human resource department and recruitment process is the first step
towards creating the competitive strength and the recruitment stategic
advantage for the organisations. Recruitment process involves a systematic
procedure from sourcing the candidates to arranging and conducting the
interviews and requires many resources and time.

A general recruitment process is as follows:

 Identify vacancy
 Prepare job description and person specification
 Advertising the vacancy
 Managing response
 Short-listing
 Arrange interviews
 Conduct interviews and decision making

Performance appraisal: Performance appraisal, also known as employee

appraisal is a method by which the job performance of an employee is
evaluated. Conducting regular performance appraisals is an important
workforce development strategy for organisations. Performance appraisals
are a systematic way of evaluating the standard of a worker’s performance,
identify professional development needs and know factors in the work
environment that help or hinder performance effectiveness. It reviews each
individual's performance against objectives and standards for the trading
year, agreed at the previous appraisal meeting.

Other important activities that fall under the HRDD include educational
projects and apprentice training, induction programs, employee counselling
etc.

3
 ABOUT VSSC

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) at Thiruvananthpuram, Kerala, a

constituent of the Indian Space Research Organisation is the lead centre for
research on launch vehicle technologies. It undertakes the design,
development, production and operation of the satellite launch vehicles and
sounding rockets. VSSC also develops specialised subsystems required for
spacecrafts to meet the nation’s space technology and application
programme. The major launch vehicles developed in the centre include the
Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV), Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in structured into Projects and entities.

Projects are headed by project directors and the core team of the project
manages various project activities. Entities, apart from being responsible for
project deliverables are the core centres of R&D in their respective area of
specialization.

Management forums are layered into Space Scientific Committee (SSC),

Space Centre Council(SCC) and VSSC Management Council(VCMC). VCMC
is the apex body to review, assess and recommend actions on issues such as
budget, manpower and infrastructure, resource allocation and annual
programmes of VSSC. VCMC assists Director in the overall management of
the centre. SCC is the body which reviews, assesses and recommends
actions on issues such as performance and commitments at group level,
facility creation and augmentation. SSC strengthens inter-disciplinary
interaction among technical disciplines.

VSSC is a certified for complacence to ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management

System requirements. The quality objectives of the Centre are planning,
implementing and maintaining a quality system during design, development,
production and operation of the subsystems and systems in launch vehicles.

4
 METHODOLOGY

In order to begin with the report, a detailed study of human resource

development and its management was required. This called for a rigorous
cramming of several text books, documents and other literature available
regarding the same. Eventually, it gave an idea of the aspects that needed to
be considered when tackling the subject at hand.

The next step in the process was to decide on an organization, on which the
study would be based which happens to be, in this report, VSSC, an ISRO
centre located at Thiruvananthpuram, Kerala. To gather the data necessary
for this dissertation, an idea of how and what things are done at the centre
was required. Consequently, a visit to the Human Resource Development
Department helped in understanding the activities and duties that fall under
this domain. Interaction with the HRDD staff and then a study of the
documents and other texts available gave a clear perception of all the
processes. Some of the details could not be obtained as they were
confidential and controlled documents.

The next step in completion of the report was to consolidate all this
information. Since giving all the details was beyond the scope of this report,
only the key information has been stated which gives an outlook to the
reader regarding the human resource development activities held at VSSC.

5
 FINDINGS AND OBSERVATIONS:

To fulfil the HRDD objectives of facilitating education, training and

development the following process is undergone based on which an annual
calendar is prepared:

 Individual and organizational training needs are evaluated based on

inputs from different departments. Hence the training requirements
are identified after individual inputs have been taken. For this, certain
people or specialists from each department like avionics, control,
communication etc have been identified who provide the feedback
from their respective departments.
 The data generated is consolidated, evaluated and based on these
datas, further discussions and meetings are held to identify important
areas for training.
 Training is organised for some selected topics and arrangements to
send the rest, for which limited number of people (say 5-6) apply, to
training programmes and seminars outside ISRO.
 The topics identified are prioritized based on its requirement,
application and workforce and a training programme is formulated.
 The draft of this is to the management board of VSSC i.e. VCMC and
after receiving their consent to go ahead with the program, an annual
calendar is prepared.

The whole process starts by the month of October or November every year
and the training calendar for the upcoming year is prepared.

For the year 2009, 49 in house training programmes were organised

covering 2294 employees. Different fields were covered, some of which were:

 !3 Technology updatement programs spanning a broad area of topics

including linear and non-linear finite element analysis,
nanotechnology, VHDL, composite product development, explosives,
pyrotechnics and propellants, hydraulic proportional and servo
control systems, operation and maintenance of chemical plant
equipments, computational fluid dynamics etc.
 The 6 management development programmes included pre-retirement
planning, productivity and team work, management development
programs for scientists upgraded to SF and SG grades, internal
auditor training course etc
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  Computer related training programmes included JAVA technology,
MATLAB,IDEAS/CATIA and AutoCAD.
 4 induction training programs were conducted for 630 participants.
 A survey analysis was conducted with senior engineers by an external
management consultant from ASCI to design a customized
management development programme.

For the year 2010 the training calendar prepared includes the following:

 Under technology Updatement Programmes, 14 training programmes

are being organised, some of which are Digital Signal Processing,
Introduction to Process Instrumentation, Electrochemical Energy
Systems, Embedded systems, Risk management etc.
 Some education programs which year held last year are being
continued this year too. These are Advanced Control System Design
and Orientation Programme for technicians.
 Management development programs and 5 Skill Development
Programs are being organised, a few of which are First Aid training,
Pre-Retirement Training, Personality Development Programme for
Technicians, Executive MDP for Managerial Excellence etc.
 Linux, Matlab, Visual Basics COWAA Training are being organised
under computer related programs.
 Apart from these, 7 induction training programs are being organised
for IITP.

HRDD also facilitates external training programs, workshops, seminars etc

for which VSSC personnels are sent for participation. In the year 2009, 723
such employees were sent for external training programs. HRDD, moreover,
provides academic projects to Btech and Mtech/MSc students and provides
apprentice training in different categories of graduate/ technical/ trade
apprentices.
In addition, HRDD provides necessary support for conducting seminars like
national conference on ‘ISRO Women Challengers Ahead’, and Children’s
Science Congress 2010.

Recruitment: Considerable attention from the very beginning is focused on

human resources in ISRO. The personnel at ISRO are categorised in two
categories, Scientific and Technical Staff (S&T) and Administrative.

Recruitment to posts in scale of pay of Rs4000-6000 and below is based on

7
nomination of Employment Exchange. For grades below Rs 8000-13500,
recruitment is made by advertisement in local an regional newspapers as
well as on the website www.isro.gov.in.

Recruitment of Sci/Engr-SC is done by centralized system administered by

recruitment planning committee (RPC).Live Register System seeks
application from PhDs for possible recruitments and when vacancies arise in
SD grade and it is an ongoing process. Special recruitment is made in
exceptional circumstances with special approval of Chairman ISRO, on case-
to-case basis particularly when NRIs with special expertise are available. For
recruitment to the post of Sci/Engr-SE and above, norms are prescribed
whenever appointments are required to be made. Age limit for Sci/Eng-SC
and below is 35 yrs and there is no age limit for higher levels.

Performance Appraisal: At present ISRO is having the Annual Confidential

Report (ACR) method of implementing the appraisal system. At the end of
every year all employees fill the self appraisal form wherein they elaborate
their achievements in last year. Further the form goes to the Divisional
Head/Reporting Officer who has the right to appraise or amend the contents
of this form. Further the form is passed to higher authorities for their
recommendations.

8
 CONCLUSION

From the brief study that was done about the Human Resource
Development Department, it can be concluded that at VSSC, employee’s
needs and requirements are well assessed and significant amount of effort is
put by the responsible people to cater to these needs. To facilitate this
process, various training programs, seminars, induction training programs
for newly recruited staff and projects are planned and conducted. A holistic
solution is devised to meet the needs which cover not only technological
aspects but managerial, psychological and educational aspects are also
given considerable importance.

Since recruitment and performance appraisal have been covered as

independent topics and come under independent departments at ISRO,
never the less, being HRD topics, only a basic idea of these processes have
been stated in this report. From what has been studied, it can be concluded
that the Human Resource Development Department at VSSC is very efficient
and well-organised and quite relevant in assuring that a harmonious and
growing work environment is maintained in the organisation which is
definitely a pre requisite for success of individuals as well as the whole
organisation.