Rural Employee Engagement

Companies faced with a shortage of hands in service-oriented, labour-intensive sectors such as retail, marketing, construction and primary healthcare are heading to the rural hinterland to hire workers, with a bit of help from the government.

In a public private participation (PPP) arrangement with the rural development ministry, India's largest organised retailer, Future Group, will train and place 32,000 below-poverty-line youth from rural areas in 19 states over the next 18 months.

And Future Group is not the only one hiring from rural areas. Many companies such as the Aditya Birla group, Hindustan Unilever , Reliance Telecom , McDonald's and Adidas have sourced staff trained by government-assisted rural placement agencies to meet their requirement for skilled and semi-skilled workers.

Companies like IL&FS and organisations like the Apparel Export Promotion Council that need people with manufacturing and construction skills have also entered into agreements with the government and put up training and placement departments for rural youth.

The government has backed such initiatives with a special projects scheme under the Swarnjayanti Swarojgar Yojna, re-launched recently as the National Rural Livelihood Mission , under which it extends 75% support to companies to build training infrastructure and placement facilities for rural youth.

"This has picked up in the last two years and we are looking at ways to increase such facilities in backward districts. In two years, 2.5 lakh people have been placed in various companies and it will pick up," said T Vijay Kumar, a joint secretary in the rural development ministry.

The reason companies are warming up to the idea of investing in rural human resource is the unwillingness of urban youth to take up these jobs.

According to Muralidhar Rao, chief executive officer of Future Human Development Ltd , Future's requirement is also matched with the enthusiasm of the youth in rural areas. "These people are untouched by the urban retail revolution. They are enthusiastic and have aspirations. This creates tremendous potential," he says .(Source: Economic Times)