“When we talk about workers, we have managed to get back the numbers; we have mobilised around 260,000 people on sites,” Raman told ET. “But the mix of skill sets is still a challenge because not everybody is capable of doing the kind of work that is required on a given site.”
The pandemic-induced lockdown had resulted in mass migration of labour back to their hometowns, crippling project execution on sites. While many have returned in the last few months, several skilled workers are now afraid to go away from home for work, he said.
L&T’s presence across the country gives it the flexibility to manage people better, Raman said.
Yet, as the company prepares its next five-year strategic plan to be future ready, the two biggest challenges it foresees are: talent management and project execution, he said.
L&T’s financial result for the second quarter of 2021-22, announced on Wednesday, indicated a strong pick up in order execution from the year before, giving the company confidence that it will meet its guidance of low to mid-teens growth in orders and revenues.
Raman said the tendering process has also improved with every quarter, but ordering has slowed.
“As long as normalcy resumes, the urgency that was shown last year to make sure that the economy doesn’t sink into a depression and that people are given an opportunity to get back to work, etc. is not there,” he said.
