Mercedes-Benz India scores a zero!

Mercedes-Benz India wants to score a 10-on-10 when it comes to brand preference by luxury car customers. But it is more than happy with its score of zero when it comes to employee attrition in its team of blue-collared employees.

The German luxury carmaker started operations in India with a team of around 120 shopfloor employees. According to Eberhard Kern, MD and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, all of them continue to work in the company, which will turn 20 next year. This is in sharp contrast to some companies in the Indian auto industry which have faced labour-related problems. It’s not that Mercedes-Benz had a cakewalk so far. The carmaker faced situations where there were differing opinions between the workforce and the management, but they were resolved through successful negotiations. “Of course, we have our discussions with our union as well. It’s quite tough. There are two different positions, of course. But we have to find the solutions. So far, we have always able to find mutual solutions,” says Kern. That may be helping the company to make a claim of not losing a single day of production thus far.

As the company grows, and along with it the workforce, the challenge for Mercedes-Benz India to select and retain skilled employees to build its highly engineered cars will grow bigger. The carmaker is in the process of investing Rs 850 crore, which includes doubling its annual production capacity to 20,000 units by the end of 2014. The size of the shopfloor workforce which has gone up to 450, deepening on production levels, will also grow significantly. The company is also banking on the employees who have grown with the company to meet the challenge. “These are the people who then help us to train these people as well,” says Piyush Arora, senior vice-president – operations, plant management, Mercedes-Benz India. Some of them have also gone to train people in Mercedes- Benz’s operations in China, Iran and Vietnam.  

Clearly, this is an impressive story on the blue-collared employee base. But what is the attrition rate among the white-collared employees at Mercedes-Benz India? “There’s some attrition, but it is very low,” signs off Kern.