Junior Managers Program by Bosch

Junior Managers Program

The Junior Managers Program (JMP) is the most-prestigious program run by Bosch for mid-level managers. It is aimed at nurturing MBAs from the Top 20 B-Schools who are likely to be tomorrow’s Bosch executives for accelerated international careers. Challenging projects, responsibilities, a global network as well as intensive on- and off- the job training help the associates prepare for senior management responsibilities early in their career. This 24-month rotational program, modelled after a training program in Germany, has produced many top executives over the past 30 years. “The JMP is an excellent program for those people who have a strong learning orientation and like new challenges, Bosch being the huge MNC that it is, never fails to keep raising the bar for employees who want to keep growing and learning.

Technical Managers Training

Technical Managers Training is especially targeted at associates hired from top ranking engineering colleges. It aims to strike right balance of theoretical and practical subject matter ensuring optimum ‘real world’ application for various workshop needs. At Bosch, it is believed that a technician who has the ability to diagnose problems quickly and accurately increases the efficiency of the workshop, gives greater customer satisfaction and in turn results in greater profit. Fitting the right person to the right job is the key to success here. Growth opportunities and the constant learning that such initiatives have to offer have helped Bosch Limited build a reputation for talent management, helping it attract the best candidates on campus apart from retaining and nurturing them. This culture prompts associates to deliver beyond expectations, by working and contributing to the best of their ability.

Bosch Vocational Centre

By bridging the gap in the technical talent space, Bosch Limited has managed to succeed where others fail. The need for skilled manpower has given rise to the need for vocational training. To cater to this need, Bosch Limited has a full-fledged training centre to bridge this gap and develop a reservoir of skilled personnel required to produce quality products on sophisticated machines. Apprentices straight out of matriculation are recruited and trained at this state-of- the-art vocational centre famously referred to as the Bosch Vocational Centre.

On an average Bosch in India hires around 150 graduate apprentices a year. These apprentices are given ample amount of training along with a stipend. At the end of the course they are mostly absorbed on the payrolls of the company. By hiring them young, Bosch is able to mould them and infuse in them the Bosch culture as well as the habit of delivering and maintaining high quality standards.

At its training centres in Bangalore, Nashik, Naganathpura and Jaipur, Bosch provides hands on training experience. These apprentices are guided by industry experts in the latest curriculum as per industry needs. Young engineering graduates receive exposure to training programs that are in line with the requirements of the industry. At these facilities, training is also provided to existing associates and business partners on the latest in technology and Bosch standards of production.

Talent Retention

BMS

An organization that focuses on nurturing talent also runs the risk of losing it. Every time associates retire, the company loses valuable expertise. Bosch wants to utilize the experience of retired executives and offer them the option of a “second career.” Bosch Management Services makes use of the skills of retired associates aged between 60 and 75.

These resources are paid a consultancy fee, which is lower than what is paid to external consultants. This gives the company the benefits of getting access to a ready and trained talent pool at short notice. The knowledge bank that this initiative gives Bosch access to is phenomenal since each of the consultants have three to four decades of work experience at Bosch and know the company thoroughly. This helps smoothen workload management and allows ex-employees to cope better with aging and retirement.

Total Rewards

Bosch has scaling system from 1-5 which rates performance – 1 being given for best performance and 5 for below average performance. The ratings given to people is relative within a team. That is, a rating of 2 is given to not more than 2 people in the same team. The bonuses are attached to this rating and the employees are rewarded according to their salary band. The employees also get a percentage of the company’s profit when the company performs really well.

Fair Compensation

At Bosch they conduct regularly a market study to understand better, the salaries offered in the market. Salaries are compared against salaries in the industry and individual performance is evaluated each year to offer fair and competitive salaries to all employees.

Our Employee Suggestion Scheme

Bosch welcomes employee ideas. Suggestions that deliver results, such as optimized processes, waste elimination, improved product quality or relating to health safety and environment, are rewarded with bonuses of up to Rs. 60,000. The success we have demonstrated in gathering associates’ ideas and putting them into practice has helped us reduce costs in a large number of areas over the years.

Support for Miscellaneous Tasks: at the workplace

We want to support our associates also in their extra-work duties. That’s why in some sites we offer dedicated services such as laundry, home appliances repair, or tailoring at attractive low prices. Moreover, through this service our associates don’t have to care anymore about duties such as payments of bills, policies and fines, courier, booking movie tickets or even shopping for basic groceries.

Our benefits programs are flexible, competitive and comprehensive. They are structured so that you can make the choices that make sense to you and your family at that point in time. Our comprehensive coverage includes deputation with family, medical coverage, and different sorts of life insurances that will benefit your family, along with all the other standard compensations and benefits. The difference is that we care.

Talent Retention:

Reference:

http://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hr/interviews/1014824/interview-andrew-castle-hr-director-bosch#sthash.0lcqCmRr.dpuf

Business Verticals of Robert Bosch:

1. Mobility Solutions
2. Consumer Goods
3. Industrial Technology
4. Energy and Building Technology

The company that we studied was Bosch India Pvt Ltd., which has the following structure:

The HR vertical in Bosch has the following functions:

1. Communication
2. Knowledge Management
3. Organisational Development
4. Manpower Inventory
5. Training and Development
6. Performance Management
7. Employee Potential Development

Recruiting:

One of the main functions in HR being recruiting, is done through the following process.

• First, they set their long term strategies (say for 3-5 years)
• They forecast the manpower needed to achieve the strategy
• Then they check the actual numbers and compare it with the forecast
• These numbers are distributed based on lower, middle and upper management
• The staffing need is then accounted for the headcount fluctuation, backfill, additional needs from M&A projects etc.
• Finally, the total number of people required for every level is ascertained

Then they go through a recruiting process which is typical recruiting process conducted for engineers which starts with an aptitude test and then a technical test followed by an interview to test the candidate’s technical and inter-personal skills.

This is a campus recruitment process; the process of recruiting middle and higher-level management will be different though. For middle level management, there are different methods in which the candidates are selected that are discussed in another section.

One interesting fact about Bosch is that they very rarely recruit for a higher-level management post; under unavoidable circumstances. This is because, Bosch believes in long term association with the employees and those who are in the higher posts are generally the ones who got promoted. Bosch also believes that these employees are the ones that understand the company’s position better and can take better decisions.

The career ladder in Bosch looks like this:

Manager of Self

Manager of Others

Manager of mangers

Function Manager

Business Manager

Group Manager

Enterprise Manager

Bosch emphasizes on potential than on performance.

The definition of “potential” in the Bosch group is:

“Development potential is the ability of the manager to successfully cope with tasks which have not yet been assigned to him/her”

They believe that a clear definition of potential is necessary to align the understanding between silos in the organization. Performance is contextual and it is indicative of potential. High performance doesn’t translate to leadership potential.