PROJECT REPORT ON

“BENCHMARKING AND REVAMPING OF HIGHER EDUCATION

POLICY AT RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LIMITED”

SUBMITTED BY
Alka Balakrishnan
SPECIALIZATION
Human Resources
Roll No: 181068

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF MASTERS

IN MANAGEMENT STUDIES
BATCH 2018-2020

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

DR. BETTY SIBIL

PILLAI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES AND RESEARCH

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BENCHMARKING AND REVAMPING OF HIGHER
EDUCATION POLICY AT RELIANCE INDUSTRIES
LIMITED

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 DECLARATION

I, Alka Balakrishnan studying in Pillai Institute of Management Studies and Research, hereby
declare that the presented report of Internship title Benchmarking and Revamping of Higher
Education Policy at Reliance is uniquely prepared by me after completion of two months of
internship in Reliance Industries Limited under the able guidance of Mr. Saurav Gupta. No
part of this report has been submitted for any degree, diploma and title of recognition before.

I also confirm that the report is only prepared for my academic requirement not for any other
purpose.

Date: _______________ Signature: _______________

Place: _______________ Name: __________________

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 CERTIFICATE FROM INSTITUTE

This is to certify that project title Benchmarking and Revamping of Higher Education Policy
at Reliance Industries Limited has been successfully completed by Ms. Alka Balakrishnan
during the III Semester in partial fulfillment of the degree Masters in Management Studies by
University of Mumbai for the academic year 2018- 20 through Pillai Institute of Management
Studies and Research.

Name: ________________________ Signature of the Guide

Date: _________________________ Dr. Betty Sibil

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PROJECT COMPLETION CERTIFICATE FROM ORGANIZATION

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Nothing could be accomplished alone. I am highly grateful to my respected faculty guide

Prof. Betty Sibil who supervised me to complete the summer internship report. My special
thanks to Mr. Saurav Gupta, Reliance Industries Limited who guided me during my
internship in Reliance. He helped me understand the benchmarking process for higher
education policy and gave an exposure to the processes followed by other competitor
companies and come to a conclusion that how to retain the employees in an organization. I
also convey my thanks to the management of Reliance Industries Limited, Ghansoli and the
staff for their friendly support.

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The purpose of the report is to give a brief overview on Benchmarking of Higher Education
Schemes of various companies.
It is a widely known and accepted fact that employee retention is a growing requirement for
any business sector. Reliance Industries Ltd defines retention as a result that is achieved by
stimulating employees to use the Company policies to leverage their knowledge, skills and
abilities.
This report aims at understanding the inputs from Reliance Industries who bears of the brunt
of being one of the best Employee Centric Companies and also at the same time; making a
real view statement of the comparison to other competitors in the industry. This report
highlights issues of attrition, studies of benchmarking and an analysis of how the Industry
thrives on its expectation of returns from the support that it provides to its employees in an
effort to oblige to their social responsibilities.
The project encompasses the industry & company analysis which contains PESTEL, Porter’s
Five Forces Analysis, SWOT Analysis, BCG & Ansoff Matrix and 7S Framework
respectively.
The researcher aims to provide a perspective to Reliance Industries Ltd and its various
policies which impact its Commercial construct.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sr. No Topic Page No.
PART A
1. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT 1
2. BRIEF COMPANY PROFILE
2.1 Organization History in brief 2
2.2 Brief details of the Top Management 2
2.3 Size of the Organization 3
2.4 Vision and Mission of the Organization 4
3. INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
3.1 PESTEL 5
3.2 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis 8
4. COMPANY ANALYSIS
4.1 SWOT Analysis 10
4.2 7S Framework 12
4.3 BCG Matrix 16
4.4 Ansoff Matrix 19
PART B
5. INTRODUCTION
5.1 Nature of Problem 20
5.2 Objectives of the Study 21
5.3 Utility of the Study 21
5.4 Limitations of the Study 21
6. METHODOLOGY
6.1 Approach (Qualitative) 22
6.2 Sources of Data 22
6.3 Method of data collection 22
6.4 Size of Samples and Method of sampling 23
6.5 Method of data analysis 23
7. CONTEXT OF INDUSTRY PROBLEM 24
8. PRESENTATIONS OF DATA 25
9. ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION 27
10 CONCLUSIONS 29
PART C – LEARNING AND TAKEAWAYS
1. Application of concepts, tools, techniques and skills at 30
PIMSR
2. Any augmentation of soft skills 30
3. Any directions for future learning or career path that you 31
may like to pursue.
REFERENCES 32

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 PART A

1. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT

BENCHMARKING AND REVAMPING HIGHER EDUCATION

POLICY

Benchmarking is a process of measuring the performance of a company’s products, services,

or processes against those of another business considered to be the best in the industry, aka
“best in class.” The point of benchmarking is to identify internal opportunities for
improvement. By studying companies with superior performance, breaking down what makes
such superior performance possible, and then comparing those processes to how your
business operates, you can implement changes that will yield significant improvements.

Higher Education Policy is a policy provided to the employees working in an organization in

order to enhance their knowledge, skills and abilities according to the changing technology
and working environment and have better opportunities to be beneficial for the organization.
Talented employees are always known as the human asset of the company. To create the
value of that human asset one needs to be updated with the current working environment and
other factors affecting them.

The main objective of the study is to evaluate the Reliance Higher Education Programme and
explore opportunities to make the programme more aligned and beneficial for the young
aspirations of talented employees.

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 2. BRIEF COMPANY PROFILE

2.1 ORGANIZATION HISTORY:

The company was co-founded by Dhirubhai Ambani and Champaklal Damani in 1960's as
Reliance Commercial Corporation. In 1973, it became Reliance Industries Limited. In 2001,
Reliance Industries Ltd. and Reliance Petroleum Ltd. became India's two largest companies
in terms of all major financial parameters. In 2006, Reliance entered the organized retail
market in India with the launch of its retail store format under the brand name of 'Reliance
Fresh'. By the end of 2008, Reliance retail had close to 600 stores across 57 cities in India. In
2010, Reliance entered the broadband services market with acquisition of Infotel Broadband
Services Limited. In 2017, RIL set up a joint venture with Russian Company Sibur for setting
up a Butyl rubber plant in Jamnagar, Gujarat, to be operational by 2018.

2.2 BRIEF DETAILS OF TOP MANAGEMENT:

Chairman and MD Mukesh D.Ambani

Non-executive, Non Independent Director Nita M.Ambani

Executive Director Hital R.Meswani

Executive Director Nikhil R.Meswani

Executive Director P.M.S. Prasad

Executive Director P.K. Kapil

Independent Director R.A. Mashelkar

Independent Director Adil Zainulbhai

Independent Director Mansingh L.Bhakta

Independent Director Dipak C.Jain

Independent Director Yogendra P. Trivedi

Independent Director Raminder S. Gujral

Independent Director Shumeet Banerji

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2.3 SIZE OF THE ORGANIZATION:

Employees:

As on 31 March 2018, the company had 29,533 permanent employees of which 1,521 were
women and 70 were employees with disabilities. It also had 158,196 temporary employees on
the same date which makes a total of 187,729 employees. As per its Sustainability Report for
2011–12, the attrition rate was 7.5%. But currently, the same attrition rate has gone up to
23.4% in March 2015 as per latest report released by the organization.

In its 39th Annual General Meeting, its chairman informed the shareholders of the investment
plans of the company of about ₹1,500 billion (US$22 billion) in the next three years. This
would be accompanied by increasing the staff strength in Retail division from existing
strength of 35,000 to 120,000 in next 3 years and increasing employees in Telecom division
from existing 3,000 to 10,000 in 12 months.

Number of employees 187,729 (2018)

Turnover:

Revenue ₹622,809 crore (US$90 billion) (2019)

Operating
₹92,656 crore (US$13 billion) (2019)
income

Net income ₹39,588 crore (US$5.7 billion) (2019)

₹1,002,406 crore (US$140 billion)

Total assets
(2019)

Geographical Spread:

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is an Indian conglomerate holding company

headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Reliance owns businesses across India
engaged in energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail, and
telecommunications. Reliance is one of the most profitable companies in India, the largest
publicly traded company in India by market capitalization.

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2.4 VISION AND MISSION OF RELIANCE:

Reliance’s vision is:

 To be our clients’ ’first call’ and preferred collaboration partner within our business areas
 To consistently exceed our clients’ expectations for professional and value-adding advice

Our objective is long-standing and trustful client relationships created via excellent advice
and service.

Reliance’s mission is:

 To provide the best and most value-adding advice within investor relations, financial
communications, media relations, crisis communications, issues management and CSR
reporting
 To be an independent sparring-partner and to provide excellent advice for our clients in
connection with IPOs, ECM and M&A transactions, corporate governance-related issues
as well as in connection with preparations of contingency communications plans
regarding public takeovers

Reliance’s activities shall be of benefit for both our clients, collaboration partners, employees
and shareholders.

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 3. INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

3.1 PESTLE:

POLITICAL:

Political factors are represented by the influence of a political entity (party, country,
organizations or other type of faction) on the national level, regional level or international
level. The oil industry has a great influence on transport capacity, energy production,
industrial production, chemical production, agriculture and social welfare. The most influent
organization in oil production is OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries)
who has more than 42.8% of world oil production. Political parties influence the petroleum
industries by imposing state strategy for electoral or economic gains. The non-governmental
organizations influence the oil market by promoting anti-pollution campaigns or
liberalization of the fuel market. Paramilitary factions use influence on oil industry for
blackmailing or for imposing some fees in territories that are controlled by them, cutting the
transport of oil for political gains. Oil companies can have influence on political factors in
regions or countries were oil in primary source of making income and in regions or countries
were the energy resource are scarce and attracting additional one is need for good function of
economic activities.

ECONOMICAL:

Economic factors are represented by the: influences of the supply and demand on the oil
price; influences of the supply or demand of the complementary goods; influence of the
supply and demand of substitute resources; the USD exchange rate (petrol-dollar policy); the
price of the oil barrel on the important stock exchanges; economic situation on regional and
global stages; value of the known reserves, interest rate for financing; value of stock market
indexes (DOW Jones, Standard & Poor). The demand for fuels is influenced by variation of
transport activities (road, rail, aviation, naval) that represent almost 60% (OPEC, 2011),
petrochemical industry, other industries, agriculture and energy production. Petrochemical
industry represents approximately 10% of total oil demand and the products that are produced
by this industry are: plastics, synthetic fibres, synthetic rubber, detergents, paints, adhesives,
aerosols, insecticides, pharmaceuticals and others.

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SOCIAL:

Social factors are represented by demography, culture, ethnic structure, religion structure,
inter-cultural relation, structure of family, ideological view, literacy, urbanization, income
distribution, migration, use of communication technology, cultural view to the different
products. All around the world, do not exist a culture that is against oil exploitation and for
using the oil products, most of the population saw the oil industry like a necessity for
development and welfare, but are segments within the population who see the oil industry as
an important factor of pollution of the environment. In the countries were populations are
more friendly with environment; government imposes pollution fees and pollution reduction
laws and norms to petroleum industry, and complementary industries. Many companies
which make complementary products, like cars, invest in reduction of fuel consumptions or
start to produce hybrid products. In the developing countries, population see the need for
development and growing rate of welfare more important than environment protection; they
accept the pollution like a cost for economic growth. Petroleum industry has a great impact
on social welfare, because it fuels the transports and electricity production, activities that
have a great impact on human development, production of goods and services and
communication. Electric vehicles are the other factor which would make a huge impact on
the oil and gas industry, as the need or usage of fuel would be reduced.

TECHNOLOGICAL:

In oil industry, the technologies are used exploration, in exploitation, transport( roads, oil
tanks, pipelines), in refineries, in storage, in promoting marketing strategies, in selling; in
researching and development of the brand-new products or in upgrading the old ones, in
reducing the time of production the losses from the production process. Secondary
technologies and techniques could be used in environment protection, worker’s protection, in
improving the efficiency of the management by using of new software and hardware,
improving the maintaining and repairing activities. All these factors could be used against an
oil company, if a rival company owns them like a competitive advantage. Technologies that
influence the oil company from outside the oil industry can influence entire oil industry
(upstream and downstream). These technologies are represented by the complementary
products and substitutable products. The complementary products influence the demand for
oil by developing technologies that will reduce the consumption of oil products or replaced
them with other a substitutable product. The complementary products are represented by auto
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vehicles, airplanes, ships, petrochemicals (plastics, synthetic fibres, synthetic rubber,
detergents, paints, adhesives, aerosols, insecticides and pharmaceuticals), energy, agricultural
product or other industrial products. The substitutable products are represented by-products
of the rest of energy industries. These industries are: the coal industry, natural-gas industry
(which includes the new shale gas industry), nuclear industry, biomass industry, hydro
industry and other renewable-energy industry (solar, wind, geothermal).

LEGAL:

Legal factors influence the modalities of exploration, of exploitation, of the refiner, of

transportation and of commercialization of oil and oil products. The legal factors also impose
laws and regulations for pollution, social protection, work protection, work regulation,
competition regulation, anti-trust regulation, consumer protection, international trade (trade
agreements between nations or embargoes to some countries), subsidies, the taxes( like the
excise rates for fuels and oil price or taxes and fees over profit to the energy companies).

ENVIRONMENTAL:

Environment factors are represented by the geographical position, landform, climate, fauna,
flora, rock structure and natural resource that are in case of petroleum companies represented
by oil reserves. Geographic position influence the activity of oil companies because it defines
the distances between exploitation, refiners and consumers or could influence the demand for
oil because of transports, international trade and migration. Climate influences the difficulty
of oil exploitation in time of the cold season in north climates, or hot seasons of desert
climate, demand for oil grown in winter because of low speed traffic or energy consumption.
Flora and fauna influence cost oil exploitation because of existing of the oil reserves in
natural parks, or because of existing difficult access area because of vegetation and dangerous
animals. One specification of the environmental factors is represented by natural disasters:
hurricanes, tornados, cyclones, snow storms, sand storms, extreme temperatures, earthquakes,
tsunamis, volcanic eruption that could make material loss and casualties, but could disturb
economic activities. Economic activities that could be disturbed are road, rail, naval, air
traffic, could decline the demand for unnecessary goods and raise the demand for the primary
need goods like water, food, pharmaceutics, construction materials, fuels, clothes.

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 3.2 MICHAEL PORTER’s FIVE FORCES MODEL FOR
ANALYZING PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY

1. Threat of Substitutes- Moderate: Polymers allow better performance than substitutes in

most applications. However, polymers are non- biodegradable. So, environmental concerns
persist. Fibre intermediaries are used for manufacture of fibres and polymers (which have
better properties than substitutes).The main alternatives sources to oil and gas for producing
energy which used for electricity, transportation, heating, etc. are Nuclear Energy, Coal,
Hydrogen, Bio fuels and other renewable sources such as solar and wind energy. These
alternative sources of energy can replace a high amount of hydrocarbons use in the global
energy mix according to their performance, quality and price of course. This strategy requires
a big amount of investments in R&D and producing procedures, so the possibility for
substitutes to dominate the global energy mix until 2040 is moderate.

2. Inter- Firm Rivalry- Moderate: Fragmentation low in the domestic industry. Rivalry is
cyclical in nature. It was high in the polymer industry when it was in overcapacity. But is
reducing now with reduction in extent of overcapacity. Apart from prices, players compete on
quality of product, credit terms, and technological support provided to the buyer (processor).
The competitiveness of oil and gas industry and especially in the upstream sector
(Exploration and Production) of the industry is significantly intensive.

3. Bargaining Power of Buyers – Low: Buyers of most products belong to the small- scale
industry which has low entry barriers. Also, these buyers are dependent on large
petrochemical companies for technological support. The main buyers of oil and gas products
are: Refineries, National Oil Companies, International Oil and Gas Companies, Traders,
Countries (USA, China, Japan, countries of the EU, etc.) The bargaining power of buyers in
oil and gas industry is relatively low due to the nature of this industry. Buyers are interested
in the price and the quality of a product. So it is obvious from the above that the buyers
cannot affect the oil prices. Higher bargaining power have the buyers only which consume
enormous amounts of oil and gas such as EU, China, USA, Japan, and India in comparison
with other countries. Finally to mention that the only bargaining power of buyers in the oil
industry is only what quality of the oil they will buy.

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4. Bargaining Power of Suppliers – Moderate: Degree of fragmentation more in suppliers.
Extent of overcapacity lower in the supplier industry (i.e., hydrocarbon).Some big suppliers
in the oil and gas industry are fully integrated oil and gas industry (International and National
Oil Companies) which are active in the whole value chain of oil and gas sector. The ability of
those companies to affect oil prices and the industry is high due to their business involvement
on all of the business segments of oil and gas industry, so their bargaining power is
significantly greater than the buyers. Another great player in the side of the suppliers are the
oil rich countries (as they call them oil producing countries) or else OPEC has a significant
bargaining power. OPEC nations own at least 70% or the world’s oil proven reserves.
Although these oil reserves have one of the lowest cost producing price between the oil
industry in contrast with oil producing from oil sands and deep-water oil fields which are
expensive regarding costs of production.

5. Barriers to Entry – High: The capital costs are high. The gestation/ growth period is
long. Developing a customer base takes a long time. The factors that affect the newest
companies to enter oil and gas business, especially the upstream segments are: Huge capital
required, National Oil Companies control more than 90% of the proven oil and gas reserves,
Increase of the internal competition within the industry, Oil and Gas prices volatility, Oil and
Gas Reserves are usually located in war zones or geographical areas with geopolitical
conflicts or political instability, National and international law restrictions which can affect
the new entrance of a company in the oil and gas business

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 4. COMPANY ANALYSIS

4.1 SWOT:

Strength:

1. Reliance Industries is one of the biggest players in India.

2. Strong brand name of Reliance Industries.

3. Excellent financial position and strong profitability.

4. One of the few Indian companies to be featured in Forbes.

5. Employs over 25,000 people.

6. The company has business spread across petrol, energy, retail, telecom etc.

7. Strong advertising and marketing through TVCs, print, online ads, billboards etc.

8. Reliance Industries has been recognized through several awards.

9. Strong focus towards holistic growth and also involvement in CSR activities.

Weakness:

1. Reliance Industries and ONGC had issues regarding the Krishna Godavari basin
exploration.

2. Intense competition means limited market share growth.

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Opportunities:

1. Growing demand for petroleum products is a huge opportunity for Reliance Industries.

2. Buyout of competition to strengthen its position.

3. Increasing number of industries and cars in India is a huge opportunity and potential for

growth.

4. Tie-ups with global oil companies can boost business for Reliance Industries.

Threats:

1. Government regulations and strict guidelines can disrupt operations.

2. High competition can reduce Reliance Industries market share.

3. Environmental laws and NGO’s against oil exploration can affect business.

4. Economic instability and recession can decline margins and fuel prices.

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4.2 7S FRAMEWORK:

Strategy: Reliance believes in sustainable development. It has made this as a cornerstone of

their business strategy to achieve sustainable and profitable growth. Following issues form a
cornerstone of the Reliance strategy:

 Energy Security

 Growth through Innovation

 Health and Safety

 Environment

 Product Responsibility

 Social Institution Building

Structure: The Board has established the following committees to assist the Board in
discharging its responsibilities:

 Audit Committee

 Remuneration Committee

 Shareholder’s / Investor’s Grievance Committee

 Finance Committee

 Health, Safety and Environment Committee

 Corporate Governance and Stakeholder’s Interface Committee

 Employees Stock Compensation Committee

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The Board has adopted charters setting forth the roles and responsibilities of each of the
above Committees as well as qualifications for Committee membership, procedures for
Committee member’s appointment and removal, Committee structure and operations and
reporting to the Board. The Board may constitute new committees or dissolve any existing
committee, as it deems necessary for the discharge of its responsibilities.

The Corporate structure of Reliance Industries is followed in the following manner:

 Constitution of a BOD of appropriate composition, size, varied expertise and

commitment to discharge its responsibilities and duties.

 Ensuring timely flow of information to the Board and its Committees to enable them
to discharge their functions effectively.

 Independent verification and safeguarding integrity of the Company’s financial

reporting.

 A sound system of risk management and internal control.

 Timely and balanced disclosure of all material information concerning the Company
to all stakeholders.

 Transparency and Accountability.

 Compliance

Skills:

 Committed to excellence in quality.

 Focused on creation and enhancement of stakeholder value.

 Responsive to evolving business needs and challenges.

 Dedicated to uphold the core values of the Group.It is this skill and initiative of their
workforce that sets them apart from their peers in today’s knowledge-driven
economy.

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Systems:

 Growth opportunities to expand leadership capabilities.

 True meritocracy and freedom to choose career paths.

 Opportunities to develop leadership and functional capabilities.

 An entrepreneurial environment where people can pursue their dreams.

 Competitive compensation

In addition, Rewards & Recognitions programme that periodically identifies exceptional

individual and team achievers among the various business functions and verticals in the
Group.

Style: “Winning is more rewarding when you play by the rules”

Reliance Industries Limited always put their employees first. Their pride lies in building a
company around the idea that work should be challenging and challenge should be fun. The
idea being, organizing world’s information and make it both useful and universally
acceptable by one and all.

Accomplishment of this feat, will be done only with people having great aspirations. Reliance
Big Entertainment offers the most inspiring work environments on the planet to work with
smart people and amazing technology.

A platform to connect with millions of people. RIL invite you to join and become a part of
their organization – one whose forte is its ethics and values which are in turn reflected in its
actions and people practices.

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Shared Values:

 Shareholder Interest- They values the trust of shareholders, and keeps their interests
per amount in every business decision they make every choice they exercise.

 People Care- They possess no greater asset than the quality of our human capital and
no greater priority than the retention, growth and well-being of our vast pool of
human talent.

 Consumer Focus- They rethink every business process, product and service from the
standpoint of the consumer so as to exceed expectations at every touch point.

 Excellence in Execution- They believe in excellence in execution in large, complex

projects as much as small everyday tasks. If something is worth doing, it is worth
doing well.

 Team Work- The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, in our rapidly changing
knowledge economy, organizations can prosper only by mobilizing diverse
competencies, skill sets and expertise, by imbibing the spirit of thinking together –
integration is the rule, escalation is an exception.

Staff:

Reliance Industries Limited has a diversified workforce, with employees coming from
different geographical, cultural, and educational backgrounds. It helps the company by
bringing in diverse ideas and methodologies of doing things. Employees working at Reliance
are qualified professionals coming with credible work experience. Reliance invests
extensively in the training and development of its employees.

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4.3 BCG MATRIX RELIANCE:

RIL or Reliance Industries Limited is the holding and Conglomerate Company of India,
whose headquarter is located in Maharashtra, Mumbai, India. The company owns several
other businesses across the India, by engaging in petrochemical, energy, natural resources,
textile, telecommunications and retail. The Reliance is known as one of the leading and most
profitable company of India, and ranked as the biggest “publicly trading company’ in India
by the market capitalization. It is the second leading company in terms of revenue generation
in India. The Reliance Industries has the honor to be a first company in India who breached
market capitalization of $100 billion. As the company is operating different businesses, it is
necessary for the company to evaluate which business is profitable for Reliance industries,
and which needs to shut down. This could be done easily with the help of BCG matrix (RIL,
2018).

BCG matrix helps in categorizing the products or the business units among four quadrants,
which are; stars, cash cows, dogs and question marks. The analysis is done by considering
two main aspects, which are, market growth and market share. The businesses are analyzed in
this manner for the companies to make effective decisions (Hanlon, 2018). The BCG matrix
of Reliance Petrochemical Industry is as follows;

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Cash Cows

Cash Cow quadrant in the BCG matrix is comprised of the products, which have low market
growth but high market share in their relevant industry. In addition to this, the industry has
the potential to grow but efficient strategies are needed to be made. The company plays in
volumes, thus satisfying the high demand of the consumers. Rangers Farm limited is the cash
cow for the Reliance industries, as it deals in fruits, vegetables and other consumer products
which has not achieved much dominant space in the market. Low level of growth is been
observed here with high level of investment (Gandhi, 2009).

Stars

According to a framework of the BCG matrix, the star products possess the high market share
and also the high level of market growth rate, which means products have the good future
ahead in the industry and still progressing. To be a star product, it is necessary for it to be a
good income source, and has the high market share. The rating of the Reliance Industries
Limited has reflected on the global scale of the company’s integrated operations with
powerful position among rivals in the core oil refining and petrochemical industries with
intermediate risk of the financial profiles (RIL, 2018).

Question Marks

This matrix also pay attention on services or products, which seems to have unpredictable
future and termed it as the question mark or the problem child, because they need special
attention of the management. Such products can become the prime candidate for a company
because of poor performance, or become a success case by bringing good amount of earning
in the company. Reliance Petroleum Limited is the question mark in the present market
condition of the company. It is equalizing the growth rate but low level of investment (Sayan,
2018; RIL, 2018).

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Dogs

The dogs consist of the products which are performing poorly and bringing no return in the
company. It has low market share and low market growth rate. The low percentage of income
reflects to the low sales value and the reason could be anything. The continuous low profits
despite of the investments, might cause it towards divestment. The business of petrochemical
is in danger because of recession. The revenue falls to $10.4 billion marginally. This caused
the low market share in highly low rate of growth (Gandhi 2009).

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4.4 ANSOFF’s MATRIX

MARKET DEVELOPMENT:
Reliance is a global business conglomerate and the biggest private sector company in India.
Their comprehensive solutions such as project identification, new product design, product
and market development have helped them grow into the world’s largest integrated producer
of polyester fibre and yarn. Reliance continues to set the global benchmarks in product
quality, standards and services. The constant focus on innovation has helped them to emerge
as a trendsetter in various markets and known worldwide for their unbeatable range of
products.

DIVERSIFICATION:
Reliance operations span from the exploration and production of oil and gas to the
manufacture of petroleum products, polyester products, polyester intermediates, plastics,
polymer intermediates, chemicals, synthetic textiles and fabrics. Various range of products
such as:
 Polymers –Repol (PP), Relene (PE), Reon (PVC)
 Polyesters – Recron Staple Fibre & Tow, Recron Fibrefill, Recron 3S Fibre for
Reinforcement, Recron Certified, Recron Partially Oriented Yarn (POY) etc.
 Fibre Intermediates – Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA), Ethylene Glycols, Ethylene
Oxide
 Aromatics - Paraxylene, Orthoxylene, Benzene, Linear Alkyl Benzene
 Elastomers -Polybutadiene Rubber (PBR), Styrene Butadiene Rubber (SBR), Butyl
Rubber

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 PART B
RESEARCH BASED PROJECT

5. INTRODUCTION

5.1 NATURE OF THE PROBLEM:

Retention: Employee retention is the organizational goal of keeping talented employees

and reducing turnover by fostering a positive work atmosphere to promote engagement,
showing appreciation to employees, and providing competitive pay and benefits and healthy
work-life balance

Reliance Industries Limited is a company which provides a Higher Education Policy which
comprises of company sponsored tuition fees as well as a 2 years sabbatical leave and also
50% of gross monthly salary. As the company provides so much of facilities to its employees,
it automatically expects the employee to retain with them for a longer period. But the
problem here is after the required period of contract after the completion of education, the
employees tend to leave the organization because of better opportunities in other companies
or field. The company actually wants to reduce the retention percentage and retain the
employees for the betterment of the organization in the future and also to understand what all
practices can be adapted or introduced in order to reduce retention.

The company is trying to understand the best practices of other companies by benchmarking
the policies of those companies with their policy and understand the market and upgrade their
policy with better or new ideas and innovation so that the retention percentage is reduced.

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5.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

1. To examine the procedures of the best performing organizations and pick up ideas that
can be adopted to achieve performance improvements.
2. To evaluate the Reliance Higher Education Programme and explore opportunities to
make the programme more aligned and beneficial for the aspirations of talented
employees.

5.3 UTILITY OF THE STUDY:

The study contributes towards benchmarking the Higher Education Policy of the
competitors and evaluating the best practices of those companies to design the policy
of Reliance more effectively and design the same so that it is more beneficial for the
employees. The study also provides with new methods and procedures to improve the
performance of the employees. The study helps in identifying the retention percentage
of the company and reduce it by effective benefits provided to the employees.

5.4 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

1. The employees did not disclose many information about their salary as the intern had
to gain information about the salary package.
2. Time factor was the major limitation of this study as it was only 2 months of study.
3. The other companies which the intern had to take information from did not disclose
confidential information of their companies.

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 6. METHODOLOGY

6.1 APPROACH:
The approach for the project was a qualitative research. The research was basically done
through telephonic interviews to senior officials and employees of other competitor
companies and also data was taken from the employees through individual interviews of the
organization to understand the current status and procedures for the higher education policies
provided by them. Qualitative research helped the intern to develop ideas and used to uncover
trends in thought and opinions.

6.2 SOURCES OF DATA:

PRIMARY DATA: Primary data was gathered from employees of Reliance Industries as
well as employees of competitor oil and gas companies who were assumed to give first-hand
information on the subject under study.

SECONDARY DATA: Secondary data was collected through various Company websites,
Internet, Magazines, Co-mentor from RIL related to the subject of the study and these were
consulted at length to extract the information required to support the findings from the study.

6.3 METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION:

The study was incorporating the use of various methods in the process of data collection in a
bid to come up with sound, concrete and credible research findings. The intern therefore was
amalgamating the use of telephonic interviews, individual interviews and documentary
analysis in the process of collecting the primary data. The intern used formal interviewing as
a method of data collection. The intern had interviewed employees of Reliance Industries
Limited and also the employees of other competitor companies in order to tap the vital
information for the study.

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6.4 SIZE OF SAMPLE AND METHOD OF SAMPLING:

The key respondents for the study were the employees of other competitor companies which
were 12 in number. The respondents was chosen using a purposive sampling technique
because of the nature of the research where the respondents were supposed to be well known
about the facts and figures of the higher education policy of their respective companies in
order to fulfil the needs of the researcher.

6.5 METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS:

The method used for data analysis is tabular formats in which the data can be compared
easily to the data of other companies and benchmark the policies of the companies
accordingly in order to come to a conclusion that which company is better in terms of
providing facilities to the employees. It also helps in understanding the best practices of each
company to retain its employees.

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7. CONTEXT OF INDUSTRY PROBLEM
Currently Reliance Industries Limited struggles to find a solution to attrition which continues
to be its topmost pain point. Though the company invests heavily into its Higher Education
Policy with minimal burden on the employees it struggles to get its worth from aiding
education to its employees. The current policy provides the employees not only with easy
procedures to fund their tuition fees, but also job security for 2 years. Against the industry
standards the company also provides 50% of employees’ annual pay to them so that they can
have financial security while they achieve academic advantage. Despite its attempt to utilize
this employee that it invested into, they still face attrition from this very section of employees
who move out for better opportunities. This urges the company to consider revision to its
Higher Education Policy such that it incurs less cost from it or else to make better
arrangements to help retain this class of employees with job satisfaction.

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 8. PRESENTATIONS OF DATA

BENCHMARKING OF HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY

SALIENT RELIANCE BPCL HPCL ONGC ADITYA TATA

INDUSTRIES BHARAT HINDUSTAN BIRLA PETRODYNE
FEATURES LIMITED PETROLEUM PETROLEUM GROUP LTD

Eligibility Continuous Service of at Service of at Service of 5 Service Min 2 years of

Service of 3 least 3 years least 5 years years and of Service
years plus
and course to be Minimum
performance performance relevant 2 years
ratings of A &
criteria with the
A+ in last 2 current job
years and value
add
Application Full Time PG Full Time PG Full Time PG Full Time Online Full Time and
Courses Course Course PG Course MBA Part Time
and Part Program Course
Time
Courses

Sponsorship 100 % 100 % 100 % No N/A Max 5 lakhs

Sponsorship as
reimbursement
% of Assistance 100 % 100 % 100 % No 100 % Up to certain
Assistance amount

Approval CHRO and Senior Mgmt Senior Mgmt Chief Senior CHRO
EC Sponsor Executive Mgmt
of HR dept.

Leaves Up to max 2 Up to 2 years 2years without 2years During 2years without

years with without pay pay without pay the pay
50% gross working
monthly hours,
salary therefore
leaves are
N/A

Refund if left the 100 % amount Sign a Sign a Sign a bond N/A 100 % refund
course or to be refunded Contract of 2 Contract of 2 of 3 years
organization in if left before 1 years years of service if
between year and 50 % expiry of
if left between leave
12 to 24
months and
sign a bond of
at least 2
years

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 IT COMPANIES

SALIENT
FEATURES TCS MICROSOFT TECH ORACLE ACCENTURE WIPRO INFOSYS
MAHINDRA

Eligibility 2 years of 2 years of 2 years of 2 years of N/A 2 years of 2 years of

service service service service service service
Application Full Time Full Time Full Time Full Time Online PG Full Time Full Time
and Part PG Courses PG PG programs PG PG
time PG Courses Courses Courses Courses
Courses
Sponsorship No 100 % 50 % 100 % No 50 % 50 % or 1
sponsorship scholarship sponsorship to 2 lakhs
whichever
is less
% of No 100 % No 100 % No 100 % 100 %
Assistance assistance assistance assistance

Approval Senior Senior Senior Senior Senior Senior Senior

Mgmt Mgmt Mgmt Mgmt / Mgmt Mgmt Mgmt
VP
Leaves 2 years No leaves 2 years 2 years Max 2 years 2 years 2 years

Refund if N/A Reimburse Reimburse Reimburse Bond of 2 Reimburse Reimburse

left the the amount the amount the years after the the
course or spent on the spent on amount completion amount amount
organization course if not the course. spent on of course. spent on spent on
in between completed the course the course the course
the bond. if not if not if not
completed completed completed
2 years of 3 years of 1 year of
bond. bond. bond.

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9. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

With the help of this benchmarking system we can understand the HR policy for Higher
Education provided by the Oil and Gas Companies as well as IT Companies to the employees
in order to increase their knowledge, skills and abilities so that the company has a better
future ahead.

 WHY COMPANIES PAY FOR COLLEGE?

"Tuition assistance programs appear to allow firms to hire better quality, more educated,
more productive, employees."

College courses give employees new "general skills" that raise the ability of these workers to
qualify for higher pay - their market wage - and may enable them to more easily jump to
another job in another firm. General skills, such as communications and analytic ability, are
not necessarily aimed at the specific tasks of employees. But even occupationally specialized
post-secondary programs, such as nursing or computer programming, are valuable to a great
many employers. The employer costs of such education are not trivial and are often quite
generous. Yet they enable employees to obtain degrees or other readily identifiable
credentials that make them more marketable to other firms.

Attempting to solve the mystery, Cappelli finds that tuition assistance programs appear to
allow firms to hire better quality, more educated, more productive, employees. That extra
productivity makes it economically feasible to pay a large portion of employees' tuition bills.

Further, tuition assistance tempts employees to stay longer with the company as they make
use of the benefit, spending their evenings and weekends working through a schedule of
college courses towards a degree - a part-time process that could last many years. Lower
turnover saves employers on the substantial costs of searching for and hiring new employees
to replace those leaving. Tuition assistance also may give employers a hint as to which of
their workers possess superior ability.

Tuition assistance stands as an important element in the financing of higher education. The
American Council of Education estimates that roughly 20 percent of graduate students and 6
percent of the much larger number of undergraduates receive some financial assistance from
their employers to attend school. As many as a third of undergraduates in fields like business
and engineering receive tuition assistance from their employers. Tuition assistance is the

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most common source of financial aid for college students, and on average it covers about
one-third of the average annual cost paid by post-secondary students.

Various surveys show that most big companies provide tuition assistance. A 1993 Hewett
Associates survey of 858 firms found 99 percent of them offering tuition assistance with
about 6.5 percent of all employees in these firms making use of the programs at any one time.
A 2002 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management of 510 employers found 79
percent offering educational assistance of various kinds.

The table above contains the data collected and benchmarked of other Oil and Gas
Companies against the Higher Education Programme of Reliance Industries Limited. From
the data collected the intern can understand that the Higher Education scheme provided by
RIL to the employees is the best practice compared to that of other employees.

Reliance Industries Limited Higher Education Policy comprises of some criteria to be eligible
for the Higher Education Programme:

 Continuous service of 3 years and performance ratings of A and A+ in the last 2

years.

 The programme is applicable to only Full Time PG Courses

 Sponsorship is 100% (Company Sponsorship) and also 100% of assistance from the
company.

 Approval has to be taken from CHRO and EC Sponsor.

 Sabbatical leaves approved up to 2 years with 50% of gross monthly salary.

 100% amount to be refunded if left before 1 year and 50% amount to be refunded if
left between 12 to 24 months and sign a bond of at least 2 years on rejoining after the
completion of education.

Through this study and research the intern could understand that no other company gives so
much of facilities in regards to the Higher Education Policy like RIL. After the benchmarking
process it is understood that RIL provides best employee policies and that it is Employee
Centric organization.

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10. CONCLUSION
The study comprises of the Benchmarking and Revamping of Higher Education Policy at
Reliance Industries Limited. The intern had to collect the primary and secondary data through
telephonic interviews and individual interviews of employees from other competitor
companies. The data collected was then benchmarked by which the intern came to a
conclusion that the Higher Education Scheme provided by RIL was the best and that the
organization helps the employees to enhance their knowledge, skills and abilities by availing
to these facilities provided by them.

It helped in understanding the relative important factors responsible for employee attrition.
The intern also found out that the maximum employee attrition was because of better
opportunities in the market.

To ignore why people are leaving the organization is to ignore the organization’s greatest
assets – its people. They are organization’s dreams, hopes, ambitions, creativity and
innovation. And to retain these valuable assets is one of the surest ways to build an
organization rather than just to go in global markets. And this is the only way an organization
can lower its attrition rate.

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 PART C

LEARNINGS AND TAKEAWAYS

1. Application of concepts, tools, techniques and skills learnt at PIMSR:

The concept of Business Research Methods taught in the first semester of Masters in
Management Studies course had been applied to this study. Business Research Methods
include many ways of gathering information about an industry, its completion or the
opportunities available that are relevant to conducting research. Some methods include
surfing the internet, collecting data at the library, interviewing individuals, telephonic
interviews, focus groups etc. There are 2 methods of research which is Quantitative and
Qualitative Research. In this study the data is collected through Qualitative Research,
Qualitative research involves obtaining data through open ended conversational means of
communication. Such a research enables the researcher to not only understand what
the audience thinks but also why he thinks it. In such a research, in-depth information can be
gathered from the subjects depending on their responses. There are various types of
qualitative research methods such as interviews, focus groups, ethnographic research, content
analysis, case study research that are widely used.

2. Any augmentation of soft skills such as building interpersonal

relationships:

 Communication Skills: The intern was constantly involved in telephonic interviews

with officials and employees of other companies in order to collect data for the study
which helped in developing the professional communication skills.
 Teamwork: The intern was working in the team Talent Acquisition of PetChem
Department which consists of 8 employees. Each employee in the team had some role
in the recruitment and talent acquisition process which helped the intern to understand
teamwork and also work accordingly.

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3. Any directions for future learning or career path that you may like to
pursue:

The intern would like to pursue a career path into recruitment or talent acquisition and would
like to have a future learning of various recruitment methods and selection processes.

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 REFERENCES

 Reliance Industries Limited Website: https://www.ril.com/ar2017-18/index.html

 BCG Matrix Analysis: https://bcgmatrixanalysis.com/bcg-matrix-of-reliance/
 Essays, UK. (November 2018). Pestel Analysis On Petroleum Industry Economics
Essay: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/economics/pestel-analysis-on-petroleum-
industry-economics-essay.php
 India Brand Equity Foundation: https://www.ibef.org/industry/oil-gas-
india/showcase/reliance-industries
 Question Pro: https://www.questionpro.com/blog/business-research/

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