The financially distressed Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has embarked on a ‘change-management’ drive to change its much-criticised work culture.
The agency has tied up with institutions that impart training in management studies to motivate its employees. Around 700 employees, including bus crew and supervisory staff, attended a five-day workshop at SCMS, Kochi, recently to help increase ticketing and non-ticketing revenue of the RTC.
The change-management drive is being implemented with the help of ₹1 crore provided by the State Government.
For most employees, it was the first time in their careers that they are being formally trained on a host of productivity-related areas. The agency KSRTC-SWIFT was constituted with the aim of ushering in a new work culture, said Biju Prabhakar, Chairman and Managing Director, KSRTC.
Stakeholders associated with the initiative said the work culture in the KSRTC would hopefully change for the better in another three years, once all the 26,000-odd employees attended such training programmes.
The KSRTC has been facing flak for low productivity, low fuel efficiency and high operational expense of buses, vis a vis most other RTCs in the country. This has been attributed to appointments made through the backdoor and with political considerations.
The training focussed on mobilising revenue by route rationalisation and scientific scheduling of bus trips so that it is a win-win situation for passengers and the KSRTC. Different ways of garnering non-ticketing revenue, like those being done by Kochi Metro to reduce the revenue-expenditure gap, too were discussed.
Enthusiastic response
“Contrary to the perception that most KSRTC employees were reluctant to change, over 80% were enthusiastic about the sessions. They cited a host of factors, including unhealthy trade unionism and depressing work culture, for the agency’s predicament. Put short, every employee, from bus crew to the top management, ought to get their act together to rescue the agency. In addition, employees who perform should be provided incentives. This is any day better than a general salary hike,” official sources said.
They said that archaic practices such as double duty, which have a direct bearing on road safety, should be scrapped as part of the turnaround strategy. In addition, driver-cum-conductor system should be introduced in point-to-point buses. The mechanical wing too needed a revamp. Public-outreach initiatives and a revamp of the website were expected to do wonders, they said.
