RIL cuts headcount; mulls accountability-linked pay for staff

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has cut its headcount for third year in a row and is mulling a salary model where pay is based on accountability and responsibility of its staff.

The company's staff strength fell by 704 workers during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011, and stood at 22,661 employees.

RIL has disclosed its latest headcount in its 2010-11 annual report, where it also disclosed a new compensation model being mulled over at the company.

"FY-11, saw a significant change in the company's compensation and banding management process. On the variable pay front, efforts are afoot to move towards accountability and responsibility driven variable pay programmes designed uniquely for various levels," it added.

The company's headcount stood at 23,365 employees at the end of fiscal ended March 31, 2010, during which its employee strength had fallen by 1314. During the fiscal year 2008-09 also, the company's headcount had fallen by 808 people.

RIL is one of the biggest employers among the non-IT private sector companies in the country and the company's profitability has been on a sharp uptrend in recent years. During 2008-09, RIL's total headcount had declined for the first time in six years, despite the company hiring more than 1,500 engineers that year.

The steepest fall so far has been in 2003-04, when the headcount fell from 12,915 to 11,358 employees. During 2006-07 it rose by a massive 12,156 people while in 2007-08 the headcount rose by close to 791 employees.

Along with its subsidiaries such as Reliance Retail , the company had a total workforce in excess of 48,000 at the end of 2007-08, according to the company's annual filing for that year for its shareholders.

RIL has not disclosed specific numbers of employees of subsidiaries for the years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11.

RIL's average employee age stood at 41 years during 2010-11, unchanged from the level in previous fiscal. The average age of employees at the company had increased from 34 years to 39 years during 2008-09.