Indian Army - Sixth Pay Commission

(This post is largely skewed towards the officer class of the Indian Army. Attracting and retaining jawans and NCOs/JCOs has not been much of a problem to my knowledge. Also to be kept in perspective is that historically the Indian Army has always been officer-centric and thus officers can make or break a unit/sub-unit by their capability or the lack of it)

It is heartening to know the government has agreed to several proposals of the Armed Forces with respect to further increases in their salaries and allowances as compared to the pay commission recommendations. As a nation we need to attract the best officers in the Armed Forces and thereafter be able to retain them since the price of not being able to effectively do this could invite a penalty too big to afford... Presently the Indian Army has a huge problem on their hands doing both (attracting and retaining talent). There was talk at one time of expanding the facilities available in the training academies (NDA, IMA, OTA) to increase intake into the Army. However, lately the army has been unable to fill up even the existing vacancies. On the retention front, there are thousands of applications pending for premature release of officers and several thousands more which surface with regular frequency. The pay commission will go a long way in addressing both these issues. The Armed Forces have an amazing culture and lifestyle which no corporate or government job can offer unless at the highest levels. These facilities are available from the first day an officer gets commissioned as Lieutenant. No other job would come close to offering similar perks. While the pay commission will address the issue of attracting and retaining talent to some extent, we need to look at other aspects of this deep rooted problem too.

Some of the problems are given below:

• Micro & Macro HR issues: While it is proudly claimed that HR started from the Armed Forces, there is almost no active HR being practiced here. Without listing out all the HR issues an organisation so large needs to implement like active career management, courses, adventure activities, non-monetary motivational tools etc. it would suffice to say that the Army needs to re-look all their HR processes and policies.
• A big factor responsible for resentment amongst a section of the officers is the fact that the shortage of officers has led to a handful of them performing the tasks cut out for a larger number of officers. For example, an infantry battalion is authorized 21 officers but most on an average have only 11-12. That means, the work is the same, but about half of the officers have to perform it. Due to this officers get little time for their families or to pursue other interests which has lead to wide spread frustration. This also results in the 90:10 principle being taken to an extreme level. Of the officers present in a unit, naturally, the brighter lot is invariably saddled with most of the work increasing their workload and subsequent frustration further.
  
• Lack of adequate and high standard housing leads to long waiting periods and sub-standard accommodation.