Industrial Automation Magazine India

Dr Alka Mittal takes additional charge as CMD ONGC

Published on : Monday 10-01-2022

Dr Mittal has been serving as Director (HR) since 27 November 2018 and was the senior-most Director on the Board of the energy company.

Dr Alka Mittal, Director (HR) of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) has assumed additional charge as the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of the Energy Maharatna on 4 January 2022. She has become the first woman to head one of India’s most valuable public sector companies. Her appointment was approved by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet for a period of six months with effect from 1 January 2022. Dr Mittal has been serving as Director (HR) since 27 November 2018 and was the senior-most Director on the Board of the energy company.

 
A post graduate in Economics, MBA (HRM) and Doctorate in Commerce and Business Studies, she had joined ONGC as a Graduate Trainee in 1985. She brings with her an extremely rich experience spanning over three and a half decades. Dr Mittal was the first woman to hold the charge of a full-time Director in ONGC’s history. She has also been on the Board of ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Limited (OMPL) as ONGC nominee Director since August 2015. She is also on the boards of IIM Tiruchirappalli and NHRDN.

 
As Director (HR), she has been conferred with the Silver Stevie Award in Woman of the Year category at the International Business Awards 2021 for adopting best-in-class HR practices and making ONGC a great place to work. She is an icon for women empowerment and lays special emphasis on retraining and reskilling workforce to be responsive to the changing scenario. Dr Mittal has been the mind behind the People’s Connect Initiative to facilitate knowledge sharing from superannuating employees to young professionals of the organisation.

 
She incorporated sustainability into the talent acquisition process by adopting the practice of Green Recruitment in ONGC through online application process and online interviews, saving time, cost and resources. Dr Mittal reviewed and redesigned the online performance management process of ONGC to align KPIs with the organisation’s vision, mission, values and core principles, enabling more objective target setting and Performance Assessment. She also implemented digitisation of various HR processes, including adjustments of claims, automation of training process, HR workflows, digitisation of trust records, corporate promotion process, etc. Under her leadership, Assessment Development Centres for senior level executives were moved to online mode in 2020, safeguarding employee health as well as cost savings of around Rs 10.5 crore.

Prior to joining as Director (HR), Dr Mittal held the post of Chief Skill Development (CSD) of the Company. In her capacity as CSD, she streamlined the activities and brought in uniformity in the working of the Skill Development Centres of ONGC. During this period, she has also implemented the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) in ONGC engaging more than 5000 apprentices across all work centres.