Abstract

Voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) is one of the least studied phenomena in both business and academia. Despite its increasing popularity, field-based scientific literature on VRS is sparse in India. International literature on organizational downsizing has focused on three issues: the impact on those who have lost their jobs, the impact on those remaining, and on how to downsize effectively. The case study focuses on the VRS introduced by SAIL. Since financial year 1998-1999, SAIL had been incurring huge losses. One of the major reasons for the losses was its high manpower cost. To deal with the situation, McKinsey advised SAIL to reduce its workforce from 1, 70.000 to 1, 00,000 by 2003. The case deals at length with various VRS schemes launched that SAIL launched its staff education initiatives and the problems faced by the company while implementing VRS.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Implementation and implications of VRS.

Keywords

Voluntary retirement scheme, VRS, business, academia, popularity, field-based scientific literature, VRS, India, organizational downsizing, three issues, impact, lost, jobs, remaining, downsize, effectively, VRS, financial year 1998-1999, SAIL, huge losses, high manpower cost, McKinsey, SAIL, 1,70.000, 1,00,000, 2003