Our responsibilities extend to not only our own people, but those impacted by our operations. We are committed to our goal of ensuring zero harm to our employees, our contractors and the communities in which we operate. We recognise that our people are the primary source of our competitiveness.

The development and production of high quality steel is complex. There is no comparable area in which you can experience business processes in such a massive scale.

Our team is made up of people from a diverse range of personal and professional backgrounds. Many are world-leading experts in their field, whilst others are just starting out in their careers. But all share the same commitment to innovation, quality and challenge that drives our and our customers business forward.

Tata Steel has always been a pioneering and enlightened employer. We recognise that our people are the primary source of our competitiveness.
The core principles of our human resources policy are: equality of opportunity, continuing personal development, fairness, mutual trust and teamwork. These principles are underpinned by the five Tata Group core values: integrity, understanding, excellence, unity and responsibility.

The Tata Steel Group believes that being the best possible employer helps to recruit and retain the best employees. As at 31 March 2010, the Group employed over 80,000 people worldwide, with our European operations employing over 40,000.

While our worldwide recruitment level has been lower than normal since 2009, as a result of the global downturn, we believe it is vitally important to our long-term vision that we continue – through both high and low points in the economic cycle – to recruit new talent and to nurture and motivate our existing talent.

The Tata Steel graduate programme has been designed to offer exciting and rewarding career opportunities to engineers and future business leaders from the world’s best universities and colleges. In addition to our annual graduate intake, we continue to recruit apprentices as well as experienced middle and senior managers to meet our current needs and enhance our capabilities for the future.

In the Netherlands, Tata Steel has consistently scored highly in the Dutch magazine Intermediair’s annual survey of the best companies to work for. Tata Steel in IJmuiden was named number two in the industry sector for 2010, having been voted to the top position in the previous four years.

Mutual trust based on openness and transparency is ingrained within our culture and is the cornerstone of our employee relations. Our European Works Council meets on a regular basis to provide a forum for discussion of significant issues which may affect employees. We also have consultative structures in place at both national and local levels.