The progressive decline in working migration across the country has become the main interest in the industry, says SN Subrahmanyan, Chairman and CEO of Larsen & Toubro. Subrahmanyan spoke at the summit at the South Global Linkaes 2025 summit on Tuesday and warned that the unwillingness of workers to move to jobs is an important challenge for businesses and nation growth.
“As an organization, we employ about 2,50,000 employees and 4,00,000 workers at any given moment. While wear between employees annoys me, I have more worrying about the availability of workers, ”said Subrahmanyan.
He has developed the L&T approach to mobilizing work, which includes a specialized HR team closely involved in recruitment and deployment. Despite this effort, challenges remain. “The work is not willing to move on to the occasions … Perhaps their local economy is doing well, maybe it is because of various government systems and DBTs available but are not willing to move,” he explained.
This problem is not limited to workers with a blue collar. Subrahmanyan noted a similar unwillingness among white collar professionals, including engineers. When he thought about his own career, he noted, “When I joined L&T as a postgraduate engineer, my boss said that if you were from Chennai, you go to Delhi and work. But today, if I ask the person from Chennai to work from Delhi, he says goodbye. Today it is a different world of work and we must see how to make the principles of HR flexible. ”
He described this trend as an obstacle not only for L&T, but also for a wider effort to build a nation.
L&T solves this problem through the institutes of skills and adoption of technology. Subrahmanyan emphasized the use of artificial intelligence, with approximately 100 algorithms developed in their business in the field of infrastructure to optimize operations.
The company also examines futuristic solutions to work problems. “3D printed buildings are still costly when they are visible at a square foot, but if the work is difficult, perhaps sometime in the future, we have to live with it,” he said, signaling to the innovation as a potential response to a crunch workforce.
