While most of the country's telcos are cutting costs and imposing hiring freezes during the current uncertain business environment, it seems some of the lucky few in India's telecom sector are being rewarded with handsome salary increases. (See Mounting Uncertainty Over Job Losses,Hiring Slump Hits New Grads and 2G Verdict: An Easy Exit Route or Fresh Troubles?.)
According to information made available to Light Reading India, companies such Bharti Airtel Ltd., Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd. (MTS India) and Ericsson AB have awarded pay rises of between 9 percent and 12 percent to its executives.
Other major players, including Idea Cellular Ltd. and Vodafone India, are expected to match those rates.
But according to some sources, some top performers and very senior executives are expected to get a salary hike of around 20 per cent.
There are also reports of that Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) is now on a hiring spree to support its 4G rollout plans.
All of which spells good news for those determined to build a career in the telecom sector.
"It's not that the telecom sector is going to die out in near future," says V Suresh, Executive Vice President and National Head, Sales, Naukri.com, a leading job search engine. "Obviously, the situation is not great at the moment, and hence frustrating for some people, but in the long run telecom sector will remain a key priority for young graduates," he adds.
There are, though, some companies where the picture is not so rosy. Struggling operator Videocon Telecommunications Ltd. is not offering any rise to its employees. In fact, there has even been talk that Videocon staff have been asked to leave as the company is unsure about its telecom future. (See Videocon Telecom: All Is Not Well!.)
Elsewhere, some staff are still waiting to hear about their income. At Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., employees are yet to get any information pertaining to salary hikes. However, insiders suggest that a significant hike for the majority of the employees is unlikely at both these companies. In November last year, NSN announced a major restructuring program that involved the loss of at least 17,000 jobs worldwide over a period of two years, in an effort to cut its annual operating expenses by 1 billion (INR 69.4 billion) per year. (See NSN To Shutdown Kolkata Unit? and .)
At most of telecom companies there has been significant reduction in the proportion of above-average pay increases to top performers.
"The next eight-to-twelve months are definitely testing for most of the telecom executives, with the sector itself engrossed in a lot of trouble, with no clarity at present," comments Amit Khurana, CEO & Managing Director at Corporate Access, an executive search firm.
"However, telecom is the future and one should not loose hope. Once the sector will consolidate, the new polices are in place and there is a clarity on what spectrum is allocated to whom, things will be better. But yes, if somebody [a young manager] wants to enter in this sector for a short term, then it's a bad choice."
Some of the roles where consistent demand for new vacancies is expected include network rollout, maintenance and backend support. There is, however, little demand for support function staff, including human resources (HR), finance, communications and consulting.
Jatinder Singh, Principal Correspondent, Light Reading India
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