Wassup With Telecom Hiring In India

The hiring opportunities in country's telecom market continues to witness a downward trend as around 28 percent of the senior telecom professionals expect further downsizing in the industry, according to a recent report by prominent job search portal, HeadHonchos. The good news, however, is that there is a strong demand for the Indian telecom professionals in new markets like North Africa and Middle East.

Companies like Etisalat, France Telecom, BT Group plc and Bharti Airtel Ltd. are expanding their operations in Africa and recruiters believe that the demand for Indian telecom executives will continue to grow because of the recent technology roll-out experience.

"There is certainly a slump in the hiring activities for telecom professionals in India. However, we are seeing an increasing demand of Indian telecom professionals from the telecom companies, who are investing and expanding operations in Africa and Middle East," says Pankaj Mittal, Co-Founder of Archelons a specialized recruitment and talent acquisition company in technology and telecom.(See Look Who's Hiring in Telecom!, Silver Lining To Telecom's Jobs Freeze?, Hiring Slump Hits New Grads and Mounting Uncertainty Over Job Losses.)

The Good and the bad
In India, the telecom market is still going through testing times. The cold response to the recently concluded auctions has further strengthened the belief that the market sentiments are far from being positive. With lay-offs in the industry becoming common, the skepticism amongst the employers to hire and employees to continue is expected to remain stagnant for a while.

A general slowdown will continue to impact recruitments in several key role across all telcos and vendors. The margin pressures have forced many telcos to ramp down their operations in the country. This has contributed to the skepticism and fear like situation amongst employees. Recently, Tata Teleservices Ltd. was in news to wrap up its CDMA-based mobile operations in the north-east part of India, and the Assam and Kolkata regions due to continued losses. Companies like Aircel Ltd. and Uninor ramped down their operations in a few circles citing low profit margins as well.(See TTSL May Ramp Down CDMA Ops)

"There is certainly skepticism, considering the present market trends. However, it is for the short term. It would not be a wise thing to dismiss the telecom growth opportunity, right away. Telecom still has a lot of potential in the country and many new companies will continue to hire the talent in the areas of mobile applications, VAS and software based roles," comments Uday Sodhi, Chief Executive Officer of a leading job search engine, HeadHonchos.

However, there are plenty of exciting and challenging job roles available for those who are willing to experiment and have required job skills. The demand for software telecom engineers and application developers, specially on the android platforms are on the rise. There are also new age and exciting companies like hoppr, Nimbuzz and OMC Telecom, which are growing at considerable pace. These companies can be a great learning ground for those who are willing to prove themselves and want to be a part of telecom growth story in the long term.(See OMC: Green Power To Telecom Towers)

Though no one has doubted the potential of the industry in the long run; the experts have agreed to the fact that the trends are changing. "Get me the right set of talent, who could contribute for my company. We are eager to hire people, who can create the difference," says Md Imthiaz, Founder and CEO, hoppr.

A more upbeat trend is also apparent for the professionals in the product marketing and those who are in analytics. Since a lot of growth is expected to come from data, service providers are relying heavily on professionals who can help them analyse and market products which are relevant for the consumers.

"The growth has just started. There is a plenty of room for telecom innovation in this country. Data has just started to pick up. What is required is the right business models and ideas that can create the difference," adds Imthiaz. The telecom VAS company currently has around 113 people and plans to grow to a team of around 400 people within the next 24 months.(See hoppr: Giving Boost To Local Brands)

Finding best ways to retain talent
Interestingly the pressure is also on the HR heads to build confidence amongst the employees and ensure the right talent do not leave the company at the present period of uncertainty. "At some levels, the pressure is there and hence companies are committed to invest in the softer side of employee outplacement through services like executive coaching, to cope up with the pink slip syndrome," comments Sodhi.

In a recent interaction with Light Reading India, Sandeep Gandhi, Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO), at Aircel Ltd. also mentioned about the critical retention plans which company is taking. "Retention of key talent brings stiff challenge for the talent engagement professionals as newer entrants [organizations] in the arena have somewhat led to people changing jobs frequently," says Gandhi.(See Aircel: What The Future Holds)

Giving employees an opportunity for new, global and interesting roles has also become an important part for the organization to keep the employees motivated. "We provide employees opportunity in diverse areas like banking, health, mobile advertising, etc apart from the traditional telecom opportunities. Also, our employees get a chance to work across multiple geographies given our presence in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and African countries. Positive employee policies like flexi time, work from home, employee partnership in designing policies, etc has also helped in engaging the staff," says Krish Shankar, Executive Director, HR at Bharti Airtel Ltd..

Adds Richard Cook, HR - VP at BT Asia Pacific "When things are tough, it is the best people who go first. Here at BT, we try our best to identify these champion performers, look after them well, and ensure they are part of a mentoring programme to inculcate in them, a commitment to succeed. For any developments or changes at BT, we make sure that these people are part of the change process. This way, they get the visibility, and also the motivation to stay and help drive the business".

The verdict is despite the challenging times, there are still plenty of opportunities for those who are willing to explore new avenues. The glass is half full and not half empty!!!

- Jatinder Singh, Principal Correspondent Light Reading India