Airtel HR Practices

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By:

arun arul

bibeesh noufal

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06/07/11 2

Content

s

• A brief about Airtel

• Organization structure & department levels

• Awards & recognition

• Attrition rate

• HR practices followed

• Compensation management

• Employees insight

• HR challenges

• Work environment, culture & values

• People investments

• Code of conduct for employees

• Ombudsperson

• Airtel ambassadors (alumni)

• • • • • •

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strategic business units

(SBU)

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Organizational

Structure

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Departments

Levels

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Awards & Recognitions

•

• •

• Airtel was adjudged the 'Company with the Most

Innovative HR Practices in the Asia Pacific

Region' at the Asia Pacific HRD conclave held in Mumbai.

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Attrition

rate

• The average attrition in

telecom sector is 15% across Indian

companies, a rate that may rise to 25% in

2011-12 with improved salaries.

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For

Employees

• It has 15000 employees & with increase in

network, it has wide prospects.

• Provide attractive salary to employees,

performance turnover, ESOPs( Employee

Stock Options Program)

• Provides an opportunity for career growth –

from Management trainee to CEO.

• Gives an opportunity to employee to grow

vertically as well as horizontally.

• Gives an opportunity to move any part of

the country considering they have

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HR Practices

followed

• Strong Team building activities

• Walk the talk

• Flexible compensation structure

• HR steering committee (HRSC)

• PACE (Progressive Assessment of Culture &

Environment)

• Goal Setting

• Family group meetings

• Open houses

• HR interface & HR intranet

• Managers communication forum

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06/07/11 11 Training & LearningTraining & Learning



• During the learning phase, the most important

part HR plays is to actually check if people

enjoys their roles and no one treat his position as a mere job.

• HR department mold the young entrants and

relatively less experienced professionals to the company.

• Backed by a strong training programme, they let

their employees decide their training needs.

• To encourage learning within the organization, the

company has set up a state-of-the-art learning centre.

• Employees can get logged on to customized

training programmes developed by British Telecom (BT)

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Healthy practicesHealthy practices 

• A philosophy of constant monitoring has been

established. ‘Measurement Boards’ for every department are prominent where the

performance indicators are displayed graphically.

• Formal job description documents have been

issued to all employees that clearly mention the ‘key result areas’

• Airtel also seeks to certify and re-certify every

employee on quality and IT on a continuous basis.

• The quality of service and customer care is a

reflection of the quality of people and belief in constant improvement and upgradation.

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06/07/11 13 Walk the talkWalk the talk



• The senior management is advised to walk the

talk and invite criticism from the employees

•

• Better interaction with the senior managers, they

began to play a more pro-active role in team-building efforts

•

• HR success was powered by a well defined

rewards and recognition system.

 •

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Flexible compensation structureFlexible compensation structure 

•

• Each employee is given individual targets that

are linked to these five performance

parameters: profitability, market share, brand saliency, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.

• •

• Performance-related bonuses, 60 per cent of the

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06/07/11 15 Goal SettingGoal Setting



• This goal setting helped in communicating to

each employees, experiencing them and establishing role clarity



Strong Team building activitiesStrong Team building activities 

• The HR department sets up cross-functional

teams in times of product or service launches.

• Such teams typically constitute high performers

from each department, who collectively make it happen.

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HR steering committee (HRSC)HR steering committee (HRSC)

• HR steering committee (HRSC) of the company

that has acted as the fulcrum of the HRD efforts in the organization

• HRSC consists of the CEO, the COO and all other

functional heads.

• The committee meets once a week to discuss

various initiatives and the plan of action.

PACE (Progressive Assessment of Culture & PACE (Progressive Assessment of Culture &

Environment)

• Conducts an internal employee satisfaction

survey called PACE (Progressive Assessment of Culture and Environment), the inputs of which go into the company's annual strategy.

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06/07/11 17 Managers' communication forum Managers' communication forum

• Key HR initiatives include to undertaken once a

quarter, facilitates direct interaction of the employees with the top management.

• Discuss issues relating to the performance of

the previous quarter, directions for the next quarter, an update on the regulatory

environment and the key initiatives for the period.

Family group meetingsFamily group meetings

• Each HOD conducts meetings with his direct

reportees once a month, wherein issues other than those related to work are discussed.

Open houseOpen house

• The ‘open house’ conducted between the

departments and HR takes up individual grievances.

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Internal job postings (IJP)Internal job postings (IJP) 

•

• There is a strong IJP system at Airtel and jobs are

uploaded onto the website, wherein people can apply and move across different businesses.

•

• Started promoting talent councils which identify

the people who are ready to take up senior positions.

•

• These people are then put through in-house

training and are also participants of a plan

which aims at total development by seeking out the right experiences.

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06/07/11 19 HR interface & HR intranetHR interface & HR intranet

 •

• In HR interface, every member of the HR

department has been assigned two

departments each to discuss and sort out all HR, personnel and administration issues.

• •

• The HR Intranet provides information on HR

policies, organizational structure, training calendar and the house journal.

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compensation management - strategic compensation management - strategic intent

intent

• At airtel, philosophy of external

competitiveness and a strong pay for performance culture whilst maintaining internal equity

• Compensation strategy is defined by external

influences such as industry practices and

availability of talent also internal inspection, talent harnessing and recognition play a key role.

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innovative work

practices

•

• Online directory that allows an employee to

search for solutions to problems ranging from routine to complex.

•

• Employees do not just rotate from circle to

circle but also from function to function to make aware about practices across India.

•

• Permitted two employees to go on a sabbatical

with full pay and spend two years with the "Teach for India" initiative. One even got the promotion while on the sabbatical.

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Employees

Insight

• Neha Idnani, a commerce

graduate and an MBA in Finance, has spent the last

four years at Bharti Airtel first in Bangalore, then Delhi and now Colombo, as Strategic Business Advisor

• “This is a country where Airtel is a start-up, we are taking the lessons we have learnt from our start-up rivals in India”

• “This was an opportunity for me to develop my management

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HR Challenges in

Airtel

• •

• Much of the challenge for HR heads in Airtel is

dealing with workers like Idnani; young,

impatient and outwardly ambitious workforce.

• •

• Shankar’s biggest challenge is at the lowest

rungs of the ladder, where attrition is high,

particularly with 14 telecom operators feeding off the same talent pool.

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KRISH SHANKAR

KRISH SHANKAR,

Director-Human Director-Human Resources

Resources

• “HR has always had an important role to play in talent building and acquisition – in fact, we call this endeavor an HR mission. It was important that as a function, HR identified how and where it could add value to the larger picture. Our HR people then highlighted two major areas – first to

understand insights about the people and second to try and marry that to the given insights of the business. Therefore, it was all about understanding what the business wants and looking at

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Work Environment – Life at

Airtel

• Encourage employees to diversify their skill sets

by moving across industry segments, after

having proven their capabilities in their current roles

• HR systems aim to create a sharp,

performance-oriented culture with the right reward

mechanisms that are benchmarked against the best.

• Variety of interesting and challenging

opportunities in an intellectually stimulating workplace, and a chance to give back to

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Work culture and

values

• Entrepreneurship

• Respect for all

• Passion for performance

• Teamwork - “the power of many”

• Building collaborative partnerships

• Believes in the power of informal

communication. Much of their work gets done by picking up the phone or popping into a

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People

Investment

• Campus Recruitment: _{Campus Recruitment:}

On-the-job training with cross-functional project

work to nurture and create a pool of potential talent who can deliver superior business

performance.

• Senior Leadership Capability Development:_{Senior Leadership Capability Development:}

Tie-ups with international training institutes like

INSEAD and Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) to value top talent with opportunities.

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code of conduct for

employees

All employees are required to follow, effectively

embrace and sustain bharti’s values

• To be responsive to the needs of the customers

• To trust and respect each and every employees

• To continuously improve the services –

innovatively and expeditiously

• To be transparent and sensitive in dealings with

all stakeholders

• Committed to not only maintaining the highest

standards of operations through thorough

professionalism, but also creating an example of operational success

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06/07/11 29 This policy aims to:

• Provide an independent forum by means of the

Office of the Ombudsperson, for employees to raise concerns and complaints about improper practices.

• Put in place a fair and equitable inquiry process

and redressal mechanism.

• Reassure employees will be fully protected

against possible reprisals, intimidation, coercive action, dismissal, demotion or victimization.

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HR relocation challenges in its first Africa HR relocation challenges in its first Africa deal

deal

• Unusual human resource challenge as it will be

completely different market than Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

• Zain operations were costly and lacking

efficiency so making losses, thus Bharti will have trouble making profits on low cost model

• Large number of Bharti personnel will have to

relocate to kick start Bharti style of operating with existing infrastructure.

• It offers huge opportunities to people in Bharti

for future growth as the company transform itself into a global enterprise.

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airtel ambassadors

(alumni)

• It’s a great way for existing employee to

connect online with other former colleagues, past employees & get reacquainted with the company.

• Where an ex-employee can connect for query

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HR role at Airtel : the three legs of a

stool

• Expertise Role : Which focuses on people who

specialize in certain fields like compensation and benefits, leave management etc.

• Shared Services : Relating to transactional

business services.

• Business Partners : People who directly deal

with the business.



In effect the three legs continuously meet

people working in the various legs to takes

feedback on diverse matters in order to develop solutions which are then applied across the

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Benefits for working

women

• Family friendly work options : Flexi time,

telecommuting (home/ remote office), part time options.

• Maternity/ post natal benefits : 12 weeks

maternity leave, leave extendable up to 6 months

• Revised sabbatical policy : Allows for time

off for enhancing education upto 1 year & personal exigencies upto 6 months.

• Mentoring program : Initiated for high

potential middle management women employees - mentoring by senior women leaders.

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Snapshots of employee Snapshots of employee benefits benefits • • Medical support

Emergency medical assistance

Critical case concierge service

Emergency cash assistance

•

• Temporary loan to employees policy •

• Group accident/Life insurance •

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