'Recruiting the right talent is a very pertinent challenge in a dynamic, hi-tech and fast growing industry like ours.'

Rajan
Dutta is the chief of HR & TQM in Escotel Mobile Communications Ltd. A
specialist trainer, job evaluator & total quality management facilitator,
Dutta has successfully introduced and implemented some of the HR & TQM
interventions during his last 18 years of work experience in companies like Vam
Organics, Modi Xerox and RPG Group where he was the group vice-president-HR.

What are the challenges facing you when you recruit new people?

Recruiting the right talent is always a challenge for any HR professional. It
is, however, more pertinent in a dynamic, hi-tech and fast growing industry like
ours.

There is a demand-supply gap and hence a scarcity of the critical skills and
competence. Moreover, evaluating, assessing and selecting the right person to
fit the role suiting our organizational culture and value system is a big
challenge.

As Escotel has built a backbone covering various villages, we require skilled
professionals even in remote locations. This is a difficult task.

What are the kinds of people that you generally recruit across different
functions? Is there anything in particular that you look for?

We recruit people with high performance orientation, higher potential to
grow, customer sensitivity and a good personality.

Some of the functions where we often recruit people are as follows:

• Sales & Marketing —
  People from an FMCG background, with proven skills in indirect sales and
  managing distribution networks; and excellent communication and influencing
  skills.

• Customer Care — People
  from the service industry like hotels, call centers, etc., who are high on
  resilience and have good communication skills.

• Technology — The skills
  in high demand are RF, Switches, Microwave, network specialists and
  functional specialists in IT.

Do you believe in recruiting experienced staff or freshers? What type of
training do you provide?

We recruit both experienced people and freshers. Escotel has instituted a
robust performance management system with linkages to Developmental Action Plan
and Training Need Analysis. Detailed induction, orientation, functional and
behavioral training are conducted both in-house as well as through external
resources.

Escotel has a "Service Guarantee," which it takes pride in. How
is this reflected in each of your employees’ job role?

Escotel’s service guarantee is towards keeping commitments
made by us to our customers.

Our employees are fully trained, sensitized and oriented
towards this commitment with a host of initiatives like: designing
customer-centric organization, instituting the six-sigma process in all the key
customer interfacing processes, etc. Also, our employees are carefully evaluated
on the customer orientation parameters and a 360-degree feedback process ensures
continuous evaluation and development of the management staff.

Gina Malkani