The Practice of Human Resource Management of Airtel Bangladesh

1.0. Abstract:

Airtel Bangladesh Ltd. is a GSM-based cellular operator in Bangladesh. Airtel is the sixth mobile phone carrier to enter the Bangladesh market, and originally launched commercial operations under the brand name "Warid Telecom" on May 10, 2007. The purpose of making this report was to know about the changes that took place when Airtel took over Warid in 2010. There were lots of rumors of this change from 2008 and it was more like an open secret within the organization that airtel will merge with Warid.

There were lots of tensins that people will lose their job, but airtel‟s business model is such that nobody lost their job, instead the IT officials got the chance to work in IBM, Ericsson and Siemens. So the change was good and employees adapted pretty nicely. However the HR practices of Warid were very firm so employee dissatisfaction were pretty high, but Airtel put a lot of emphasis on employee engagement, so turnover rate in Airtel is almost zero.

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2.0. Executive Summary

Airtel is the sixth telecom operators in Bangladesh. In January 2010, Bharti Airtel Limited, Asia‟s leading integrated telecom services provider, acquired 70% stake in Warid Telecom, Bangladesh. Since then the journey of airtel in Bangladesh has started. But officially the activities with the brand “Airtel” started on 20th, December, 2011 in Bangladesh. As an emerging company Airtel is doing extremely well. Through their significant advances in Bangladesh, Airtel is moving ahead on the track to achieve their goals. The report has been prepared in align with HR activities at Airtel.

Airtel values its human resources and its HR policies are aimed at targeting and retaining best talent in the industry, as the direct impact of the organizations improvement falls upon the employees.

The organization work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee. The aim of this research is to find out the strategies and approaches that are taken by the Organization to build up Employee Engagement and the effectiveness of Employee Engagement in Airtel Bangladesh Ltd. This report provides the tactics and approaches of high perceived of organizational support taken by Employee. The report findings show that there are several factors that make employees satisfied and a positive outcome of Airtel. All engaged employees who intellectually and emotionally bound with the organization who feel passionate about its goals and its committed towards its values thus they go the extra mile beyond the basic job.

3.0. Materials and Methods:

3.1. Primary research: As there is a lack of reference material, most of the analysis is based on observations and interviews with management, trainers and trainees.

3.2. Secondary research: References from textbooks, websites and articles is used to assist the analysis.

4.0. Introduction:

Fastest growing telecommunication sector of Bangladesh had been incorporated with the sixth mobile phone carrier which currently known as “Airtel”. It is worth mentioning here that, this company was actually launched its commercial operations under the auspices of the brand “Warid Telceom” in 2007. Later on, Warid telecom sold a majority 70% stake in the company to India based company Bharti Airtel Limited for US$300 million. The entire management control was taken over by Bharti Airtel Ltd and was successful enough to revamp the whole company under their own Airtel brand from 2010.

After it had been approved by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission on Jan 4, 2010, the parent company arranged for better management, control, operation for this fresh facet of them. This financial arrangement is being used for the expansion, better network, better coverage and capacity, innovative and new offers and services. Along with all these arrangements, new facets, decisions and funding, Airtel Bangladesh is undergoing a huge success and profitable business. Dhabi Group continues as a strategic partner retaining 30% shareholding and has its nominees on the Board of the Company.

People in any organization are those assets which are integral part for the growth and development of any organization. Therefore, constant training and development program along with some attractive compensation and benefits is no doubt a great facilitation for them. Following that, identifying the reasons behind the existence of unsatisfied workforce and managing them accordingly is the main challenge for HR. This report describes the acquisition, management, development and improvement of the workforce of Airtel Bangladesh Limited and how they are the most efficient and effective department to utilize and sustain their talented human resources.

5.0. Requirement Process
Working at airtel means a part of the brand that has ranked 7th in the list of most In Demand. Airtel is a brand that is future ready in terms of technology and most importantly, a brand that is ready to vest its future in the hands of a bunch of young and vibrant campus recruits that will shape the way the organization conducts business going forward. An airtel career thus offers an opportunity to race ahead:

5.1. Pre Placement Talks
Pre placement talks are conducted on campuses about the programs for young professionals. In order to apprise the student of the plethora of opportunities has to offer for young professionals. 5.2. Application From

Post the pre placement talk, interested candidates are invited to apply through an airtel application from which is circulated with the help of respective campus placement committees.

5.3. Short Listing

Airtel has increasingly seen a surge in the interested applicants over the years, thus short listing based on predefined criteria becomes an imperative step in the whole process. Short listing of candidates based on group discussion held on campus as part of the final selection process.

5.4. Group Discussion

With over 100 applications coming in from each of the campuses, short listing based on an application from alone becomes a herculean task for the campus manager, thus group discussion come into the picture and play a significant role in getting a final set of short list that‟s finally advance into the final round of interviewers.

5.5. Final Interview
Final interview for the short listed candidates takes place on their respective campus as a part of the final placement process. Interviews are conducted by a panel of at least 2 people comprising of a business HR Head and member of the airtel management board.

5.6. Final Offers
Post the final interviews on office , airtel communicates the final offers for the candidates address to placement committee which then it turn inform the candidates.

6.0. Training & Development of Airtel
Training is concerned with imparting particular skills for specific purposes.
We typically say training can involve the enhancement of skills, knowledge, attitudes or social behavior. It may mean changing what employees know, how they work, their attitudes toward their work, or their interactions with their co-workers or their supervisor.

Training and Development in Airtel is one of the major responsibilities of the Organizational Development team. The Organizational Development (OD) Unit encompasses four main areas of activity:

Training
Talent and Leadership management
Career and succession planning
Reward and Recognition

6.1. Internal and External Training:

Airtel‟s goal is to reverse the existing training model of heavily outsourced training, and instead develop internal training as the centerpiece of its employee skills development strategy. 6.1.1. Internal training: At Airtel, internal training can be broadly categorized into: In-House Training – training conducted by employees. Internal training is those provided by vendors who are engaged by AIRTEL to provide relevant training on a need basis.

1) On-the-Job Training

2) Coaching.

6.1.2. External Training:

External Training will therefore be utilized strictly to import unavailable skills or expertise on a one-time, non-repetitive basis and will generally be reserved for managers and above. External Training as opposed to internal training is those provided by vendors who are engaged by AIRTEL to provide relevant training on a need basis. External training can be classified into:

Domestic – trainings taking place within Bangladesh
Foreign – trainings taking place outside Bangladesh
In-house Vendor Training – training conducted by vendor in AIRTEL premises

6.2. Skill Development

For most of the technical development, on-the-job training is considered. If any identified technical training cannot be conducted while on job, the training need is forwarded to the division head for his / her attention. The division head co-ordinates with the HR division to seek training from outside source. For managerial or people skills training, the division head requests the HR division for the specific training; the HR division identifies if the training can be provided by the resources inside, or else seeks training from other training organizations. Airtel offers different course sessions where the expert instructors provide knowledge on various management or technical subjects like team development, leadership skills, GSM technology, etc.

7.0. Categories of Employee Engagement

According to the Gallup the Consulting organization there are different types of people:- • Engaged: "Engaged" employees are builders. They want to know the desired expectations for their role so they can meet and exceed them. They're naturally curious about their company and their place in it. They perform at consistently high levels. They want to use their talents and strengths at work every day. They work with passion and they drive innovation and move their organization forward. • Not Engaged: Not-engaged employees tend to concentrate on tasks rather than the goals and outcomes they are expected to accomplish. They want to be told what to do just so they can do it and say they have finished. They focus on accomplishing tasks vs. achieving an outcome. Employees who are not-engaged tend to feel their contributions are being overlooked, and their potential is not being tapped. They often feel this way because they don't have productive relationships with their managers or with their coworkers.

• Actively Disengaged: The "actively disengaged" employees are the "cave dwellers." They're "Consistently against Virtually Everything." They're not just unhappy at work; they're busy acting out their unhappiness .They sow seeds of negativity at every opportunity. Every day, actively disengaged workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish. As workers increasingly rely on each other to generate products and services, the problems and tensions that are fostered by actively disengaged workers can cause great damage to an organization's functioning.

8.0. Factors Leading to Employee

Engagement of Airtel Studies have shown that there are some critical factors which lead to Employee engagement. Some of them identified are-
1. Equal Opportunities and Fair Treatment
2. Performance appraisal
3. Pay and Benefits
4. Health and Safety
5. Job Satisfaction
6. Communication
7. Family Friendliness
8. Co-operation

9.0. Motivation Factors of Airtel

Actually in airtel Bangladesh limited theory Y is applicable because they provide a friendly working environment to their employee. Partnership and friendly management system is running here. Every employee has the right to raise his/ her voice in the company and share their idea with managerial body. HRM department treat their employee in a democratic manner. For this reasons not only top down management system is not used but also the horizontal management system is also used. In Airtel HRM body also focus on both goal oriented and value driven corporate culture and satisfactory career prospects of employee. They also motivate their employee through reward and recognition mechanism. This policy is given bellow-

9.1. Reward and Recognition

In a competitive business climate, more business owners are looking at improvements in quality while reducing costs. Employee reward and recognition programs are one method of motivating employees to change work habits and key behaviors to benefit a small business. To retain its employees and creating a good impression, ABL designs and updates its reward and recognition program time to time; which is however named as “Airtel KUDOS Reward & Recognition Program”. The aim of this program is to designing innovating and motivating ways to engage and attract people towards the organization.

Identification of company or group goals that the reward program will support is important
Identification of the desired employee performance or behaviors that will reinforce the visions of ABL.
Determination of key measurements of the performance or behavior, based on the individual or group‟s previous achievements
Determination of appropriate rewards
Communication of program to employees

In order to reap benefits such as increased productivity, the HR team of Airtel designs the reward program in such a way that the company or group‟s goal must be identified and the behaviors or performance will contribute to this. The reward program can be financial and non-financial as well. HR team of Airtel Bangladesh focuses on the non-financial rewards than financial because it is long lasting and more awaited remuneration to the employees.

To achieve its vision by 2015 of being the most loved brand and enriching the lives of millions; ABL continuously works to achieve its 3 values- alive, inclusive and respectful.

10.0. Employee Engagement Practices in Airtel

The most important drivers of growth and success for any organization are its people. The organization work to develop and nurture engagement. Airtel is considered to be the best in HR practices. Different practices that is detained by Airtel Bangladesh ltd are  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. These approaches help to communicate every department with each other.

To further HR interface, every member of the HR department has been assigned two departments to discuss and sort out all HR, personnel and administration issues. `The idea is to provide employees with a single window to the department.

The HR Intranet provides information on HR policies, organizational structure, training calendar and the house journal.

With these initiatives, Airtel has won a special place in the Bharti group. The quality of service and customer care is a reflection of the quality of people and our belief in constant improvement and up gradation.

Employee friendly HR policies have been put in place, which amply reflect the organizational concern for its people. Some typical examples of these policies and practices include

1.0. Figure: HR Policies amply in The Organization
These policies and practices are applied across the organizational levels without any discrimination.
Airtel offers a flexible compensation structure to its employees wherein the employees have the flexibility to structure their fixed component of their compensation according to their requirements within the ambit of legislation.

ECF- Employee Communication Form is a sought of meeting or conference held once in a year or once in two year by the top management. In this meeting all the employees are supposed to gather in the conference hall. There follows open communication between employees and the top management, where employees are free to communicate or can discuss various issues coming up. Through these meetings employees get chance to get themselves fully engaged with the company and the issues or the new objectives of the company.

In airtel there is a reward and recognition system which encourages the employees a lot. Every employee recognizes the best work done by their team members, seniors or juniors.

11.0. SWOT analysis on Airtel HR practices:
11.1. Strength:

Friendly working environment.
Focus on win-win-win policy by practicing HR in ethical manner. Democratic leadership style.
Focus on employee satisfactory career prospects.
Value driven corporate culture.

11.2. Weakness:
Lower compensation programme.
Inefficient in proper utilization of its ( Airtel) HR capacities.

Work pressure on HR is so much not fully motivated.
Poor international roaming facility for HR personnel.
Shortage of human resource in the Help-line than the competitor.

Insufficient ongoing training.
Criteria used to evaluate performance are not clear.
Lack of orientation programs for new employee.

11.3. Opportunity:
Focus on innovative idea through every level of employee.
Decision making process is quite decentralized.
Effective time management to approve a new idea.

11.4. Threat:
Higher employee turnover rate.
Retention of talents.

12.0. Human Resource Analysis
The study and the results of analyses used to examine the research questions. To examine employee engagement, survey has been done. 50 employees completed and submitted the survey, an overall response rate of 100 percent.

12.1. Gender
Of the respondents to this survey, 36 percent (n = 18) were female and 64 percent (n = 32) were male.

2.1. Figure: Human Analysis (Gender)
Percentage
Female (36)
Male (64)

12.2. Age
The age from the sample shows that the number of employees aged 20-26 and 26-30 years are lot more that the other aged employees. This can probably be a sign that as young people are more encouraged and enjoying the work in Airtel and as a youth brand Airtel is hiring more energetic young people.

2.2. Figure: Human Analysis (Age)

12.3. Experience
Number of years of service in the organization varied among respondents with 6 percent (n = 3) having been employed zero to one year; 22 percent (n=11) employed 2 years; 24 percent (n = 12) employed 3 years; 48 percent (n =24) employed for over 3 years with the organization.

2.3. Figure: Human Analysis (Experience)

0
5
10
15
20
25
Age Above 30 years
26-30 years
20-25 years
Jan-00 Jan-00 Jan-00 Jan-00 Jan-00 Jan-00
Experience
>30
26-30
20-25

13.0. Performance Appraisal & Evaluation System

A good performance evaluation system verifying that there is a performance deficiency and determining in every organization. Like other organization Airtel has to be corrected through training or through some other means (such as transferring the employee).So effective performance appraisal will motivate the employee which is a big task of HR professional.

14.0. Compensation Management

Airtel offers a flexible compensation structure to its employees wherein the employees have the flexibility to structure their fixed component of their compensation according to their requirements within the ambit of legislation. Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) schemes are linked with the variable component of the compensation structure. This component is linked to both the individual performance against his/her set KRAs (Key Result Areas) and the overall performance of the business entity that an employee belongs to. Airtel leaders and managers understand the need to bring clarity to employees about how their roles, goals and actions align the realization of organizational vision and goals. The mechanisms like Performance Management System (PMS) and Talent Management Process (TMP) are the key sources of identifying the training needs of the employees and check to competency levels for promotion.

15.0. Findings:
1) There have a lower investment on leadership inactive to maintain high staff engagement levels.
2) Some shortage of getting regular feedback to employee and also the managers‟ activities maintenance.
3) Proper Training lacking on improving skills of the entry level as well as mid-level employees. 4) There is a bit high work pressure of employee and improper distribution of work diversity. 5) The most weakness point of airtel ltd is to failing the valid customer verifying data.

16.0. Recommendation

Though Airtel has taken effective approaches to develop employee engagement, they should continue the practice and develop the management system, because engagement level varies and needs on continues observation. Some recommendations are given below:- 1. An important implication from this finding is that the organization should continue to invest in its leadership initiative and other related programs in an effort to maintain high staff engagement levels. Directing resources toward this objective would appear to be an effective investment for this organization.

2. Implementing new strategies, giving regular feedback to the employees and also the manager is necessary to maintain employee engagement.
3. More training can be introduced to improve skills of the employees. 4. Work pressure of the employees should be reduced by hiring more people and distributing work among them.
5. Airtel depends a lot on Bdjobs.com for getting CVs for Territory Manager, Key Account Manager, Manager Compliance; most of the time good CVs are not found there so then HR takes people from reference which is time consuming, as a result HR cannot meet the demand of different departments in supplying employees as they require.

6. Airtel should verify the original educational documents of the personnel to get talented and qualified employees.

17.0. Conclusion

Recent research and literature demonstrate an increased interest in the topic of human resource activates, and studies show that human resource of origination is directly related to positive organizational and business outcomes. This study was designed as an exploratory measure of the HR of Airtel and examined the overall level of HR of Airtel Bangladesh ltd. HR theory would suggest that in an agency such as the study site, where the workers are significantly engaged, production outcomes would be high and customer service would be exceptional. A review of the annual report from the study agency indicated that the study agency met or exceeded the standards and indicators for the fiscal year in which the study was conducted. Therefore, a major finding of this study was that the high staff engagement levels may have some correlation with the organizations‟ high production outcomes and quality customer service reports.

18.0. References
1) AIRTEL BANGLADESH (2011) Airtel Bangladesh Limited. Available from: http://www.bd.airtel.com [Accessed 27/12/2012]
2) AIRTEL BANGLA (2013) Airtel_Bangla [online]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airtel_Bangla. [Accessed 01/03/2013] 3) TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN BANGLADESH (2013). Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_Bangladesh. [Accessed 20/05/2013] 4) DESSLER, G. & VARKKEY, B. ; (2011)
Performance Management and Appraisal. Human Resource Management; 11th 5) ROBBINS, S.P. & JUDGE, T.A. ; (2010)
Organizational Behavior; 13Edition. India; Pearson Prentice Hall.th 6) 6. MORGAN, C.A.; White Paper; Understanding and developing your asset (people); B2B International Market Research with Intelligence. Available from: http://www.b2binternational.com/publications/white-papers/employee-satisfaction 7) Archie Thomas, CMA & Ann MacDi Anmid; Encouraging Employee Engagement; CMA Management; Jun/Jul 2004.

8) ROBERTSON, I; (2012) The Importance Of Employee Engagement In Difficult Times; Guardian Professional; Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders- 9) Ellehuus, C. & Hudson, P.; Performance and Retention Through Employee Engagement; Corporate leadership council 2004; Employee Engagement Survey. 10) Wikipedia n.d., Work Life Balance. Retrieved May 15 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work%E2%80%93life_balance