Ringing in a leadership tone
Telecom
| For the right-brained, number-crunching Chartered Accountants (CAs), here is something 'hatke' : a chance to experiment with leadership skills. That's because, telecom player Bharti Airtel is now recruiting CAs for its 'Bharti Young Leaders' (YL) programme by visiting the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). |
| "Around 12 CAs have been hired by visiting the various centres of ICAI," says Harshvendra Soin, senior vice president, People excellence, Bharti Airtel. In fact, the candidates from IIMs and other B-schools are regularly hired for this programme. Even the interviewers who hire students for this program undergo a rigorous selection process within Bharti. The company chooses 30 senior management people to conduct these interviews. |
| However, seniority alone does not guarantee selection. Says Soin, "Apart from being senior people within the organisation they should be role models within Bharti too, this means they should be high-performing employees within Bharti." The interviewers have to then undergo a one-day workshop whereby they are told how to conduct an interview for YL program and how such an interview is different. Once this is done, they have to undertake a test and only those who receive a score of three plus out of five qualify as interviewers. |
| Out of the total internal applicants for the post of interviewers, there are several rejections too. On similar lines, even candidates undergo a rigorous selection process. "We first identify the top 20 percentile (in terms of academic performance) from every B-school. That arrives as the first round of short-listing. They undergo an on-line test and people below a certain score (say 28 points) get filtered out," says Soin. Rest of the shortlisted candidates have to fill up an Occupational Personality Questionnaire, and this questionnaire becomes a basis for a competency-based interviewing. |
| Accordingly, 50 B-school graduates from premier management institutes joined Bharti Airtel in June this year. Subsequent to the selection, the senior management comprising of the ranks of President and Joint President act as mentors to the selected candidates. There are appraisals that are conducted in multiple stages. There are, for instance, appraisals conducted to assess their performance on live projects that the YLs undertake and again there are appraisals once these YLs undergo a stint in their own functions like HR and marketing. After incorporating the aggregate appraisal results, those who are found to be of certain standards, are confirmed as Assistant Managers within one year of joining from campus. This means they don't go through the normal rut of executives, senior executives and so forth. |
| "Within three years they are given the position of a manager. In fact those trainees who have joined in the 2003 batch as part of YL program have already become managers in the company. This means they have risen two levels in the company in a short time," says Soin. |
| The company believes that their contributions have created value for the business. For instance, one Young Leader recruit was instrumental in developing a new commission model for channel partners across Bharti's circles. These YLs or those who join from the campuses as part of the Young Leaders program are also a part of M&A teams within Bharti. |
| The programme appears to be gaining attention amongst all the B -schools. The total number of CVs received this year was 1184, of which 733 were shortlisted for an online test. From this, 450 were further shortlisted for other rounds.52 candidates were selected as YLs. |