Unsure of future, telco staff seek opportunity elsewhere

Unsure of future, telco staff seek opportunity elsewhere

Thousands of employees at Vodafone IdeaNSE -4.35 % and Bharti AirtelNSE -1.39 % are looking out, after the telecom companies posted unprecedented losses and stare at huge statutory dues, recruiters said. Despite some relief from the government and tariff hikes, employees are still seeking other opportunities, the recruiters added.

Take the case of an area sales manager at one of the telecom companies, who has approached a Bengaluru-based search firm. “I have to leave because I was not sure what the future of the company and sector will be in the coming years. I was advised to take a 25% raise at the very minimum but am so eager to leave that I can (go) for a 10-12% hike,” the employee said.

Kamal Karanth, cofounder of specialist staffing company Xpheno, said that over the last few weeks, some 7,000 profiles of Vodafone Idea and around 5,000 at rival Bharti Airtel’s have been out in the market. Xpheno aggregated data from candidate resumes that were updated or added on job portals, social media sites and sent directly to the staffing company.

This means about 70% of Vodafone Idea’s roughly 10,000 staffers and over 30% of Airtel’s nearly 16,000 employees are looking for jobs. The government has said it wants both the telecom companies and the sector to flourish, and that it backs three private telecom players in India.

“Overall, around 40% of the people (in the wider telecom sector ecosystem) are looking out,” said Karanth, speaking of a sector that employs 180,000 workers directly in telecom, tower companies and vendor firms, among others. These numbers are only expected to increase.

Recruiters cite data on job portals to point out that telecom professionals in areas such as sales, marketing, accounts, administration and HR make up for a bulk of the candidates looking to shift out. They may find it easier to get jobs in other industries compared with those in niche profiles like network integration.

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from Jobs-Economic Times