The Hindu Business Line : The fast track to success

Apoorva joined as a front desk employee at Natural Search, an Internet content development company. Three months into manning phone calls, she was promoted to the administration department. Seeing her flair for work, the management chose to coach her, and today, she is a human resources (HR) consultant and manages the company's employee lifecycle.

This fast track growth may help Apoorva in her career, but it helps her company more. With mass recruitments becoming common, it is hard to find candidates to fill the gap between the many at the entry level and the few at the top of the organisation. Companies are increasingly relying on fast track programmes to fill lower/middle management positions.

"We used to do one programme in eight months. Now we are doing two-three a year," says Sanjay Khendry, Vice-President of Sierra Atlantic, a company involved in enterprise applications and outsourced product development. Six batches, each consisting of 15-18 candidates, have undergone this fast track growth programme so far. The 14-16 week programme covers management education, basic communication, finance and marketing.

At Intelnet Global Services, candidates from the entry level up to middle management are eligible for the six-month-long growth programme. "We prefer promoting employees from within the organisation instead of hiring people from outside," said a spokesperson. This BPO, jointly owned by Barclays Bank and HDFC, has added about 90 per cent of its middle management through this programme.

"Our middle management is completely internally groomed," says N. Ranga Reddy, CEO and Co-Founder, Maveric Systems, an independent testing company. Its investment in the 18-36 month training programme catering to the middle management has increased. "We decided to add international project exposure as a part of the training component," says Reddy. Prior to this, the company invested about Rs 1.75 lakh a year on each candidate.

While such programmes may jumpstart one's career, not everyone can make it through the exhaustive selection process . Besides employee performance, competency-based interviews and psychometric tests, presentation skills are also evaluated.

Less than two per cent of employees qualify for the `High Performers' programme at Infotech Enterprises. The programme has modules on talent identification and management, individual development planning, succession planning, conflict style inventory and mentoring. Ashok Reddy, the company's Executive Vice-President, HR and Corporate Affairs, justifies the stringent selection criteria saying over 8,000 man-hours of managerial inputs are put in to fulfil the demands of this programme.

Patni Computer Systems did 21 assessments for four months across all its locations followed by interviews for two months. Of the 200 middle management employees short-listed, about 50 were chosen for the 18- month leadership grooming programme started in late 2005.

"We don't want to take chances in choosing future leaders," says Kalpana Jaishankar, Vice-President, People Development and HR Operations, Patni. One can understand, considering over Rs 40 lakh will be spent on the programme.

Making it past the selection is just the beginning. If you are a cub waiting to become a tiger, brace yourself for hard work. The `Cubs-to-Tigers' management programme at OfficeTiger ensures every candidate carries out dual duties — one's existing role and that of an Associate Client Manager/ Client Manager. This six-month programme helps candidates interact with peers and leaders on live operations. "More importantly, candidates passing out are automatically promoted by two levels," says Vishal Mehra, Vice-President, HR-Asia Pacific, OfficeTiger.

Hard work pays. Candidates passing out of fast track programmes can often choose careers different from what they started with, as is the case with SlashSupport, a tech support BPO. Moving to lateral positions is also easy. At Ajuba International, candidates from the operations division have moved into technology, HR, training and quality assurance. Fast trackers get faster promotions too. They could grow to senior roles in a year, while other employees would take four-five years to get there. It is not surprising then that they are also in demand from other companies who look upon them as young leaders.

How is attrition among fast trackers? Low, say companies. Maveric Systems puts it at about six per cent, much less that the company average of 15 per cent a year. Shankar Narasimhan, Director-HR, Ajuba International, says only 20 of the over 100 fast trackers have left the company in the last five years.

But companies are not complacent on the low attrition. Maveric has a bonus option for all its fast trackers. Aditi Technologies' programme ensures candidates are not promoted immediately after course completion. They wait till the next appraisal cycle to avail the fast track promotion, says Vineet Kumar Arora, the company's Director-Technology. This helps the organisation assess how candidates perform post the fast track programme. At media company Genesis Burson-Marsteller, all candidates sign a two-year bond before embarking on the fast track programme.

The success of fast track programmes has resulted in companies widening its scope. NaviSite, a managed hosting solutions provider, extends its programme across management, technical and internal functions. Candidates are expected to have managed at least one cross- functional initiative, says Sumeet Sabharwal, Managing Director of the company.

Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab provides fast track growth across technology, people management and programme management. "This has helped us fill not only India-based roles, but also positions in the Asia Pacific region," says Shrikant Lonikar, Global Director for HR and OD. About 80 per cent of Honeywell's top leadership and 70 per cent of its second layer leadership comes from these programmes.

Sutherland Global Services is expanding its programme across all regions it operates in . "We will also integrate cross-geography practice sharing where candidates from one region will travel to our operations in other cities. This will help us create a seamlessly aligned global middle management cadre," says S. Bala, Vice-President, Operations, Sutherland. Similar programmes are in place for senior business leaders, and cost between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 40 lakh per person.

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