Vodafone to offer 9 per cent average salary hike this year

At a time when salary hikes in the telecom sector has been hovering around the 6-7 per cent levels, Vodafone is looking to give an average 8.5-9 per cent raise to its 11,500 employees in the country.

The No.2 operator in terms of subscriber numbers will hire 1,800 more employees this year of which 35 per cent will be freshers.

Ashok Ramchandran, Director- HR, Vodafone India Ltd, told Business Line that the telecom sector is still seen as a growth industry by employees and those looking for jobs. “It is a melting pot of opportunities. The robustness is still there. I do get questions on regulatory pressures and industry dynamics but that does not indicate any worry on their part,” he said.

Over the last two years, telecom sector has lost some of its sheen in terms of attracting talent as mobile operators effected massive job cuts in a bid to stay afloat in a tough market. A number of new players, whose licences were cancelled post the 2G scam, shut down operations leaving many without jobs.

He, however, said this was not a sectoral trend but specific to some companies. “At Vodafone, we have grown consistently. We owe this to careers and people. As the industry consolidates, employment opportunities will get more discerning. Employees will not join just because it is telecom sector but they will choose telecom companies that have consistent policies.”

Attrition rate Vodafone has undertaken a number of initiatives to put high performance employees’ careers on a fast track as result of which its attrition rate has come down from 17.5 per cent to 16 per cent in the last one year. The industry average is at 21 per cent.

As Vodafone’s business mix shifts from selling 2G SIM cards to data solutions, hiring is now focused on getting freshers and training them on new areas such as mobile commerce.

“We realise that fresh talent has to be trained; so the company is prepared for on boarding and training. It has yielded fantastic results in terms of fresh thinking and energetic front line teams,” said Ramchandran.

Despite regulatory concerns and dispute over tax payments, Vodafone is investing heavily into India including ₹7,000 crore primarily to upgrade its mobile data network and buy fresh spectrum. This is on top of the ₹10,141-crore investment announced by the company to increase its stake in the Indian venture from 64 per cent to 100 per cent.

Recently, Vodafone Plc’s CEO Vittorio Colao had said, “I believe in the Indian market and we are preparing for an important phase. India is one of the two biggest markets for us along with Germany.”