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Every other business today is in the midst of transformation. Swedish telecommunications and networking giant Ericsson has been on that path for nearly a decade, ever since it decided to get out of consumer businesses and focus on network infrastructure, software and services. Also, as Priyanka Anand, Ericsson’s Vice-President and Head, HR, South East Asia, Oceania & India, says, the company has been on a digital journey for a few years. Now with automation and Artificial Intelligence, there is even more transformation within the business, requiring a new talent strategy.
Tracking trends
“Data is backbone to our business today,” says Anand, pointing out how there is change in the way the company is managing networks with more automation and machine learning.
“Customers are changing expectations from us as vendors. 4G to 5G is an expected linear path but there are non-linear changes like voice to data. We need to be tracking all the trends,” she says.
Recently Ericsson set up a global artificial intelligence accelerator in Bengaluru to focus on research and development in artificial intelligence and automation. The company will employ over 150 data scientists, data engineers, ML/AI architects, and software developers for the innovation hub.
“We are building our own competence to see how we can get quicker to the market innovations,” says Anand, describing it as a unique set-up for automation and innovation.
New needs
Currently 90 per cent of Ericsson’s 26,000 strong workforce in India is technical talent, including engineers, R&D, service delivery et al . But needs are changing. Anand points how the attempt is to reduce manual interventions in managing networks, deploying more AI to understand and track customer needs. But while data scientists and AI specialists are the need of the hour, the reality is there is a serious dearth of talent in these areas. A study by Analytics IndiaMagazine in association with online education firm Great Learning last month pointed out that over 4,000 job roles in AI are vacant due to shortage of qualified talent.
How will Ericsson combat that?
Anand says there are multiple ways in which the company is ensuring its talent is future-ready. It starts from its campus hiring practices, and traditionally Ericsson is big on this. “We try to get right competency and upskill to create a suitable employee base,” she says. Also, the attempt is to get to the right institution and form partnerships to co-create modules relevant to it.
The second way, she says, is to look at what is available in the market — the preference is for more people from consulting than pure telecom — and take a different approach to attract and retain the talent. “How we hire, how we pay, is all part of our differentiated strategy,” she says, terming it a “daring approach”.
Third is to create intense learning journeys for new recruits by immersing them in projects that are live, shadowing people who are experts, exposing them to on-ground situations to transition them for real life delivery situation. As for existing employees, there is constant focus on reskilling and upskilling, she says, deploying virtual learning modules, in-room teaching sessions, etc.
In the future, hiring 2.0 will see Ericsson doing more virtual assessments, working more with RPOs (recruitment process outsourcing firms), etc.
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