Amidst crucial business transformation at Bharti Airtel, the company has not taken its eye away from the core aspect that defines its success talent, and culture that supports an environment for people to deliver results. People Matters spoke with Krish Shankar, Executive Director – HR to share the essence of people in business delivery and how they are able to effectively connect with 16,000+ employees, spread across locations.

With new telecom companies mushrooming pan India, what sets Bharti Airtel apart?
The core DNA of our company is our entrepreneurial spirit where people are empowered to do their jobs. Our tremendous growth in the past years has been possible because our DNA enables our people to go out and do the jobs they have not done before.
We have had many initiatives for our people and have always had a special focus on managing talent. We have identified almost 60 people who have been moved to Africa for different roles and growth opportunities. There have also been a lot of internal talent movements across circles. We have two high potential development programs, at different levels. The ‘B-Leap’ is the ‘Business Leader’s Acceleration Program’ and ‘E-Leap’ is ‘Emerging Leader’s Acceleration Program’.
‘E-Leap’ focuses on identifying and developing high potential employees who can be groomed to take on future leadership roles and ‘B-Leap’ is for employees who have been with us for about 10-12 years where we are training them to take up special roles. These programs further our efforts in developing the bench strength of the organization to meet the increasing need for people at leadership roles for our new businesses.

What does being a ‘Great Workplace’ mean to you?
Being a great workplace means to continue improving. We are a large company with 16,000 people and many businesses. To have the best people working for you and ensuring that they are fully engaged is what defines a great workplace. Further, it is also important to keep pace with the new and changing aspirations of the market so that the organization is up to speed and always focused at doing better.