Article: Driving diversified leadership capabilities in young leaders

Talent Acquisition

Driving diversified leadership capabilities in young leaders

By providing several cross-functional and cross-geography exposures, Airtel ensures that young leaders in the organization drive positive outcomes and stay loyal
Driving diversified leadership capabilities in young leaders

At Airtel, we have always believed in inducting young exceptional talent into the organization and grooming them for future leadership positions. We firmly believe that an organization with a diversified business portfolio can be managed effectively only when competent and effective leadership is distributed across the organization. The Airtel Young Leaders Program was launched in line with this, thus infusing the company with young leaders of tomorrow.
In this endeavor, Airtel visits premiere B-School campuses every year to identify and recruit the right talent who are brought into the company as Young Leaders (YL). These YLs undergo a comprehensive orientation and training program including cross-functional exposures especially in Sales & Marketing, Customer Service (CSD) and Network which are the core business pillars of the telecom industry. They are also provided a platform to work on CSR to ensure an exposure on life realities as well and thus as a process they also work with Bharti Foundation on the Satya Bharti School Program which is the flagship rural education initiative of the foundation aimed at holistic development of children. On successful completion of these business/function orientations they are absorbed in the function of their choice.

One of the key success factors of the program has been the encouragement given to the YLs to move across functions and geographies including international experiences for shaping themselves into true Business Leaders. All the exposures together equip the YLs with necessary competence and knowledge to build a successful and enriching long-term career with us. Easy access to the management cadre and robust feedback processes ensures a strong mentor support and continuous learning experience resulting into complete program effectiveness.

Today, we have 330 YLs across geographies, functions and businesses of Airtel who are competent to take up challenging assignments and are a talent pool which achieves superior business results & deliver value to the organization.

Success stories of YLs who have fast tracked their careers at Bharti Airtel with cross functional and geographical exposures and experience are aplenty. One such example is that of Bansari Vyas who joined us in 2005. She has had exposures across functions including business analytics and a stint in Singapore, has today led the Airtel Online team to develop the My Airtel App which was awarded as the “App of the Year” at the prestigious Global Mobile Awards 2013 in Barcelona. Smriti Handa is another example of a never before career growth in a short span of time. She joined us in 2004 as a Management Trainee is today the National Talent Acquisition & Campus Engagement Head in the company and the youngest member of the HR Leadership team. Different geographical exposures has also helped the YLs – for instance Nitin Mathur who joined us in the finance team in Rajasthan, moved teams across the country and is today Heading the Finance team in NESA. In yet another case, Rohit Marwha who joined us in 2001 in the marketing team in Rajasthan has since moved teams to today Head the Marketing team in Chennai.

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Topics: Talent Acquisition

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