"The central concept of Bharti Cellular's human resource practices is Quality Education System (QES), a 11-week training programme that is compulsory for every employee in the company," says Mr Arun Kumar Padhi, vice-president, Bharti Cellular Ltd.

Apart from the certification based QES, which is conducted in association with the Institute of Quality Ltd, Bharti Cellular also conducts need-based training for its employees. "The training needs are identified according to the company's thrust areas arising out of business needs, technological or process driven training needs, skill gap analysis and individual employee needs following the annual appraisal," explains Mr Padhi.

He adds that training is conducted throughout the year according to a calendar prepared in advance for the following year and circulated among the employees.

In most of the cases, the trainers are external. For example, NIIT provides computer software training; the Gurgaon based Management Development Institute conducts project management training for the managerial cadre; Manford Allianz teaches corporate breakthroughs and empowerment. Besides, Bharti Cellular has its own in-house dedicated faculty, which confines itself to training employees in the sales and customer care divisions. The company also has a virtual learning centre, where its employees can learn computer software programmes on their own.

Bharti Cellular's training programmes also involve dealers, franchisees, collection agencies and corporate sales agents. While AirTel dealers and franchisees are involved in corporate breakthrough and empowerment training programmes along with the Airtel employees, collection agencies and corporate sales agents are trained in telephone handling, communication skills and other customer care areas under the HR Interface and AirTel-in-Touch programmes. All these innovative HR concepts, says Mr Padhi, have been inspired by Philip B Crosby's The Art of Corporate Wellness (1988), in which Crosby prescribes five tools for effectively managing a business organisation to ensure its long-term good health and growth. As a result, he explains, Bharti Cellular offers its customers a cost-efficient, zero-error service.

However, despite these practices and the fact that Bharti Cellular has been practising variable salary at all levels as part of its HR policy, the company has been losing employees to other companies, particularly MNCs and dotcoms.

"Three years ago, our employee turnover rate was as high as 24 per cent," says Mr Anil Nayar, executive director, Bharti Cellular Ltd. "Last year, it came down to 17 per cent, but this year, it has shot up again to around 24 per cent." But he adds that the management is not worried about the high employee turnover because it attributes the outflow to the high growth rate of the nascent telecom industry, and not the company's HR practices. The success of Bharti Cellular's HR practices are reflected in its profitability and growth. In less than five years, AirTel has more than two lakh subscribers in the Delhi area, and it is the only cellular telephone service provider in the country to break even and book a profit after just two years of starting operations.