Today?s business environment is dynamic and is witnessing changes by the day. To harness this dynamism for the benefit of business, there is a need to constantly adapt and learn. In this scenario, service organisations need people with diverse skillsets to work across verticals and functions. Such organisations also need people who understand business domains in-depth and can relate to business verticals at the same level as their clients. Organisations thus scout for both multi-skilled and domain intensive professionals.
Having said this, the need for defining skills and their efficiency levels is dependent on a large part to the nature of any organisation?s business. At Verizon Data Services India (VDSI), we are primarily focused on the telecom domain because that is the business of our parent company, Verizon. Hence, for organisations such as ours, which work across the industry lifecycle, there is a pronounced need for domain-intensive professionals. As organisations move up the business value chain, that need becomes even more important. However, due to limited talent availability in the domain-intensive space, we would prefer to hire a fair percentage of multi-skilled professionals with a career promise of making them domain-intensive professionals in due course.
Striking a fine balance in ensuring that organisations have a healthy mix of multi-skilled and domain-intensive professionals is a job easier said than done. In a hot job market like India, in their first 2-3 years of their career, professionals do rapid job hops to add extra-momentum to their careers. To such a target group, selling the idea of domain-specialisation is challenging, as being domain-intensive is about giving a long-term direction/vision and stability to one?s career. But if a company has an appealing value proposition, hiring for domain expertise works for mature professionals. Remember, hiring is a two-way process: The company selects a candidate, but the candidate also selects the company.
Another potential challenge could be varying perceptions on domain stability; indicative of a domain?s future potential and ability to stand the test of time. Those who hire for domains like telecom are likely to find it easier in this regard.
Those who join us at entry-level for their multi-skilled profile are provided opportunities to develop deep domain expertise in communications and build a solid, rewarding career with a strong foundation. This is done through a two-pronged approach?continuous exposure to applications on a single domain and additional structured training. It is common that after 5-6 years, the multi-skilled professional matures into a domain expert with fine technical abilities that add value to the professional and the organisation.
VDSI is a global complement of Verizon Communications. Almost all of the IT applications and systems that we work on with our onshore teams help build and run Verizon?s wireline and global IP networks or offer products and services over these networks. Sound understanding of the telecom business and insights into the market dynamics are central to making valuable contributions in this space.
That explains why we believe in hiring people for their skills and nurturing them to be experts in their fields. This indeed is an employer-differentiator for VDSI. Our typical approach has been to hire talented professionals who are enthusiastic to learn and train them on our business. Of course, a fraction of the new hires choose to stay multi-skilled.
Those who join us with diverse skills too have best-in-class opportunities to be experts in the telecom domain by virtue of the intense communication focus we maintain. This enables us to continually add value to our parent company Verizon, as we have a larger percentage of employees who understand the business beyond the demands of IT. Employees thus become well-rounded professionals with an intense focus on a specialised, long-term and stable career.
The author is head, HR, Verizon Data Services India
