HRD Talk

An interview with V Krishnamurthy, Senior Manager - HR, Interactive 1, Chennai.

What's the nature of the collaboration between the Reddy Business Group and Interactive 1 UK?

This is a joint venture between the Obul Reddy Group, Interactive1 of UK, and a NRI as equal partners. The Reddy Group provided a unique entry point to India with their contacts and corporate reach. Interactive1 were able to leverage the group`s infrastructure to establish an offshore development center quickly and totally rely on the group for day-to-day management of the joint venture. The company commenced operations in India in April 2000 and currently employs nearly 70 people. Projects sourced from UK and developed in India are monitored and delivered to the client by the project managers in London, while projects undertaken in India are totally independent of the UK management. Currently, the operations are divided into four strategic business units :-

(i) UK projects (Sourced at UK)

Products (Component development)

Non UK projects (includes Microsoft and Java)

Multimedia

As an international creative technology company how much of your resources is allocated to innovations and product development?

Interactive1 is very keen on maintaining its niche in the product development area. Though we sell only solutions to our clients, we spend tremendous amount of resources in developing the various reusable components that go into the final solutions.

On an average we can say 40% of resources aredeployed in product development, though this can vary based on the life cycle and size of the product as well the projects.

What are your human resource needs?

We recruit professionals with strong skills and experience in Java, EJB, Perl, PHP, UML, Websphere, Weblogic, ASP, Dotnet, VB, VC++, Oracle, SQL Server, DBAs, system administrators with strong Sun Solaris experience, creative skills like Flash, Director Lingos, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier, 3D Modelling, Web 3D, and Photovista, to name a few.

We use internal references as our first option, and in case that does not work, we may headhunt specifically for certain people whose names are known well in the market.

What is the recruitment process that you follow across all levels in the company?

Unlike many other companies, we always conduct the HR screening first, and only those candidates found suitable go through technical interview. A written test is usually part of the technical screening, so that the candidate's communication skills, depth of knowledge, expression, analytical skills, trouble shooting abilities, etc are judged. For programmers, an online coding test in their field of competence is compulsory.

For levels such as project leaders, technical leaders, architects and managers, we always conduct one round of interview with the Head - HR, followed by a written test, and then a telephonic interview with the Technical Head at our Headquarters in London, and then a final interview with the General Manager (ODC).

We take fresh MCA's and MCA final year students as project trainees. They are selected after a coding test followed by a HR round of interview. When we recruit we attach little importance to the background of the candidates either in terms of their educational institutions or of their previous employers. Primarily they must satisfy the requirements as laid down by us for a specific job.

How is your monetary package designed?

Our salary packages are on par with market norms and industry practices. Fifty percent of the salary is given as the basic and the balance as HRA and conveyance. In addition to this there are medical allowances, project bonuses and referral bonuses.

One of the welfare schemes we provide our employees and their families is a free group insurance cover through Apollo Hospitals and a majority of the employees are covered by a free insurance of Rs. 1 lakh.

How are your incentive policies formulated across levels?

We have a quarterly award called the "Star of the Quarter", which is selected through voting by all employees and the winning `star' is given a memento along with a gift.

We have a professional development policy whereby employees may join professional courses or take examinations certified by organisations like Microsoft, Cisco, Sun, or Oracle, etc, and the company bears 50% of the cost of the course, subject to a certain upper limit. All employees may take one such course within a block of six months.

As a matter of policy, we do not believe in giving cash rewards. Exceptional performances are kept track of by a simple and objective appraisal system and deserving employees are rewarded suitably by increments and promotions. On a periodic basis, project bonuses are announced by our headquarters in London, which are shared between the team members.

Being in the field of creative designing and IT solutions, how do you do justice to both the activities?

We frankly feel this is a niche area, which is filled by very few players. On the one extreme there are the creative boutiques, which design good-looking applications, but are not dynamic and even if they are dynamic, they are not scalable or robust. On the other extreme, there are certain technically smart companies that deliver applications, which are sound but not visually appealing. This often results incommunication gaps and delays. Interactive1 with its coordinated efforts of both the divisions, is in a comfortable position to be a one stop solutions shop.

What are the internal communication techniques that you follow?

Our company hierarchy structure is extremely flat. We strongly believe that hierarchies bring obstacles in communication, and act as barriers to quick and effective decision making.

We have a monthly meeting of all employees, where the status of various ongoing projects is discussed, good performances are highlighted and any problems relating to HR, Finance, System Administration etc are discussed and sorted out.

The organisation structure here has just three broad levels - the programmers and junior programmers, the tech leads and project leaders, and the top management consisting of the GM (ODC) and the Senior Manager (HR).

Can you give me some reasons as to how working in Interactive 1 will enhance a professional's career?

Exposure to a multinational work culture, working on the latest technologies, opportunities to travel abroad, work for the top Fortune-500 clients such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, Shell, Cisco, MTV, Canon, M&G, etc, and learn from their best practices. Also, employees get to interact with their colleagues in London and Croatia on a day-to-day basis, that gives them global exposure both in terms of technology as well as working cultures.

Can you throw some light on your appraisal system, and why you selected such a system?

At Interactive1, we follow a six-monthly appraisal cycle, an appraisal system, which is quite similar to a 360-degree appraisal system.

The entire system was designed with the following features :-

The appraisal forms were customised for different functions and roles because the assessment parameters for each function and level is different and having a common appraisal form for all was not felt to be adequate.

Weightage is given to each assessment parameter to make it scientific.

Increments / rewards are linked not only to performance but attention is paid to each employee's market value, his ability to take up higher roles, his leadership potential, qualifications etc.

Having performance inputs coming in from several sources makes the whole process more objective.

Any austerity measures taken by you to make yourself more competitive?

We decided over a year back that recruitments were to be kept to the minimum, and strictly need-based.

We also streamlined other normal office overheads.

MALINI SURYANARAYANAN

maalini.mds@cxknetworks.com