How Ericsson is gearing up to attract and retain talent in the 5G world

Priyanka Anand, Vice President and Head of Human Resources, South East Asia, Oceania and India at Ericsson (Illustration by Suneesh Kalarickal)

More than 25 percent of Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson’s employees are in India, making the country one of the most important parts of its overall operations. As of 2021, Ericsson had over 26,000 employees in South-East Asia, Oceania and India.

“It's huge, it is diverse, it's complex, and we create skilled staff, transactional to strategic, with high-end technical competence even at the lowest end of the spectrum,” Priyanka Anand, Vice President and Head of Human Resources, South East Asia, Oceania and India at Ericsson, told Moneycontrol in an interview.

By making employees “CEOs of their careers”, almost 45 percent of total positions have been filled through internal mobility. Further, the HR leader said the attrition rate has been below the market benchmark.

“The biggest reassurance that we are on the right track is that in the past couple of years, despite the highs and the lows, our attrition in India has always been in single digits,” she said.

Edited excerpts:

How do you see India in terms of talent availability concerning skills required for the telecom industry? How has it changed over the last 4-5 years?

India has always been the biggest talent hub for us. I head HR for South East Asia, Oceania and India. And India is the biggest and the most significant part of our operations. As a company, more than 25 percent of our population sits in this country alone.

It's huge, it is diverse, it's complex, and we create skilled staff, transactional to strategic, with high-end technical competence even at the lowest end of the spectrum.

Also Read | ‘The Great Attrition’ is ebbing, there’s stability in people movement now: KPMG India

We heavily depend on upskilling, reskilling of people, and talent availability for newer skills. 5G is key and we started to look at how to explore this entire landscape, and this was no different when we had the 4G or 3G also coming in.

So, to me, if I just pick out one example of 5G going live in India, we have been able to both build talent repositories to meet the needs as well as the demand of 5G across the world and fast track our own 5G component in India by having our people based here being part of the 5G deployment across the world. While some of them were remote, some were in-person in other parts of the world.

Can you share some of the challenges that you witnessed in terms of attracting talent towards Ericsson concerning India?

It’s a very hot market. Further, we are talking about newer technologies and India does not have deep talent pools for getting professional expertise in these technology areas.

We've got to eventually work towards creating a unique value proposition - why should a candidate want to come in and work for us and why should an employee decide to continue to work with us, and that narrative only comes into existence when we start to make our employee value proposition more visible.

How are you preparing talent for the future?

At Ericsson, we very openly and boldly tell our employees that they are the CEOs of their careers. We inspire them to understand their potential and to also discover the pathway to find and achieve their greatness.

Also Read | When it comes to talent, versatility is the name of the game: TVS HR chief

Employees leverage lots of programs that help them evolve into the people that they want to become or leaders that they want to become. These include partnering with universities like INSEAD or building a program for mid-level women leadership called Aspire.

We also create leaders and learning drivers and lots of those things. So, when we do all of those things like 5G academy, digital academy, and sales interventions like Rise Up, all this comes together to make employees feel empowered and they see the organisation is investing (in them) in many ways.

How many positions were you able to fulfil through the internal talent movement?

In 2022, almost 45 percent of total positions were closed via internal mobility in market areas of South East Asia, Oceania and India.

How has been the attrition at the company?

Our attrition has been very well under the market benchmark because we've mapped our employee journeys and we've made sure that we map them to moments that matter. Employees don't leave organisations, they either leave cultures, or they leave managers.

Also Read | Hiring at Amway India is aligned with core organisational values: CHRO Shantanu Das

The biggest reassurance that we are on the right track is that in the past couple of years, despite the highs and the lows, our attrition in India has always been in single digits.

How are you addressing the diversity and inclusion (D&I) question at the workplace?

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) have been a cornerstone of our strategy, it's a big strategic pillar for us. We respect and value diversity across the globe as a company and measure it in terms of gender as well as age and geography.

We've focused on women and talent in the middle of the pyramid. So, the bottom gets fed by a university partnership, and the Ascent program is one of those. We also have a program called Accelerate on young leadership.

Likewise, we also have Aspire 2.0, which is investing in a targeted manner through a period of six months in women in the middle of the pyramid because we recognized very early that waiting for women leaders at the top is a bit like a lost game.

We've got to invest upfront and draw talent at the middle of the pyramid to see more representation of women at the top of the pyramid. In market areas of South East Asia, Oceania and India, the overall women workforce stands at around 20 percent and with 30 percent in leadership roles.

Is speculation around the economic downturn impacting Ericsson in terms of hiring and retention of talent?

Recession is of course a global reality now, and we can't take that away. It's a huge challenge across the world but the good news, at least for us, is that our industry is in a high boom phase.

Also Read | India is a strategic location for global talent search: Citigroup hiring chief

Because 5G is at the onset and with the kind of focus we have towards deploying 5G – 137 networks across the world deployed by Ericsson – we will be needing the right level of talent to transform the industry.

I would not deny that the going will be difficult and we have to be very cautious about how we tread this path and stay very cost-competitive and more agile in terms of being productive and resilient. That said, if you do things right, there's a huge amount of growth potential in the industry where we are and the technologies that we are dealing with.

What is the work model? What percentage of employees are currently working from home and the office?

The future will be flexible, it will be more about creating a win-win between the business and individuals and it is non-negotiable for us to remain competitive, relevant, and an attractive employer to enable flexibility and give people choices to work from – home, office or anywhere depending on the role requirements.

By January, we are expecting to see more than 50 percent of our workforce be available in the office and 50 percent to be working from home. That is what we are working towards. We are almost getting there, and again, we are ready to go through this journey and not push it through much faster.

Also Read | We’re not 107 years old, we’re 107 years new: Tata Power CHRO Himal Tewari

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity]