What TVS Motor Company looks for in candidates when hiring

At the senior level, TVS prefers candidates who can manage ambiguity. To meet this demand, the company has certain guidelines.

TVS Motor Company, the third-largest two-wheeler manufacturer in India, looks for candidates with new-age skills such as artificial intelligence and digital manufacturing, apart from traditional ones like business, finance, strategy, and business planning.

This is in keeping with the changing times in the industry, the company’s HR chief said.

“Our industry was largely mechanical-oriented. But these days, it is all about electrical, electronics, and software,” R Anandakrishnan, president – HR and IT at TVS Motor, told Moneycontrol.

Leadership competencies 

The HR chief advises hiring managers to look for candidates with values and leadership competencies aligned with the company, which has manufacturing plants in Hosur, Mysuru and Nalagarh in India, and Karawang in Indonesia.

“We look for talent which is collaborative and versatile. And someone who is not a traditional thinker but an out-of-the-box person,” he said.

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At the senior level, TVS prefers candidates who can manage ambiguity. To meet this demand, the company has certain guidelines.

For mid- and senior-level employees, hiring managers use Hogan Assessments, which are tests that give employers an insight into the personality and cognitive abilities of prospective and existing staffers.

“But then we also use such assessments as a development tool. So it does not just work as acceptance or rejection,” Anandakrishnan said.

TVS also uses SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire, which measures workplace behavioural style.

“Depending on the level that we hire, we have different assessments that we look at,” the HR head said.

Anandakrishnan said the fundamental quality is how well a candidate is aligned with – or wants to get aligned with – the culture of the organisation. Though there are no standard questions during an interview, three things are important.

“First, education decides how somebody would have come through. Then there is an exposure that we talk about before coming to experience,” he said.

Usually, behaviour-led interviews help TVS to understand a candidate’s aspirations.

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The HR head explained that for the position of a domain business head, the interviewee would ask how well the candidate has brought people’s skills to the fore and how well there has been absorption of technologies, typically measuring learning agility.

No job-hoppers

“Besides, we obviously look at the longevity of a person in a particular job. We are not taking people who are compulsive job hoppers,” Anandakrishnan said. “These candidates would not have learnt as much and would not have had that much experience and would not have had that much exposure.”

If somebody has been stable in the past couple of roles, that is something that TVS gives weightage to, he said.

For young talent aspiring to enter India Inc., Anandakrishnan has a piece of advice: Work with purpose and learning agility.

“People need to learn to manage specific situations and always strive to learn new skills,” he said. “Don’t stop with learning. Learn to apply those new skills to your way of working.”

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