KPIs for HR evaluation in telecom business



Those who did not pay due attention to human resource management paid a very high price.  Most businesses have learned a very serious lesson from the recent financial meltdown.  It appeared that only those companies can survive and even the success during the recession time that have the most professional, loyal and creative personnel.  It is that simple!  Investments and new production facilities can do their job, but still all decisions are to be made by employees.  If company personnel is reluctant to offer new ideas and implement ambitions plans the company is doomed to fail.

That’s why human resource management gain popularity in the last decade.  Tough competition in the market forces companies to improve all the time.  Improvements should start with self employment, i.e. improvement of personnel.  If you want to invest you’d better invest in the people who work for your company.  But naturally business owners expect returns on investments in human resources.  Expected revenue pretty much depends on how human resource department works.

There is no unified were universal approach to evaluation of human resource performance for all business types.  Every business and every company is individual and it requires different approaches to human resource management and its evaluation, in particular.  However, use of balanced scorecard system can be recommended to all businesses that want to measure HR performance and align human resource measures and goals with strategic goals of the company.

When evaluating the HR performance in telecommunication business it is important to remember that people employed with telecom companies require special knowledge and experience.  Headhunting is especially popular in this business area.  What key performance indicators (KPI) might be helpful to measure efficiency of HR department in a telecommunication company?

  1. New hires achieving 12 month service.  Peculiar feature of telecommunication business is use of high tech.  Even people with proper education need experience especially in telecommunication business.  Besides, telecom technologies and solutions are changing all the time.  Thus, employees should learn to use them in their work.  When a company hires a new specialist it spends some money to train him and educate.  Of course, when such an employee leaves within one year, the companies suffer losses (education costs+ recruitment costs for a new employee).  That’s why it is very important to regularly measure this indicator which can also represent employee loyalty to the company, as well as employee satisfaction (as satisfied employee will obviously not leave the company).  The lower this indicator, the better work of HR service.
  2. Percentage of employees with their performance increased compared to last review.  Improvement of personnel skills is a priority task for any company.  It especially concerns telecommunication business were tough competition is observed.  If company personnel is performing better the company is likely to attract new customers/subscribers which means increased revenue.  It is important to regularly evaluate professionalism and competence of personnel, and keep this indicator at the highest possible level.  If the value of this indicator is going down, company management should look for the root of the problem.