Jobs at Hayai Broadband

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mgcarley

Founder, Hayai Broadband
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India: FTTH, FTTB or 3G // NZ: VDSL // USA: FTTH or Cable (DOCSIS3)
In the very near future, we'll be seeking candidates for various positions at Hayai, from Customer Service Reps, to Technical People (Networking, Hardware and Software) and other positions on the business side.

As with everything else, we're soliciting requests for ideas on how we can create an excellent working environment and what benefits employees would like while working with us: this is hopefully to decrease employee turnover.

I don't know if this is the right place to be pondering this side of the service, but for the sake of interest, I am thinking of things like:


[*]Good salaries
[*]Good working hours
[*]Health Insurance
[*]Transport subsidies
[*]Massage Therapy at your desk
[*]Gym Facilities (either in the office or a special pass to a nearby Gym)
[*]Complimentary Tea, Coffee, Cold Drinks and Snacks
[*]Meal service (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner) - probably using coupons or a cafeteria-like system.
[*]Good decoration, good lighting (NOT fluorescent), comfortable chairs/desks
[*]Recreation facilities for use during breaks (TV, Library service, newspapers, board-games), Sofas/tables
[*]Subsidized or complimentary Hayai Broadband access at home
[/list]
Outside of the salaries, I think I've budgeted about Rs 5,000 per month per person, but this may be overkill - or not? Is there anything I'm missing?
 
How about free / discounted connections to the employees' residences?

----------

Also assume you have accounted for a referral scheme.
 
How about free / discounted connections to the employees' residences?

Also assume you have accounted for a referral scheme.

That's already the last point on the list... perhaps we thought of it at exactly the same time as I was editing the post 😉

Yes, we have. Prizes, Discounts or free month(s) of access here and there: it's all in the marketing budget.
 
[*]Subsidized or complimentary Hayai Broadband access at home

now this should attract the right kind of crowd 🙂
 
now this should attract the right kind of crowd 🙂

Who better to tell me how good - or bad - my product is, than my employees. They would have more direct access to the "suggestion box" - not that their opinions would be more valuable than regular users, just faster to come across.
 
[*]Good working hours - Don't ask/force your employees to work for more than 8-9 hours a day, certainly not without overtime.

[*]Health Insurance - Group insurance policy will not cost much but can be a big motivating factor

[*]Transport subsidies - If you are not located in the suburbs of a city and are infact located in central areas of any city then employees in normal shift (i.e those working from 10AM to 6 PM) should come to the office on their own. Those working odd hours should get transport provided by employer. Field staff must get transport cost reimbursed.

[*]Massage Therapy at your desk - This is an overkill.

[*]Gym Facilities (either in the office or a special pass to a nearby Gym) - This you can do when your operations are profitable. Otherwise your VC investors will raise fingers on such expense at the very start.

[*]Complimentary Tea, Coffee, Cold Drinks and Snacks - This is a must

[*]Meal service (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner) - probably using coupons or a cafeteria-like system. - Have a good cafeteria with reasonably priced stuff (not highly subsidized price)

[*]Good decoration, good lighting (NOT fluorescent), comfortable chairs/desks - This is a must

[*]Recreation facilities for use during breaks (TV, Library service, newspapers, board-games), Sofas/tables - Skip things like TV because people will like to watch cricket match more than their PC monitors. Newspaper is a wastage of money because everyone can read newspapers online without spending a single rupee. Now a days I get only one newspaper in my office instead of 6 that we used to get 3-4 years ago.

[*]Subsidized or complimentary Hayai Broadband access at home This is a good idea.
[/list]
 

  • Good working hours - Don't ask/force your employees to work for more than 8-9 hours a day, certainly not without overtime.


    This is the point of the sentence in the first place. I've seen companies which force 12+ hour days here - not good.
  • Health Insurance - Group insurance policy will not cost much but can be a big motivating factor


    I would have to check this, it was just something that I think not too many companies offer (maybe some bigger companies and MNCs do, but otherwise...)
    • Transport subsidies - If you are not located in the suburbs of a city and are infact located in central areas of any city then employees in normal shift (i.e those working from 10AM to 6 PM) should come to the office on their own. Those working odd hours should get transport provided by employer. Field staff must get transport cost reimbursed.


      Naturally transport outside of daytime hours would be taken care of by the company. What I meant is that the companies pays part of (or maybe the total) amount for the employees bus/train pass.
      • Massage Therapy at your desk - This is an overkill.


        You might think so, but even once or twice a month for 10-15 minutes can be a huge lift-me-up. And by the time we have even 3-400 employees, thats looking at a full-time masseuse (assuming ~20 people per day)
        • Gym Facilities (either in the office or a special pass to a nearby Gym) - This you can do when your operations are profitable. Otherwise your VC investors will raise fingers on such expense at the very start.


          It isn't as expensive to implement as you might imagine. It might take up 1 room in the office and only a couple of lakhs to set up some basic equipment - it's a start, and would also reduce the rates on insurance premiums ("fat" people aren't exactly rewarded by insurance companies).
          • Complimentary Tea, Coffee, Cold Drinks and Snacks - This is a must


            Complimentary, of course. My office in Helsinki used to have a fridge full of energy-drinks, Coke/Sprite, juices and other things to keep the employees going. Every office has a coffeemaker, so that was a given 🙂
            • Meal service (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner) - probably using coupons or a cafeteria-like system. - Have a good cafeteria with reasonably priced stuff (not highly subsidized price)


              Well, since you can get a veg meal for Rs40-80 and a non-veg meal for Rs80-120 in my area, I figure most other places are even cheaper.

              I like the cafetaria systems in Scandinavia (Finland, in my experience) - the hot food would change daily, and you just serve yourself salad, milk, juice, water, bread as you like. Of course, it would likely be Indian food to be served (Non-veg, Veg and Jain).
              • Good decoration, good lighting (NOT fluorescent), comfortable chairs/desks - This is a must


                And yet so few companies implement it.
                • Recreation facilities for use during breaks (TV, Library service, newspapers, board-games), Sofas/tables - Skip things like TV because people will like to watch cricket match more than their PC monitors. Newspaper is a wastage of money because everyone can read newspapers online without spending a single rupee. Now a days I get only one newspaper in my office instead of 6 that we used to get 3-4 years ago.


                  Perhaps, but I don't want employees reading/eating at the computer(s) - they're supposed to be working!! Drinks are OK, but food would cause the space to become unhygienic.

                  The TV would be in a separate room, not visible or audible from the work area.

                  And statistically, reading a paper-version of a newspaper is healthier: better for the eyes, too. The tactile sensation of a newspaper and ink is lost with the online version. It would work out to maybe Rs 1500 per month by the time you get something like 3 copies of 3 papers.
                  • Subsidized or complimentary Hayai Broadband access at home This is a good idea.
 
An interesting discussion regarding hiring at Slashdot:

Slashdot Comments | Appropriate Interviewing For a Worldwide Search?

Fortunately for me, I know what I'm looking for, so I think I could figure out pretty quickly who is wasting my/their time and who would be valuable to our organization.

I have some basic ideas, but does anyone have any statistics for salary ranges for various positions (let's base it on Mumbai salaries for now):
Call Center Staff (Junior)
Call Center Staff (Senior)
VOIP specialists
IPTV specialists
Hardware Specialist (PC/Mac/Linux, Consumer and SME networking equipment)
Network Administrators (Juniper Equipment, Alcatel-Lucent equipment, Routing/Load Balancing, QoS etc)
Server Administrators (Linux/BSD with A,M,P, RADIUS, BIND, Mail etc)
Security Personnel (Firewalls, Proxies, Intrusion Detection, Monitoring, Authentication etc)
Wireless Technicians (WiFi, WiMax, knowledge of both indoor/outdoor equipment, UBNT equipment knowledge a plus)
Fibre Optic Specialists (Best practices for both indoor/outdoor cabling, splicing, splitters, pigtails)
Builders (concrete/bitumen, trench digging etc)
Webmasters (proficient in CMSes and online payment systems)
Copywriters (proficient in at least English, Hindi and the state language)
Sales People
Accountants and book keepers
Project Managers

Any positions I may have missed?
 
Technical staff of decent quality is really difficult to find in India. You will soon learn this hard fact that despite having a population of well over a billion, our country has a very limited pool of skilled workers.If I were in your place, then I 'd start by hiring a middle to senior lever HR guy from Airtel or Tata. Make him an offer that he can't refuse. Then use that HR guy to hire rest of the staff of right quality and at best price.You can also go for hiring untrained staff direct from college campus and then train them as per your requirement. That is a cheaper way to go but it is like reinventing the wheel and will consume too much time. You will want to hit the ground running. So attract some of the talent from your competitors to start with. Then as you expand, hire some freshers and train them to meet your expanded requirements and also to lower average cost of an employee.
 
Technical staff of decent quality is really difficult to find in India. You will soon learn this hard fact that despite having a population of well over a billion, our country has a very limited pool of skilled workers.


I know. And especially for the technical staff/phone staff etc I expect there to be a lot of headaches. I'll probably have to resort to silly questions about old hardware to see who was actually playing with this stuff when they were 10 or ask them questions about anomalies within different versions of Windows/Mac OS/*nix. I expect about 95% of CS/IT graduates will fail.

If I were in your place, then I 'd start by hiring a middle to senior lever HR guy from Airtel or Tata. Make him an offer that he can't refuse. Then use that HR guy to hire rest of the staff of right quality and at best price.


I don't like or trust HR people. I don't like HR Departments, and more often than not they get in the way or are superfluous: all HR departments have done in my experience is issue stupid memos about employee dress codes and whatnot.

Frequently, I've never even met the HR manager - as a result, a recommendation from the manager of that team member is probably more valuable than the opinion of any HR person. Put simply: an HR manager doesn't know what *I* want.

And it's not necessarily about price either, it's also about quality of service. Sure, I could get someone in for 20k a month to answer phones, but that kind of salary is unlikely to attract the right people for the job, as a person with appropriate experience (phone skills *and* technical knowledge) could surely receive more elsewhere. I'd rather keep employee turnover as low as possible.

You can also go for hiring untrained staff direct from college campus and then train them as per your requirement. That is a cheaper way to go but it is like reinventing the wheel and will consume too much time. You will want to hit the ground running. So attract some of the talent from your competitors to start with. Then as you expand, hire some freshers and train them to meet your expanded requirements and also to lower average cost of an employee.

I don't want to hire untrained staff - that's what the competition do, and that's why the competition are incompetent. I want people who actually like technology, not those who got a flyer from **IT "Government Approved" college and saw the promise of Rs 12k per month upon graduation and 100% money back if you don't get over 80% in the exams. If most people are passing over 80%, the tests are probably too easy - or meaningless. NIIT is a prime example.

Hiring away from competitors might be an option, but I've yet to speak to any decent telephone reps who can give me a good answer to a question or request.

At the end of the day, I might simply be best to hire someone to sort through potential candidates, then I myself will sort those with talent/aptitude against those who have embellished CVs - which seems to be a common problem in India.
 
Programmers (C++/QT)

That made me curious: where/what would you want C++/Qt programmers for?
 
That made me curious: where/what would you want C++/Qt programmers for?

User interfaces for custom software. Maybe. If we can't find something suitable off the shelf, that is.

dialers to connect to wimax networks on linux? 😛

One 5-letter acronym coming up: PPPoE. I'd rather not have a special dialer if I can avoid it. [Operating System of choice] default should be sufficient. Besides, I want to avoid using WiMax at all except where absolutely necessary (or in sparsely populated areas, maybe.)
 
Should I add the prospect of 4-day workweeks to the mix?
 
User interfaces for custom software. Maybe. If we can't find something suitable off the shelf, that is.



One 5-letter acronym coming up: PPPoE. I'd rather not have a special dialer if I can avoid it. [Operating System of choice] default should be sufficient. Besides, I want to avoid using WiMax at all except where absolutely necessary (or in sparsely populated areas, maybe.)

Hi there, glad to be part of the discussion.

As far as having not a special dialer that would be really cool. FWI recall specifically in Ubuntu there are number of operators who are already in the database, there may just be an additional entry required in the database and some settings which would need to be worked out.

----------

In the very near future, we'll be seeking candidates for various positions at Hayai, from Customer Service Reps, to Technical People (Networking, Hardware and Software) and other positions on the business side.

As with everything else, we're soliciting requests for ideas on how we can create an excellent working environment and what benefits employees would like while working with us: this is hopefully to decrease employee turnover.

I don't know if this is the right place to be pondering this side of the service, but for the sake of interest, I am thinking of things like:


[*]Good salaries
[*]Good working hours
[*]Health Insurance
[*]Transport subsidies
[*]Massage Therapy at your desk
[*]Gym Facilities (either in the office or a special pass to a nearby Gym)
[*]Complimentary Tea, Coffee, Cold Drinks and Snacks
[*]Meal service (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner) - probably using coupons or a cafeteria-like system.
[*]Good decoration, good lighting (NOT fluorescent), comfortable chairs/desks
[*]Recreation facilities for use during breaks (TV, Library service, newspapers, board-games), Sofas/tables
[*]Subsidized or complimentary Hayai Broadband access at home
[/list]
Outside of the salaries, I think I've budgeted about Rs 5,000 per month per person, but this may be overkill - or not? Is there anything I'm missing?

apart from this you are missing a very vital component, cross-functional training.

I have had some limited experience as an alpha and beta tester, UI guy, trainer, concept and giving presentations on technical subjects to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Professionally, number of times I have seen people who are near to each other in job capacity but don't know basic things (or claim not to know basic things of job. ) . That gives a bad rep. to the organization as well.

See BSNL My Blog

I don't know if this serves your purpose or not but this may be relevant to where you are.

Killing Internet in India My Blog
 
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