BSNL

Recruitment & Selection

Group 5
Telecom Industry: An overview
Telecommunication industry of India is the second largest telecom network after china. It is
the world's fastest growing telecommunications industry, with 671.69 Million telephone
(landlines and mobile) subscribers as of June 2010. A very large population, under
penetrated market and growing per capita income makes it an attractive destination for
investment and growth. The tariffs have gone down from whooping Rs 27/min in 2000 to
1p/2sec in recent times. The catch here lies in volumes in terms of no of subscribers,
spending in Value added services and reduction of operational expenditure. The
Telecommunications sector is primarily engaged in operating, and/or providing access to
facilities for the transmission of voice, data, text, sound, and video. Transmission facilities
may be based on a single technology or a combination of technologies. Establishments in the
Telecommunications sector are grouped into four industry groups. The first three are
comprised of establishments that operate transmission facilities and infrastructure that they
own and/or lease, and provide telecommunications services using those facilities. The
distinction among the first three industry groups is the type of infrastructure operated (i.e.,
wired, wireless, or satellite). The fourth industry group is comprised of establishments that
provide support activities, telecommunications reselling services, or many of the same
services provided by establishments in the first three industry groups, but do not operate as
telecommunications carriers. The success of the sector can be attributed largely to the growth
in the wireless segment, with the operators reporting additions of approximately 10-15
million subscribers every month.

The overall tele-density in India reached 52.74%. Over the period 1998-2009 the number of
telecom subscribers in India grew at a CAGR of 33.44%. Mobile penetration rates had
reached 44.9% at the end of 2009, revealing that maturity has yet to be reached in rural
markets, where two-thirds of India’s population resides. As per the data of mobile market
share, Bharti Airtel leads with over 22.6% market share followed by reliance and Vodafone.
Government operated BSNL captures a market of 12% covering 23 circles.

Telecoms network still connect only about 4,500 towns and cities and 65,000 villages in the
country. To extend network coverage, India’s mobile operators are in the process of
extending their infrastructures to rural parts of the country. This is expected to push up
penetration rates significantly over the next few years. The share of fixed line users is
declining due to reduction in mobile tariffs. BSNL is market leader in fixed line segment
owing to its huge infrastructure covering several villages and towns.
The latest data that has been made available for India’s fixed-line urban/rural split is for the
quarter ended September 2009 as provided by the TRAI. Market-dominant BSNL retained a
stronghold in both the urban and rural markets. The operator had a 67.5% share of the urban
market with a total base of 18.36mn lines, while it enjoyed a monopolistic status in the rural
market, with a share of 99.6% through its 10.09mn lines.
There is greater diversity in the urban fixed-line markets with no less than seven operators
providing services, compared to the rural market’s four operators; Reliance is the fourth
operator in the rural market but has yet to deploy services despite owning a license. Within
rural India, a focal point of BSNL fixed-line network deployment strategy has been the
development of rural public telephones (VPTs). According to the regulator, there are 593,731
villages in India (figures are based on the 2001 census). Liberalization policy and some
socio-economic factors are mainly responsible for the immense growth in the sales volumes.
The lifestyle of the people has changed. They need to be connected to the other people all the
time. With the lowering down of the tariffs the affordability of the mobile phones has
increased. The finance sector has also come up with loans for handsets on 0% interest rate.
Mobile services providers are also expanding their coverage area by installing more and more
antennas and other equipments. The telecom sector in the country has already adopted the
latest technological advancements to cater to the demands of the growing market. Telecom
Expo India, Convergence India, VAS India and IPTV India being organized year to year are
all efforts in this direction. Also, the telecom industry is focusing more on rural areas to
connect them with the urban areas so that the farmers and the small-scale industries can have
faster access to information related to whether conditions. With the coming of more and more
projects, the telecom industry is going for higher scale recruitments. There is a huge demand
for software engineers, mobile analysts, and hardware engineers for mobile handsets.
Besides, there are ample opportunities for marketing people whose services are required to
capture more and more customer base. The new projects, setting up of new service bases,
expansion of coverage areas, network installations, maintenance, etc are providing more and
more employment opportunities in the telecom sector. Given the exciting times ahead, the
sector is a huge employment generator, likely to generate over 3 lakh new jobs over the
coming 5 years. There is a huge demand for qualified and skilled professionals with technical
knowledge and hands on experience. In order to fulfill their rapid growth plans, players lure
talent with handsome rewards. Suitably skilled candidates can expect a significant premium
salary even at the starting level, due to the challenges the industry is facing in terms of
finding and recruiting proper talent. Industry experts believe that the talent crunch in this
sector will push salaries even further than the current 15% hike.

Company overview
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. formed in October, 2000, is World's 7th largest
Telecommunications Company providing comprehensive range of telecom services in India:
Wire line, CDMA mobile, GSM Mobile, Internet, Broadband, Carrier service, MPLS-VPN,
VSAT, VoIP services, IN Services etc. Presently it is one of the largest & leading public
sector unit in India. Today, it has about 46 million line basic telephone capacity, 8 million
WLL capacity, 52 Million GSM Capacity, more than 38302 fixed exchanges, 46565 BTS,
3895 Node B ( 3G BTS), 287 Satellite Stations, 614755 Rkm of OFC Cable, 50430 Rkm of
Microwave Network connecting 602 Districts, 7330 cities/towns and 5.6 Lakhs villages.
BSNL is the only service provider, making focused efforts and planned initiatives to bridge
the Rural-Urban Digital Divide ICT sector. In fact there is no telecom operator in the country
to beat its reach with its wide network giving services in every nook & corner of country and
operates across India except Delhi & Mumbai. Whether it is inaccessible areas of Siachen
glacier and North-eastern region of the country, BSNL serves its customers with its wide
bouquet of telecom services.
Scaling new heights of success, the present turnover of BSNL is more than Rs.351,820
million (US $ 8 billion) with net profit to the tune of Rs.99,390 million (US $ 2.26 billion)
for last financial year. The infrastructure asset on telephone alone is worth about Rs.630, 000
million (US $ 14.37 billion). The turnover, nationwide coverage, reach, comprehensive range
of telecom services and the desire to excel has made BSNL the No. 1 Telecom Company of
India.

Aspirations
Be the leading Telecom Service Provider in India with global presence.
Create a customer focused organisation with excellence in sales, marketing and customer
care.
Leverage technology to provide affordable and innovative products/services across customer
segments
Provide a conducive work environment with strong focus on performance
Establish efficient business processes enabled by IT

Among the various aspiration of the company aspiration mentioned in point 4 above is an
important one where company is committed to “provide a conducive work environment with
strong focus on performance”. The same agenda is not being followed in the recruitment and
selection of the executives in the company.

Recruitment
The notification about the vacncies are made avialable in all leading dailies(news papers) of
various languages and regions. Apart from news paper all leading job portals carries the
advertisement of the job vacancies. BSNL website also has a dedicated link for vacancies
under the link “Jobs”. All the requirements and educational qualification required for the job
are mentioned in the notification. Being a PSU BSNL has to comply with the reservation
policy as per government regulation and accordingly notification carries detailed
requirements as per the catgory. For some posts BSNL also carries out special recruitment
drive for SC/ST and OBC categories as well as for PWD category.

We have focused mainly on recruitment and selection of executive level in the company.
BSNL is currently recruiting JTO( JuniorTtelecom Officer) and MT (Management Trainee).
BSNL has a large strength of employees at JTO level but it is finding it very difficult to
promote such a big number to fill the needs of middle management and this is where MT is
going to fill the above mentioned need but due to some legal issues this MT recruitment is
still in planning phase. Till now most of the entries in BSNL were only dependent on written
tests but to have proper assesment of the candidates and to measure the person organisation
fit, recuitment of MT will have other assesment phase like GD and psychometry test apart
form regular written test.

Secondary Research
In this project we have restricted our study to two positions:

1. Junior telecom officer

 2. Management Trainee

Junior telecom officer (JTO)

Recruitment of JTO

Qualification : Applicant must possess Bachelor of Engineering/ Bachelor of

Technology or equivalent Engineering degree in Telecommunication, Electronics, Radio,
Computer, Electrical disciplines from a recognized engineering college/ university.

Nationality : Only Indian Nationals would be eligible to apply.

Age:
The applicant for JTOs (Telecom), JTOs(Civil) and JTOs(Electrical) should not be more than
30 years of age on the closing date for receipt of applications from candidates. However,
this age is relaxable as per standing instructions on this subject for:-
i) Govt. servants up to 5 years in accordance with the instructions or orders issued by the
Centre Govt.;
ii) BSNL employees up to 5 years in accordance with the instructions issued by
the BSNL;
iii) For Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes candidates up to 5 years;
iv) For OBC Candidates up to 3 years;
v) For General Category PH candidates up to 10 years ; (for SC/ST 15 years and for OBC
13 years)

vi) For certain other categories like ex-servicemen, displaced persons from East
Pakistan[now Bangladesh], repatriates from Burma and Ceylon [now Srilanka],residents of
Goa, Daman & Diu, persons migrated from Kenya, Uganda, Republic of Tanzania as per
instructions issued by the Central Government from time to time in this regard.
(vii) For Residents of J&K – Relaxation shall be in accordance with DoP&T’s Notification
No.15012/7/1991-Estt.(D) dtd. 7.12.2007 pertaining to “Residents of State of Jammu and
Kashmir (Relaxation of Upper Age Limit for Recruitment to Central Civil Services & Posts)
Rules 1997”.

Application Fee: An examination fee of Rs.500/- is required. No Fee is required for

SC/ST/PH candidates.

Further in respect of apprentices who have undergone apprentice training in BSNL

successfully, there will be following provision:-

(a) An apprentice will be required to compete in the common competitive examination

conducted by BSNL along with other direct candidates and preference to the apprentices over
non-apprentices direct candidates will be given only if apprentices secures equal place in
merit in select zone and all other eligibility conditions being equal.
(b) The apprentices would not be required to get her/his name sponsored by any
employment exchange.
(c) The apprentices would be entitled to age relaxation to the extent of the period for
which the apprentice had undergone training as apprentice in the BSNL.
Mode of Selection : The mode of selection is through an All India Competitive
Examination. The examination is of three hours duration. The Question Paper is fully
objective type with multiple options as answers to each question. The standard of paper in
engineering subjects is that of Engineering Examination of an Indian University. The
objective type examination is of 3 hours duration with one question paper containing 3
sections of Engineering Stream Section-I, Engineering Stream Section-II and General Ability
Test Section-III.

For JTOs(Telecom)
Section-I : Engineering stream : 50 questions

Section-II : Engineering stream : 50 questions

Section-III : General Ability Test : 20 questions

For JTOs(Electrical)
Section-I: Electrical Engineering stream : 50 questions

Section-II: Electrical Engineering stream: 50 questions

Section-III : General Awareness : 20 questions

For JTOs (Civil)

Section-I: Civil Engineering stream : 50 questions

Section-II: Civil Engineering stream : 50 questions

Section-III : General Ability Test : 20 questions

A final call letter/appointment letter will be issued to the candidate after completion of all
other formalities.
Management Trainee
Management trainee is a proposed position in BSNL which is yet to be implemented.
BSNL will fill up of Management Trainee (MT) vacancies. Out of these sanction posts of
Management Trainee, half posts will be filled up on combined merit list under open quota in
which both external and internal candidates are eligible to apply. Remaining half posts will
be reserved for internal candidates only. BSNL regular executives at or above JTO, JAO and
equivalent level possessing the prescribed eligibility.

Selection for a Particular Circle & Service liability

BSNL comprises of a number of territorial Circles and functional Circles. The Management
Trainee is All India Cadre and will be controlled by the BSNL Corporate Office centrally.
Persons appointed to the Management Trainee post shall be liable for posting/transfer
anywhere in India/at any place falling in the operational area of BSNL. The BSNL has the
right to post any selected Management Trainee to any of the Circles either temporarily or on
permanent basis. The decision of BSNL in this regard shall be final and binding. The service
conditions, seniority etc. of selected candidates will be determined as per rules of the
Company issued from time to time.

Eligibility
Nationality: Only Indian Nationals would be eligible to apply.

Age:
The internal candidate shall not exceed 36 years as on 1st August of the year of examination.
However, this age is relaxable as per standing instructions of Government of India on this
subject for Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes candidates upto 5 years.

Mode of Recruitment

i) All the candidates, whether external or internal, shall be screened based on fulfillment
of eligibility criteria of age, qualification and work experience
ii) All eligible candidates (post the screening) shall have to undergo an assessment
process comprising of cognitive, management aptitude and technical sections. Eligible
candidates appearing for the assessment process will be given a score based on their
performance in the assessment process.
iii) At the end of the assessment process, a short list will be created for the next round
based on number of posts and order in merit list.
iv) All short listed candidates will be called for Group Discussion and Personal Interview.
Short-listed candidates appearing for the Group Discussion and Interview shall be given a
score based on their performance in the Group Discussion and a score based on their
performance in the Interview.
v) The selection shall be based on the final merit list created based on the combined score
from assessment process, Group Discussion and Interview with weight age as under:

(a) Assessment Process 75 %

(b) Group Discussion 12.5%

 (c) Interview 12.5%

Minimum qualifying standards

BSNL may fix at its discretion minimum qualifying marks for OC/OBC/SC/ST/PH candidates
for each section as well as in the aggregate. Candidates obtaining less than minimum-
qualifying marks in any of the sections or in aggregate shall not be considered for inclusion in
the merit-list.

BSNL reserves the right to change the number of vacancies of Management Trainee to be
filled up from internal candidates.

The appearance of the name in the merit-list does not confer any right on the candidate for
employment. A final call letter/ appointment letter will be issued to the candidate after
completion of all other formalities.

Career Progression:

i) Appointment as Manager(MT): On successful completion of Probation-cum-

training, the officer shall be appointed as Manager(MT).
ii) To be promoted as Asstt. General Manager(AGM) on working as Manager(MT)
for two years subject to being adjudged fit for promotion.
iii) Further career progression for promotion to higher grades shall be regulated by
concerned recruitment rules.
iv) Career progression will also be subject to terms and conditions decided consequent
to absorption of Group ‘A’ Officers in BSNL in future. However, at no stage, the absorbed
Group ‘A’ Officers will be ranked junior to Management Trainees recruited by BSNL unless
otherwise not affected due to punishment or being judged unfit for promotion.
ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS FOR INTERNAL CANDIATES OF
MANAGEMENT TRAINEES EXAM:

Functional Essential Qualification for Internal Candidates

streams

Operations Bachelor of Engineering/ Bachelor of Technology degree or

equivalent Engineering Degree in any of the following
disciplines:-
1.Telecommunications

2. Electronics

3. Computer/IT

4. Electrical

PLUS

4 years work experience within BSNL as on the closing date

of receipt of application by BSNL

Finance CA/ICWA/MCom/CS
PLUS

4 years work experience within BSNL as on the closing date

of receipt of application by BSNL.
Talent development and Training

BSNL has a very good talent development and training program where new recruits are given
extensive training of three and half years at world class training centres like ALTTC (Advance
Level Telecom Training Centre). BSNL has a good network of training facilities with 23
RTTC (Regional Telecom Training Centres) and 23 DTTC (District Telecom Training
Centre). Apart from these DTTC & RTTC BSNL also has BRBRTTC ( Bharat Ratna Bhim
Rao Telecom Training Centre). With such a good network of training centres and world class
facilities and trainers BSNL successfully nurtures talent among its new recruits and existing
employees.

Function of training centres

The centre’s mission statement is “To Deliver Excellence through Training”

ALTTC functions on the frontiers of telecom technology, finance, management and IT and
imparts training to the leaders in the business. These centre also provide training to
employees from other companies and even employees from other countries.
Staffing distribution
One of the main HR problem BSNL is facing currently is of large number of employees in
non- executive and lower management. Breakup of the employees is as following

Around 81% of the total employee strength of BSNL falls in non- executive category and a
career growth plan for such a large number of employees is a big challenge. With
advancement of technology many of these non-executive employees have become surplus
employees. Due to union problems BSNL is not able to take actions to solve the problem of
overstaffing. According to company sources around 25-305 employees in non-executive
category are surplus. Also there are around 30000 JTO level employees and BSNL is finding
it very difficult to provide career growth for these many JTO in Middle management. To
solve the issue of shortage in middle management BSNL has started the recruitment of MT
(Management Trainee) to fill the shortage in middle management.

Some issues related to staffing

 Due to technological advancement work force requirement has changed over the
years
 Around 25-30 % workforce in non-executive category are surplus
 Due to union problem overstaffing problem is not being addressed properly
 Most of the senior employees in non-executive cadre are not technically sound to
carry on their jobs
 The so called government set up is impacting the efficiency
 How to optimally utilize around 30000 JTO
Staffing Strategy
Staffing strategy involves making key decisions about acquisition, deployment and retention
of organisation workforce.
Findings and Analysis
BSNL has a very traditional method of recruitment and selection unlike other major players
in the telecom sector. The basic career path in the organization is as follows:

The organization recruits entry level personnel as Junior Telecom Officers (JTO). The middle
level management consists of Service Design Engineer (SDE) and Sr. SDEs. The top level
manager comprises the GM and CGM. However, the major concern is the staffing levels at
these positions. The entry level sees the bulk of the recruitment which is around 30000. And
top level management comprises 5000 employees. However it is the middle level
management which is of concern at present. The surveys conducted by us show that the
employees feel the middle management is understaffed.

The workforce segmentation at BNSL is as follows:

The methodology for our research two pronged:

A secondary research was undertaken from existing literature on BNSL recruitment policies.
Apart from this, interviews of existing BSNL employees at Lucknow office were conducted.
The questionnaire has been attached in the appendix.

The main purpose of the research was to understand the perception about the employees
about the recruitment process at BSNL and to analyse the process for any potential
improvement areas. The main findings out of the research are as under:
• Basic Recruitment and Selection Process at BSNL: There is an entrance
examination for selection at the JTO level. Apart from that, there are no components
in the evaluation mechanism to test the soft skills of the candidates. A minimum
cutoff in the entrance exam is sufficient to gain an entry level job. After that, most of
the positions at the middle and top level management are filled through internal
hiring.

• Scope for improving the recruitment process: The survey results showed that most
of the employees are not satisfied with the existing process. This has also been
addressed by the GM whom we interviewed. According to him, there is a scope of
inducting graduates from b-schools as management trainees straight into the middle
management level jobs. That is the first step which needs to be taken towards solving
the problem of hiring middle level employees.

• Strategy for implementing the changes: The findings show that hiring at the middle
level is one of the major concerns at BSNL. Also, there is a lot of pressure to
benchmark competitors such as Airtel, Vodafone, who are ranked higher than BSNL
in employee satisfaction levels. Hence, our group has proposed a set of
recommendations based on our findings and analysis of the existing recruitment
practices at BSNL. The recommendations would be based on increasing overall
employee satisfaction levels as well as addressing the current recruitment issues at
BSNL.
Survey results

1. Employees in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited as on

a) Company payroll
b) Contract

2. How you recruit employee?

a) Through internal Competition
b) Through external recruitment
c) Seniority Cum Fitness
3. If internal,what was the procedure?
a) Transfer
b) Promotion
c) ReCall

4. Are you satisfied with company’s current

recruitment policy?
a) Yes
b) No
5. What was the time duration between interview
regarding selection in company and getting offer
letter?
a) One week
b) One month
c) Six month
d) More than six month

6. What do you think that presently number of

employees is
a) overstaffed,
b) understaffed,
c) in right proportion
Recommendations
 Interview should introduced in the selection of JTO to improve quality of
employment.

 As Telecommunication is purely based on Customer service, Psychographic test

would help lot.

 15-18% of total profit is used by BSNL in wages, therefore Internal recruitment

should be promoted

 Campus Recruitment for entry level & experience candidate at higher level must be
introduced to save money & time.

 Recruitment of MT is good move to fill the middle management post but satisfaction
of JTO (junior management) should also be considered.
Appendix
Questionnaire for BSNL Staff

1. Employees in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited as on

c) Company payroll
d) Contract
2. How you recruit employee?
d) Through internal Recruitment
e) Through external recruitment
f) Both
3. If internal,what was the procedure?
d) Transfer
e) Promotion
f) ReCall
4. Are you satisfied with company’s current
recruitment policy?
c) Yes
d) No
5. was the time duration between interview regarding
selection in company and getting offer letter?
e) One week
f) One month
g) Six month
h) More than six month
6. What do you think that presently number of
employees is
d) overstaffed,
e) understaffed,
f) in right proportion
7. Are you satisfy with BSNL selection and recruitment
policy?
a. Yes
b. No