National and Professional: Anchoring High Performance in PTCL

The Company: Where There is Pakistan—There is PTCL ¹

Descending from the Post and Telegraph Department established at the birth of Pakistan in 1947, the Telegraph and Telephone Department handled telecom services and their regulation in the country from 1962 up to the inception of Pakistan Telecom Corporation (PTC) in 1991. As PTC became listed on the country’s stock exchanges, Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited was incorporated on 31 December 1995. After announcing the deregulation policy for the telecom sector in 2003, the Pakistan government privatized Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited (PTCL) in April 2006 to accelerate the advancement of the telecom sector in Pakistan. Etisalat International Pakistan, a subsidiary of the UAE-based Etisalat group, thus acquired 26 per cent stake in PTCL for $2.6 bn. ² With Etisalat’s one share giving voting power equivalent to four regular shares, PTCL’s management control shifted to Etisalat.

PTCL’s product development escalated sharply after 2006; however, as the deregulation policy opened gates for new competitors in the market and eradicated PTCL’s monopoly, company revenues and profits were affected ³ (Tables 1a and 1b). Nonetheless, PTCL was Pakistan’s largest telecommunication organization, with the widest geographical infrastructure (both fibre optic and copper wired) and service coverage, with PTCL’s branches spread all over Pakistan. The organizational structure is presented in Figure 1, while the vision, mission and core values are presented in Exhibit 1. PTCL also encompassed two wholly owned subsidiaries: Ufone, competing in the cellular services industry and U Microfinance Ltd competing in the microfinance banking sector.

Products, Services and Competitors ⁴

PTCL’s commitment to ensuring strong customer relationships through customer satisfaction with futuristic products and services reflected in PTCL’s positioning statement, ‘Hello to the Future’, and brand values, ‘evolving, innovative, human, trustworthy and quality conscious’. ⁵ PTCL, which was only restricted to landline communication for a long time, now encompassed a broad range of landline, wireless telephony and broadband products and services for domestic and corporate clientele. PTCL was also the first Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) provider in Pakistan under the brand PTCL Smart TV. Corporate clients enjoyed services such as TelePresence, Data Centre, Smartlink Application, Cloud and Virtual Private Networks. PTCL rented its infrastructure to other private telecom operators in the country also. Thus the company successfully competed with five cellular and one other landline service providers.

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Table 1a.

PTCL Statement of Financial Position for Years 2004–2014 (Amounts in PKR)

	31 December 2014 ‘000	31 December 2013 ‘000	30 June 2012 ‘000	30 June 2010 ‘000	30 June 2009 ‘000	30 June 2008 ‘000	30 June 2007 ‘000	30 June 2006 ‘000	30 June 2005 ‘000	30 June 2004 ‘000
Assets
Non-current assets	109,948,283	106,990,518	109,589,389	105,317,491	99,827,838	97,492,455	99,260,020	102,071,845	96,615,422	93,300,970
Current assets	69,625,377	74,917,960	47,359,333	45,450,236	54,220,241	42,611,233	53,560,840	50,168,177	39,269,186	48,293,558
Total assets	179,573,660	181,908,478	156,948,722	150,767,727	154,048,079	140,103,688	152,820,860	152,240,022	135,884,608	141,594,528
Equity
Share capital	51,000,000	51,000,000	51,000,000	51,000,000	51,000,000	51,000,000	51,000,000	51,000,000	51,000,000	51,000,000
Revenue reserves	40,814,552	49,782,474	54,473,960	48,758,711	48,389,559	46,888,374	59,913,264	54,475,464	49,014,031	32,599,963
Unrealized gain on available for sale investments	329,039	89,785	62,977	–	–				–	–
Liabilities
Non-current liabilities	43,084,720	42,452,969	30,863,129	20,816,238	18,572,198	17,645,519	17,459,855	16,489,026	15,258,013	15,098,781
Current liabilities	44,345,349	38,583,250	20,548,656	30,192,778	36,086,322	24,569,795	24,447,741	30,275,532	20,612,564	42,895,784
Total equity and liabilities	179,573,660	181,908,478	156,948,722	150,767,727	154,048,079	140,103,688	152,820,860	152,240,022	135,884,608	141,594,528

Source: PTCL annual reports for years 2004–2014.

Notes: The decision to privatize PTCL was taken in 2005, while the first PMS was launched in 2009. Data of 2013 and 2014 represent PTCL’s current financial performance.

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Table 1b.

PTCL Statement of Profit and Loss for Years 2004–2014 (Amounts in PKR)

	31 December 2014 ‘000	31 December 2013 ‘000	30 June 2012 ‘000	30 June 2010 ‘000	30 June 2009 ‘000	30 June 2008 ‘000	30 June 2007 ‘000	30 June 2006 ‘000	30 June 2005 ‘000	30 June 2004 ‘000
Revenue	81,512,598	81,061,355	60,038,254	57,174,527	59,239,001	61,085,610	65,277,025	69,085,436	75,972,363	74,124,229
Cost of services	(55,682,723)	(53,073,952)	(44,898,012)	(38,258,711)	(37,732,282)	(44,719,939) (Operating Costs)	(46,564,338) (Operating Costs)	(41,687,918) (Operating Costs)	(39,608,639) (Operating Costs)	(32,185,972) (Operating Costs)
Gross profit	25,829,875	27,987,403	15,140,242	18,915,816	21,506,719
Administrative and general expenses	(9,857,639)	(9,116,544)	(7,770,295)	(7,223,780)	(8,935,261)
Selling and marketing expenses	(3,290,137)	(2,901,035)	(2,478,537)	(2,142,324)	(1,817,071)
Voluntary separation scheme cost	(8,174,536)	–	–	–	(92,118)	(23,937,854)
Operating profit	4,507,563	15,969,824	11,487,513	9,549,712	10,662,269	16,365,671	18,712,687	27,397,518	36,363,724	41,938,257
Other income	4,706,389	4,214,290	6,596,103	5,134,646	4,267,172	3,957,539	5,541,203	3,912,931	3,387,496	2,095,491
Finance costs	(295,193)	(346,477)	(481,745)	(403,240)	(908,524)	(847,972)	(510,175)	(455,099)	(455,099)	(673,880)
Loss of property, plant and equipment due to fire	(907,230)	–	–	–	–				–	–
(Loss)/Profit before tax	8,011,529	19,837,637	11,005,768	14,281,118	14,020,917	(4,462,616)	23,743,715	30,974,048	39,296,121	43,359,868
Provision for income tax	(2,804,035)	(7,141,504)	(3,793,689)	(4,986,966)	(4,869,732)	1,637,726	(8,104,962)	(10,196,618)	(12,690,464)	(14,190,228)
(Loss)/Profit for the year	5,207,494	12,696,133	7,212,079	9,294,152	9,151,185	(2,824,890)	15,638,753	20,777,430	26,605,657	29,169,640
Earnings per share–basic and diluted (Rupees)	1.02	2.49	1.41	1.82	1.79	0.55	3.07	4.07	5.22	5.72

Source: PTCL annual reports for years 2004–2014.

Notes: The decision to privatize PTCL was taken in 2005, while the first PMS was launched in 2009. Data of 2013 and 2014 represent PTCL’s current financial performance.

HR at PTCL—The Guiding Coalition for Cultural Transformation ⁶

PTCL’s major challenge was the absence of a formalized HR function until privatization in 2006. HR matters were handled by engineers from other departments as a side job. In 2006, the structural change and Mazhar’s vision resulted in a formal HR department which now had three EVPs, one each for HR operations, Talent Management and Learning and Leadership, and Organizational Design (OD). A special unit of HR Strategy and Special Projects was also established. Overall there were ten general managers (GM), and multiple senior and assistant managers in core HR (Figure 2), with approximately 500 employees working in HR. Of these 500 employees across Pakistan, approximately 220 were core management-level HR staff, and the remaining were support staff. The total number of employees in HR and Administration was 1,200, which included security, maintenance and other support functions.

The HR team had introduced policies and systems which played an imperative role in transforming PTCL’s culture. Some leading edge HR practices introduced at PTCL included: a SAP-based performance management system (PMS) incorporating the philosophy of the balanced scorecard for managerial-level employees; multiple soft skills training programmes incorporating return-on-investment calculations; talent management initiatives; annual, company-wide employee engagement survey and communication of the results of this survey to all, followed by planning.

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Figure 1.

Source: Company documents.

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Figure 2.

Source: Company documents.

Also, in 2012, PTCL introduced the HR business partnership model which decentralized the HR function by appointing HR Business Partners (HRBPs) at the zonal and regional levels to expand HR’s outreach to regions, and to strengthen the link between HR and line management. At present, there were three zonal HRBPs looking after the North, South and Central regions, and 17 regional level HRBPs, with 4 to 5 regions under each. The design, implementation and refinement of these and other performance enhancing interventions was all teamwork, as Mazhar confidently proclaimed, ‘In all these years, my biggest achievement is the HR team. I can claim that this team of HR experts is currently the strongest HR team in the country.’ The meeting thus started with discussions on various HR initiatives to develop next year’s plan.

Performance Management System—The Backbone of High Performance Culture

PTCL’s entire top management resolutely believed that performance management lay at the heart of a performance-focused culture at any organization, and PTCL’s case was no different. Historically, the only measure of performance was the Annual Confidential Report (ACR), the outcome and execution of which was kept concealed from employees. ‘Nobody knew what was being done to them, and nobody had the right to ask!’ was the way one employee had described the ACR performance evaluations of the past. This ACR focused on attributes related to administration, control and use of the chain of command towards employees, and neglected objectives, goals and development. Based on the premise that a sound and concrete PMS acted as a pivot for the efficiency of all other areas of HR, the OD sub-function was formed to handle the PMS. OD was responsible for development, execution and evaluation of formalized systems required for these processes. The GM OD recalled the three main steps of the journey towards the development of the current PMS.

Compensation and Rewards—Motivating for High Performance

The evolution of performance management at PTCL had clearly linked compensation with individual performance instead of seniority, and an experimental introduction of salary increments based on team performance in one product division also yielded encouraging results. Additional bonuses and benefits like corporate sponsorship for the religious pilgrimage of Hajj were also made performance-contingent to create a performance-centric culture. Further, PTCL’s top management was personally involved in selecting individuals for the Annual Business Excellence Awards to recognize exceptional contributions in six key areas—leadership, culture, innovation, operations, services and business results. However, the annual bonus (one base salary) was awarded to all employees to share organizational profits with employees, irrespective of individual performance, subject to organizational profits.

The EVP Talent Management and Learning (EVP TM&L) highlighted the many challenges in the area of compensation. Overstaffing pushed PTCL’s salaries below the market. Though turnover of about 10 per cent prevailed, headcount of 18,000 employees was still above industry benchmarks. The external consultant, A. T. Kearney, hired by PTCL to assess and compare the performance of PTCL with the industry had suggested that the HR costs were significantly higher than the industry benchmark. The salary structures had not been revised in the last 5 to 6 years due to fierce competition for revenues. Thus, hiring and retaining best talent was often a struggle. PTCL still had a reasonable value proposition for employees despite less-than-perfect salaries, the most important features being the abundant learning opportunities, career advancement, a comfortable work environment and work–life balance with features such as the recently launched flexitime and uniform medical benefits for all PTCL employees.

The EVP HR Operations drew attention to his observation that while the workplace culture had drastically modernized at the headquarters and the zonal offices, the change was only gradually spreading to the other offices, which presented additional challenges. Employees who had been working at PTCL for years were indeed loyal and emotionally attached to their organization and colleagues but were often forced to look at other job opportunities because of economic pressures. Insecurities arising from meagre salaries also forced some employees to do side jobs or businesses, and build affiliations with political parties, particularly in areas where regular employees were in majority, and career growth opportunities were minimal such as in the Southern zone.

Discussing this situation, one General Manager recalled a statement given by EVP Operations several years ago: ‘If you think that with just 12,000 rupees (one month’s salary for field staff at that time) you can buy someone’s heart and mind both, then it cannot be anything other than a dream!’ The challenges of meagre salaries continued.

He also highlighted the services of employees located in remote areas, which were worth exceptional importance and respect. They safeguarded PTCL’s operations and infrastructure in the face of harshest realities like difficult terrain, floods and earthquakes, land sliding and abnormal amounts of rain and snow, where employees could get stuck for days. For these employees, PTCL was not just the source of bread and butter in the scarcity of job alternatives but also their family and prestige. Yet, they were dissatisfied with being given the same salaries as employees in any other part of the country, when they continued to serve PTCL without basic living facilities or vehicles and tools to facilitate them in doing their jobs. Mazhar addressed the HR team: ‘We need to come up with a proper plan to reward critical talent in major cities and to reward the exceptional hard work and loyalty of PTCL’s remote area employees.’

Training and Development—Building Capacity for High Performance

PTCL had a legacy of investment in T&D with sixteen training centres built across Pakistan at one point in time. In 2010, the newly appointed EVP and General Manager Training recognized that the old T&D system did not deliver to meet individual-specific needs as managers neither followed any criteria to nominate employees for trainings nor held them accountable for the improving performance. Employees were redundant in cadres with minimal customer focus, lacking futuristic skills. Additionally, the quality of technical diplomas offered by various institutes across the country often proved insufficient to prepare employees for practically taking on challenges without training. For the last several years, the HR leadership strongly felt that T&D could be utilized to change employee attitudes and prepare employees for the fast-paced journey PTCL was embarking on.

The GM T&D briefed the HR team on how the training structures had been redesigned to incorporate mandatory trainings on enhancing customer services and other soft skills such as communication and teambuilding. He highlighted that in six years (2010–2015) the training structure had progressed to 65 per cent soft skills and 35 per cent technical trainings. Value inculcation programmes such as ‘Azeem se Azeem tar’ (greater than great) for non-management and ‘Living PTCL Values’ for all employees had been launched to instil PTCL’s revitalized values and ownership in employees. ⁷ Using internal trainers made these trainings much more effective. A member of the HR team quoted a technical manager’s experience with PTCL’s post-2010 internal trainings: ‘When the training department started such (soft skills training) programmes, we found that there is a world here too! Our engineering minds were enlightened with social sciences, empowering us to think both logically and sentimentally.’

The most recent initiative taken to transform PTCL’s culture through changing employee attitudes and behaviours was the much-admired ‘SEEDs of Change’ programme. Over a series of formal workshops held across Pakistan, senior and middle managers brainstormed and identified four out of Kenexa’s sixteen dimensions ⁸ that were vital for PTCL’s growth and success in the telecom industry. Aligned with the underlying behaviours of PTCL’s core values, these four dimensions, namely, service mind-set, collaboration and alignment, innovative approach and speedy execution, were repeated and reinforced through trainings to push PTCL towards high-performance culture.

Formal training needs analysis was carried out 2011 onwards. Cadre-wise training needs were identified through discussions with the function’s chief officer and general managers. The PMS also identified training needs as line managers had to recommend 2 to 3 trainings for each subordinate. Finally, employees suggested trainings which they would like to receive via the training satisfaction forms and discussions. Integrating these three sources, trainings were designed and locked into the yearly training schedule.

The GM OD briefed everyone about the ‘Individual Development Programme’ (IDP), a 70:20:10 assortment of on-the-job training, coaching and mentoring and classroom training, which was still in its design phase. IDP mainly focused on making job rotation and job enrichment much more structured. The GM OD explained how on-the-job trainings were becoming particularly important as relieving employees for training, especially those involved in day-to-day operations, had its financial cost that compelled managers to hesitate in sending employees on training.

The HR team discussed how the new T&D system evaluated trainings at the end of each training session via training satisfaction forms filled by employees, followed by line managers’ feedback collected a few weeks later to calculate the ‘training effectiveness index’, which stood at 92 per cent on average for the last year. PTCL was also planning on expanding its use of metrics to analyse trainings, based on the format revised in 2014, to align PTCL with Etisalat’s group-wide system. Training man days were calculated for function-wise trainings delivered, standing at 3.57 days per employee for management and 2.64 days per employee for non-management in 2015. ⁹ However, so far there was no role of training evaluation in determining employee promotions. Parallel to these improvements, some operational managers strongly voiced their concern that their field staff was being given very generic soft-skills trainings that failed to yield productivity in the field, and that the external trainers delivering these trainings lacked technical knowledge and familiarity with the organizational culture. Mazhar asked the team to propose refinements in the existing T&D initiatives and make additional suggestions.

Recruitment and Selection—Getting High Performers on Board

PTCL’s recruitment and selection system in 2015 was aligned with the competencies and performance parameters defined in the PMS. Considering the already high headcount at PTCL, recruitment was done for only management-trainees, and officer-level and above positions. As PTCL’s historic organizational culture and below-market salaries pushed away high-potential candidates, it was critical to build a strong employer brand. Several steps were taken for this, such as direct interaction with students and universities, formal presence on social media such as LinkedIn to advertise the new organizational culture and career opportunities such as the traineeship programmes of ‘Experia’ and ‘Triple~E’. Programmes were also aimed to improve gender diversity and to fight the ‘women-should-not-work’ mind-set that prevailed in most rural and remote areas. ¹⁰

The EVP TM&L highlighted that while it was a challenge to attract high-potential applications on the one hand, with high unemployment prevailing in Pakistan, thousands of applications were received for job vacancies on the other hand. Thus, rigorous selection procedures were designed to identify the right talent. Selection criteria were listed for each position and shortlisted candidates, as per criteria, moved on to employment tests or panel interviews, depending on the position. Panel-based interviews often included representatives from line, HR and cross-functional representatives, which allowed a multi-perspective assessment of the candidates’ technical and behavioural competencies and reduced the chances of selection bias.

Online psychometric tests were under consideration as a final stage of the selection process. The senior leadership encouraged assessors to be assertive, strong and vigilant in following the process and criteria for selecting candidates for all job positions, temporary or permanent. Standardized process and criteria for selection helped PTCL in tackling two prevalent problems: nepotism and favours given on the basis of language, caste, community, family background, social class, educational background, etc. A senior employee with around twenty years of experience at PTCL said:

I have seen many changes since I started my career. At that time jobs were given mainly on the basis of references, but now there is a system of merit. We have seen this organization as a government setup, as a corporation and now as a limited company. I believe there have been a lot of changes.

Further, as the organizational culture became more competitive, and the employees’ own survival became dependent on performance and target achievement, what most employees could do was to refer someone for a chance at the interview. One manager shared his own experience from when a position in his department became vacant:

I don’t just want someone, I want someone who works. Because I am answerable for whatever he will be doing, again I will be answerable for myself also. I can’t just go ahead and appoint my son because even he may not be able to perform at par with the emerging requirements of the business.

However, it was duly acknowledged that some managers feared that systematic selection would reduce their authority and say in the process. Therefore, formal and informal means were used to convince managers of the benefits of rigorous system procedures as PTCL continued moving towards becoming more system-dependent and less person-dependent. Nevertheless, evaluation criteria had to be flexible for job positions in remote areas, particularly areas with poor infrastructure, such as poor roads, as few people applied there. Also, because of unsettled security situation in some remote areas, hiring locals ensured community support and hence security for PTCL’s telecom infrastructure.

Promotion of employees was another area discussed by EVP TM&L. Aligning internal promotions and staffing with the new culture was easier for NTC than for regular employees. Through the NTC employees, the culture for performance-based promotions and career moves was strengthening, particularly in younger employees, albeit there was minor resistance from a small portion of employees who considered seniority-based promotions their right. The EVP recalled a senior employee’s quote, ‘The old employees have changed themselves (become more performance-oriented), those who haven’t, their survival is difficult here (at PTCL).’ Managers and employees collectively decided an employee’s career progression considering the employee’s competencies and desires, and opportunities in the organization. Decisions regarding promotions were driven by relative rating and panel interviews of promotion nominees. However, promotions for regular employees were still dependent upon seniority or length of employment in the organization, despite their KPIs and responsibilities being the same as those of NTC. Further, as privatization and new systems had slowed down career progression for regular senior and field employees, many were dissatisfied.

Also, PTCL was formerly a typical government organization where lifetime employment and job security were almost 100 per cent guaranteed. As the organization turned performance-centric, meeting performance standards became the only path to job security. However, continuing its legacy, PTCL still used termination as the last and least preferred solution for low performers who were trained or shifted to other departments to give them the chance to earn their stay at PTCL, making talent management more of a challenge. However, employment security had its advantages too, loyalty being the most important one of them. Regular employees who enjoyed lifetime job security were astonishingly loyal and committed to serving PTCL. The EVP HR Operations recalled how these regular employees in the Southern areas protected PTCL’s telecom towers during floods while their own houses were being flooded, or how during the most disastrous earthquake that hit the Northern areas in 2008, employees sped to fix PTCL’s ruined infrastructure.

Mazhar appreciated the efforts of the team, particularly the balance the team members had tried to create between performance-oriented culture and lifetime job security, and between terms and conditions of NTC and regular employees. This was certainly one of the areas which required careful consideration in next year’s plan.

Communication and Involvement—Talking High Performance

PTCL’s culture had changed drastically in the last decade, paving way for fluid communication via formal channels. Traditionally, communication at PTCL had been largely top-down and one-way. Formal channels for upward flow of ideas and opinions, feedback on employee performance evaluation and grievance handling were non-existent. Questions and suggestions by juniors were generally not entertained by most seniors.

The GM Strategy and Special Projects recapped the main changes in this area. In recent years, the president met with all functional heads every Thursday to note the pulse of the organization. All PTCL employees enjoyed the liberty to email the president directly, to which he mostly replied. The Chief Business Officer and other senior title-holders travelled frequently to all parts of the organization across the country and interacted with employees. All function heads held formal and informal meetings with their teams regularly to ensure that key information was consistently shared across the entire function. Videoconference sessions were held every morning to liaise between regions and the headquarters, discussing daily targets and areas of improvement. The HRBPs frequently scheduled sessions like ‘HRBP at your doorstep’, and breakfast gatherings to discuss current organizational affairs with employees in a relaxed environment. With the help of the HRBPs, information about the organization’s performance, goals, strategies and how employees could contribute to organizational performance were disseminated to the grassroots level to propel every member of the organization in the same direction. Key influencers in various parts of the organization were appointed as ‘communication nodes’ or ‘focal points’ to ensure that organizational goals, strategies and the management’s messages were forwarded to employees in lower cadres and communicated effectively, and also to convey bottom-up feedback.

Several innovative channels for information sharing and employee facilitation were launched such as the company magazine and the online platform ‘Hello PTCL’. The ‘e-facilitation centre’ was launched for employees to post their HR-related queries online for faster interaction and facilitation with HR. A formalized grievance system was established to handle sensitive employee issues in a judicious manner. The GM HR Strategy enthusiastically reported that the pilot run for ‘Idea Hub’, an innovative platform for employees to share their ideas for organizational improvement, showed promising results. Employee engagement survey conducted by IBM Kanexa was another tool used by the upper management to gauge employee attitude; the results were positive and encouraging (Figure 3a and 3b). Mazhar appreciated the team’s efforts to improve communication, summarizing that he was pleased to learn that the employee participation rates in the employee engagement survey rose from 89 per cent in 2013 to 94 per cent in 2014 and 97 per cent in 2015, reflecting that this survey was winning the trust of employees.

The culture of the organization had also become more open over the years. Several regions now followed an open-door policy, a bold move in an organization where once linemen could not even enter the building without the Divisional Engineer’s approval. Of course, targets played a crucial role in transforming interactions ‘from administrative to managerial’. However, some managers still favoured segregation from subordinates. Some employees still hesitated to have open conversations with superiors, particularly if the superior was positioned at the company headquarters, as stated by a lower management employee, ‘It is easier for us to approach the GM, but not beyond that.’ However, the majority of employees felt that they could comfortably say anything to the top management, as long as it was said politely, convincingly and respectfully.

One of the regional managers pointed out that in the midst of these positive changes, some shared the view that operations were becoming too centralized. Regional heads had to walk through a long chain of processes to get something approved from the headquarters. Some believed that greater idea sharing and open communication in some regions, particularly in the Southern side of the country, had more to do with caste and community linkages than with organizational culture and performance.

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Figure 3(a).

Source: PTCL employee diary

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Source: PTCL employee diary.

Nevertheless, most agreed that regional heads encouraged their field staff to discuss their problems openly to unveil operational issues as well as to motivate this lower level staff in the absence of monetary rewards. As a Regional GM once said about his relationship with field staff, ‘We can’t do much for them, but at least we can have a cup of tea with them,’ such small gestures earned regional managers respect, loyalty and unshakable support in times of need. Employees also felt that the give-and-take of respect not only enabled much smoother coordination at work and identification of real business problems, but also shielded against bad politics and leg-pulling in the organization. The team discussed the areas for reviewing, particularly mechanisms for improving communication between the regions and the head office.

Strategic HR—A Greater Binding Force

Since the position for GM HR Strategy was created in 2012, PTCL’s HR Strategy and Special Projects function oversaw HR strategic planning, corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, special employee development programmes and participation in industry surveys. The GM HR Strategy highlighted a few key initiatives. It mentioned that that the HR function was participating in Etisalat’s group-wide exercise of European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) HR Excellence Model since the last few years. Though the EFQM framework was usually applied throughout the organization, at this stage, only the HR model was implemented at PTCL to align HR strategy and goals with those of the business. However, the HR team discussed how integration between various HR sub-domains was an area still in need of improvement.

Another key area of focus for HR strategy and special projects was grooming leaders for tomorrow. High Performance (HiPo), Leadership Excellence and Future Leaders Programme (FUEL) were the key initiatives. HiPo was a competitive Etisalat group-level programme which selected high potential employees from subsidiaries all over the world and provided them international training exposure on real-life business challenges in collaboration with Duke University Corporate Education, Informa Telecoms Academy and Harvard Manage Mentors. The FUEL and Leadership Excellence programmes were targeted at junior and middle high-potential employees and senior managers, respectively. These programmes, though still immature, were designed to overcome PTCL’s two critical ongoing problems. First, PTCL was often unable to find competent candidates for promotions to higher, more critical positions. Second, despite vast opportunities to develop with a growing organization, many employees, particularly the younger ones, complained that they could not plan a coherent future career path at PTCL. The team discussed whether the special projects were adequately addressing the key issues, particularly succession planning, and the refinements needed to improve the impact.

The Way Forward

‘It has been a decade of true development indeed, but we have far to go,’ Mazhar thought aloud at the end of the recap in all the key areas. PTCL’s culture had undeniably transformed over the years making it a vibrant, innovative and high-potential organization. PTCL’s HR had played a key role, not just in PTCL’s operations within Pakistan but also at the parent group level. The chief human resource officer (CHRO) actively contributed towards strategic decision-making and participated in PTCL’s board meetings with respect to HR matters, and in PTCL Board’s HR Committee meetings. Many of those who were once cynical of PTCL’s transformation now hailed its productivity. However, PTCL had yet to accomplish a lot in terms of products and services, financial standings, employee attitudes and motivation, and organizational excellence.

The HR team reflected on a few key questions:

What has been our degree of success in creating a strategic HR function? Have we rightly understood and dealt with the environmental, cultural, and administrative influences on HR? What are some of the areas where mistakes have been made? What more do we need to do in the coming short and long-term to ensure that all HR activities continue to drive PTCL and its employees towards high performance?

The team also discussed that some distinct elements of PTCL’s culture which reflected Pakistan’s true colours were so strong and positive that they deserved to be preserved. They also discussed the unique challenges that PTCL faced because of its history. The HR team was determined to present a concrete plan to refine and enhance the performance-centric culture at PTCL at the upcoming 7th annual strategic session, ‘Way Forward 2016’, which was scheduled to take place in four months.

Abbreviations

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Exhibit 1.

PTCL Mission, Vision and Core Values

Vision

To be the leading Information and Communication Technology Service Provider in the region by achieving customer satisfaction and maximizing shareholders’ value.

Mission

To achieve our vision by having:

An organizational environment that fosters professionalism, motivation and quality

An environment that is cost effective and quality conscious

Services that are based on the most optimum technology

Quality and time conscious customer service

Sustained growth in earnings and profitability

Core Values

Professional Integrity

Teamwork

Customer Satisfaction

Loyalty to the Company

Source: PTCL corporate website (http://www.ptcl.com.pk/Info/Vision)

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Exhibit 2.

Brief Professional History of Syed Mazhar Hussain, CHRO PTCL

Syed Mazhar Hussain joined PTCL in 1996 as Assistant General Manager (Finance). He initially worked in the finance department, and was promoted on fast track to various positions including Director (Budget), General Manager (Finance) and EVP (Financial Planning and Treasury). When Etisalat gained managerial control of PTCL in 2006, he was serving as the EVP (Financial Planning and Treasury), and in this capacity, remained involved in all projects of HR and Technology. He has been the head of HR at PTCL since 2008, initially in the capacity of Senior Executive Vice President HR (SEVP HR), and then as CHRO.

Prior to joining PTCL, Mazhar Hussain worked for nine years in the agriculture and tourism sectors in operations, corporate affairs, market research, planning and international tourism. While SEVP HR in PTCL was his first position in HR, he had extensive experience of handling large numbers of staff and unions in various positions in PTCL as well as during his prior experience.

Source: Internet and profile emailed by the CHRO.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this case.

Funding

This research was funded by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan Grant Number TRGP-III-954.