HRD Counselling

Rajuveer, Vice-President (HR) of ITC Agrotech is a warm and forthright person. ITC Agrotech, which is now taken over by Conagra, is into production of edible oils, basic foods and commodity sourcing and exports.

What is your recruitment process? How do you go about appointing people at different levels?

We basically take in people at two levels. First is the management trainee level. Our first preference, naturally, is to scout for candidates from the premier institutes of India (IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta, FMS and IIFT from Delhi, Narsee Monjee and Jamnalal Bajaj from Mumbai). Then, we look at the potential of the candidates, that is their academic qualifications and interpersonal relationships (IQ and EQ).

We also take a look at their project works to determine their contributions at the individual and group levels. Extra- curricular activities are another area in which we evince strong interest. Then, there is the summer assignment of candidates to judge from. As far as possible, we try to take in the internees who put in a stint with us.

Now, we come to the direct recruitment stage. In this, of course, experience counts. But we look at qualitative experience more than the quantitative one. That is, it is more important for a person to be constantly learning on the job rather than having put in a fixed number of years' experience. The candidate's ability to perform the job well is of course paramount. Then, here too, the academic background counts a lot. The kind of companies a candidate has worked in (good and bad FMCGs) also reveals a lot. Presentation of information is another good criteria to judge the candidate (how he has framed his CV and the essential career information). Finally, we also go by the stability indicator. If a candidate is jumping jobs too often too soon, we know that the candidate is likely to get bored very soon even with this job. On the other hand, if he is sticking around for say more than ten years, it means he or she has reached the stagnation point. So, on an average, I would consider people with around five years experience in one company as good enough. But of course, I would reiterate that a person's growth on the job is much more important than the number of years he or she has put in a particular company.

What are the areas in which you look out for people? Also, at the interview stage, what in the candidate catches your attention?

We look out for candidates to fill in positions in the areas of finance, sales, marketing, HR and R&D. At the interview stage, a candidate's overall personality does leave an impact. His listening abilities are also very important. This means that the candidate should be a good listener who can grasp things fast. Then, professionally, we are not really looking for candidates who know everything, but whatever they know, they should know them well. They should have thorough knowledge of the field they are working in, but at the same time, not be very narrow specialists who know nothing else apart from their own field of operation.

Finally, we want to know what is the drive or the motive for a person to seek change. Is it negative or positive? That is, does he want to leave his previous company because he is frustrated or because he is looking for greater challenges? So, the push and pull factors are measured by us to judge the candidate's suitability.

What do a candidate's non-verbal cues indicate?

The candidate's body language is a good indicator of his confidence and excitement level. It would be difficult for me to pinpoint exactly how that can be judged, but well, being in the HR field for a couple of years, one does a get a basic idea. And then, eyes are a pretty good communicator of your thoughts and ideas. If a person is honest and truthful, he would look you in the eye and ooze confidence, but if he's lying, his eyes would automatically avoid your gaze.

Could you throw some light on your interview process?

We have two stages of interviews - the preliminary one and the final one. The first one is simply to assess the suitability of the candidate's mindset, while the final interview is more job- specific. In this interview, the candidates meet the CE of the company, Mr. Utpal Sen Gupta.

Briefly, what are the top qualities you seek in a candidate? He or she should be highly task-oriented with a strong code of personal ethics, integrity of character and a positive attitude to work, people and life in general.

VANIT SETHI

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