How are startups hiring people in India? What matters – Education, Background, Aptitude…
Last few months at Vaatsalya, we have assessed ourselves on how well we have done on our people front. First off a few things about our business which will put this in context,
a. All our hospitals are in non-metro areas (semi-urban and rural), so there you have it, a tough situation to hire people to begin with
b. Most of the employees are medical professionals or people from allied fields, nurses, technicians etc
c. We are fiercly non-hierarchical in structure, no one has titles, offices and such. And we want to keep it that way. E.g The weekly meetings in the hospitals are routinely conducted by office boys, and attended by doctors, nurses and founders.
From my experience, I have found that the “drive” or the “entrepreneurial spirit” is what seperates the gems. We have a young guy working in our karwar hospital (completed 11th std), who is handling everything at the Unit, including scheduling doctor visits, hiring people. No one told him, he just went ahead and did it. He started off as an office boy in Hubli, with the first job of cleaning the place. No fancy MBA, experience, background, nothing. Just the drive to get things done! Even the paediatrician at the hospital introduces him to every one as “the boss”. Just talking to him makes my day.
And we routinely get resumes from people with Masters in Hospital Administration, MBAs, Hospital Administrators with 5+ years experience, and all we get from them is, “what will be my role?” and “What is the package you are offering?”.
Would like to hear from others what has been your experience. Is anyone doing anything outside of metros? Would like to exchange notes.
- Startups – how do you choose your people? - July 6, 2006
- Startup Mentoring Network - July 1, 2006
- Pitching your business - April 19, 2006
Ashwin,
You reminded me of my JobsAhead days which was a very much startup, very much entrepreneurial and internet venture to top it all. To find the right kind of talent I had to almost break all conventional wisdom and look for drive, keenness, capability to chase & chase…. While early days went practising, soon it became a habit…and I got some real rainmakers.
One guy who came for interview from Indore was so terrible with communications that I expressed inability to hire quite explicitly. He was just so keen that he suggested to work as an associate without salary support. I put him on commissions and after some 10 months was forced to hire him, he being one of the top 3 performers in the region. This hiring faced reasonable resistance for apparant lack of conventional skills. A year down this guy picked National best Relationship Manager award. I have never ever felt that happy. He currently heads a region for a top Bank and the winning streak continues….he still fails conventional hiring tests…..
I recently engaged some young professionals from Muzaffarnagar on some semi-urban project….going looks good….
I am doing some work with young professionals/ students in semi-urban space….do let me know if I can be of any use…
Hi Ashwin,
I have known of Doctors as having egos, demanding respect and privileges from others. (And personally I am perfectly willing to give them all these 🙂 )
So how does this aspect work out in Vaatsalya? Wouldn’t this create issues?
Cheers,
Sreekanth.
Ashwin,
I just finished reading a book “Maverick” by Ricardo Semler. It is based on his experiences in running a company in tough economy of Brazil with a unique HR style. If you have not read it you may want to. Vaatsalya sounds very interesting and I look forward to a better than “Maverick” written by you someday.
Its an interesting article but may not be relevant in India. The drive factor in the workforce in India is different as people have a more holistic living sense. You need people who can drive teams rather than self.