Crossing the lines into Telecom

By VIKKI BLAND

According to the annual MIS Top 100 listing, Telecom New Zealand is the sixth-largest corporate user of information technology in New Zealand (universities, Air New Zealand and government departments occupy the top five slots).

With 2.1 million customers in two countries, including 500,000 customers in its internet division Xtra, Telecom is unsurprisingly also one of New Zealand's top IT employers.

Brighid Kelly, head of organisation development for Telecom, says IT candidates are attracted to Telecom because its core business is information technology and telecommunications (IT&T).

"In Telecom, IT&T is not a back office function. We are a large business with a massive scope in the IT&T area."

Kelly describes Telecom's employment culture as performance-oriented, challenging, professional, fast-paced and increasingly collaborative and concentric.

If this sounds like a dream environment for a raring-to-go IT graduate, it probably is. However, securing a job may be difficult for candidates without work experience or those who lack the personal attributes Telecom favours.

"For specialist IT positions we seek someone with a specialist qualification; then we look for depth in those technical qualifications, experience, and staff and project management capability," says Kelly.

She says Telecom advertises positions internally before making them public, and acknowledges the Catch-22 problem facing graduates without work experience. Encouragingly, it will start a graduate programme within the next two years.

"There are also IT recruitment areas in Telecom where experience is less important, engineering being one example," says Kelly. "We don't specifically look for people with a telecommunications background. We do seek people who are at the top end of their game and able to demonstrate professional discipline.

"We look for employees who are open to trying new experiences and can move beyond their personal comfort zones."

She says Telecom employees must be able to empathise with the customer.

"Telecom is moving away from the need to buy in experienced staff and towards internally built knowledge and expertise," Kelly says. "Despite the global trend towards corporate downsizing, there comes a time where you have to put your foot down and grow."

This doesn't stop Telecom from making people redundant. While it recruited 1350 permanent employees over 12 months from 2002 to last year, it also made 388 people redundant between July 1, 2002, and April 30 last year.

Kelly says Telecom employees are as safe from redundancy as they would be with any IT employer of comparable size and scope.

"Largely, our redundancies are due to business reshaping as we work out who we are and who we are not."

She says as circumstances change and people retrain, Telecom sometimes re-employs people it has previously made redundant.

"This year, we will begin to track people who are made redundant and ensure they are kept in the loop and made aware of future employment opportunities."

Those who make it through the Telecom IT employment door and manage to stay there will probably find the effort worthwhile. In a 2002 interview, Telecom's chief information officer, Mark Ratcliffe, said that after 13 years with Telecom he had no aspirations to do anyone else's job.

"I don't feel any restrictions on my job at Telecom. I can be anything I want to be and do anything I want to do," he said.

A less senior former employee also has good things to say about Telecom.

"They generally look after their staff very well," says the employee. "They cover [most] phone costs and are more than understanding about leave and holidays; they do try to be flexible. However, training and product knowledge for all staff could be improved."

Kelly acknowledges that Telecom hasn't always done as well with training and development as it would like.

It may grant paid study leave or contribute towards the cost of ongoing study, but traditionally, training and ongoing career development is the responsibility of individual unit managers who have their own training budgets.

"This year we are initiating a formal management development programme which will span both Australian and New Zealand operations.

"Our strategy is to embrace the role of the manager in individual development and it is a serious commitment on Telecom's part."

This will come as good news for those wanting to make a serious commitment to Telecom on their part.

Employer profile

Company name: Telecom New Zealand

Products/services provided: Commercial, residential and mobile telecommunications products and services

Location: New Zealand - Wellington (head office), job opportunities nationwide; Australia - Sydney (head office)

Permanent employees: 6000

It occupations employed: Security, design, enterprise architecture, project management, supply management, programming, engineering, testing, business analysis and others