Reaping Rewards and Recognition at

PTCL
Abstract
 This case study highlights the issues raised by PTCL EVP contact center employees hired
on contract basis. They had grievances regarding compensation and benefits which
ultimately lead to reduced performance and their decision to quit form job.
 EVP acknowledged that call center needs motivated employees for achieving company’s
growth and customer satisfaction.
 To handle issues regarding employee’s low salary packages, de-motivation, job
dissatisfaction& poor career growth, Executive vice president (EVP) Mr. Omar has
involved all relevant departments to design effective HR policies, initiated career
Growth model for CSR, arranged outdoor activities and rituals to foster teamwork
culture, form effective rewards regarding their performance and incentive plans for the
first time in year 2011.

History and Background of PTCL

 When Pakistan came into being then PTCL starts with name of "Pakistan post &
telegraph Department" in 1947.
 As time passed and new technology developed communication system has also
developed. So, in 1962 Pakistan Telephone and Telegraph Department was established
and Pakistan Post was declared as separate department.
 Telephone & Telegraph department has converted to Telecommunication Corporation
in 1991 under Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation (PTC) ordinance of 1991.
 With PTC, government open the way for private competition and start awarding licenses
for cellular phone and card operated pay phones. With this liberalization, government of
Pakistan decided to privatized PTC and use voucher method in 1994 for privatization
that later were convertible to shares in 1996, total number of vouchers was six million
that were equal to 600 million shares
 PTCL incorporated in Pakistan in 1995 and commenced business in 1996. Later listed on
all stock exchanges of Pakistan in 1995
 In 2000, Telecom Policy Finalized and PTCL launched its subsidiaries in 2001 i-e Mobile
subsidiary named as Ufone which later raised its market share in cellular sector. Another
was internet subsidiary named PakNet which dissolved due to non-competitivenessand
DSL services were launched by PTCL with different brand name
 In 2003,PTCL monopoly comes to an end due to Deregulation of Telecommunication
Industry when government decided to completely liberalize the telecommunication
industry.
  Initially PTCL shares were owned by Government of Pakistan. Later, company was
completely privatized as shares were reduced to 62% in 2006 and 26% shares were sold
and control transfer to ETISALAT(Emirates Telecommunication Service Provider) and
12% to public. As Etisalat embraces new technologies and make the world of global
communications accessible to more people it perfects the art of bringing people
together.

1947 Pakistan Posts and Telegraph Dept. Established

1962 Pakistan Telegraph & Telephone Dept.
1991 Telecommunication Corporation in 1991 under PTC
1994 Issued 6 million vouchers exchangeable into 600 million shares
1995 Incorporated & listed on all (LHE, KHI, ISB) stock exchanges of
Pakistan
1996 Vouchers converted into 600 million shares
2000 Telecom Policy Finalized
2001 Mobile (Ufone)& data (Pak Net) subsidiaries established
2003 2003 Telecom Deregulation Policy
2006 Etisalat Takes Over PTCL's management

Introduction to PTCL – Connecting the Nation since 1947

 Recognized as the leading & largest Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Service Provider worldwide.
 Offer latest digital and telecommunication technologies today and has largest fiber
cable network
Products and Services
Broadband internet, CharJi wireless internet, Smart TV (IPTV) service, over-the-top (OTT)
applications like Smart Link App, Smart TV App and Touch App, and world class digital content
like Netflix, iflix and icflix. PTCL’s enterprise grade platforms like Smart Cloud, Tier-3 Certified
Data Centers, Managed Services and Satellite Services
Vision
To be the leading Information and Communication Technology Service Provider in the region by
achieving customer satisfaction and maximizing shareholders value.
Mission
 An organizational environment that fosters professionalism, motivation, and quality
 An environment that is cost effective and quality conscious
 Quality and Time Conscious Services that are based on most optimum technology
 Sustained growth in earnings and profitability
Core Values
1. Professional Integrity 2. Customer Satisfaction
 3. Teamwork 4. Loyalty
Organizational Structure

Bord of
Directors

CEO

Project
Director

Marketing Customer Informatio HR & Quality

Finance Engineering IT
& Sales Care n System Admin Assurance
Positioning Statement – Hello to the Future
 Comprised of two words “Hello” and “Future”
 “Hello” is the word, which is related to telecommunication history, i.e. PTCL welcomed
its customers and express its warm environment
 The word “Future” translates its philosophy to provide planned and proactive solutions
and products to its customers
Market Shares & Profits
 Wire line and wireless broadband services continued to maintain 90% of the market
share spanning over 2,000 cities and towns in the country
 Demand for PTCL broadband services had positioned it the second largest growth
geography in Asia
 Operating profit had undergone major fluctuations from year 2009-2013 as reflected by
EBIT ratio and there was declining trend,but it gained drastic increase in year 2014.

PTCL Call Centre

An inbound call center attended all incoming call of PTCL helpline i-e

 1236(Billing queries), also known as “EVP Contact Centre, Lahore”

 1217 (Inquiry or directory services),
 1218 (New service requirement or complaint registration)
This center was responsible for providing non-stop 24 hours service a day to PTCL customers.
This facility was in line with PTCL’s drive to improve and enhance its customer care services.
Hierarchy & Management
 In 2009 hierarchy of call center consisted of seven levels of management. Analysis found
this system insufficient as it resulted in lower employee performance and intentions to
turnover after 2-3 years of joining.
 This lead top management decision of increasing some management posts and
redesigning centralized management structure for all Call Centers(KHI, ISB, LHR) and
changed its name from “BnCC-1236” to “EVP Contact Centre Operations, Lahore” in
June-2010.
 Whole team of CSR consists of three major categories:
1. Customer Service Executive (CSE)
2. Customer Service Agent (CSA)
3. Team leaders (TL) comprised of three levels i-e TL-I, TL-II and TL-III
Above TLs there was the team of higher management

Performance and Compensation Practices

Human Resource Department – In House
Occupied by three employees in number who performed two shifts per day i-e two in morning
and one in evening.
HR Activities
HR activities of PTCL are classified in two categories:
1. Outsource Correspondence: Third party or outsource employees rendered services to
PTCL call center but they are on vendor’s pay roll and PTCL was not responsible for their
compensation and benefits
2. Personal Management System (PMS)
 Includes hiring and developing employees, setting (KPI’s), making Incentive plan,
reporting system, Quality Assurance strategies and organization wide policies and
rules.

Role of Ask Development – Outsource

 All operators and the team leaders of call center team were hired through third party
named Ask development on contract basis
 Responsible for their HR activities (staffing, training & development, payroll, and
compensation)
HR Policy
 This third party offered a nine-month contract to all employees starting from the date of
contract
 Contract is revised based on satisfactory performance
 Contract is dissolved upon termination with the respective clienti.e, PTCL. Ask
Development had firm policy regarding attendance and terms and conditions
 CSRs were entitled for 10 days casual leaves and 7 days sick leaves in calendar year
except for probation period or in training
 Probationary period was of four months from the date of joining, during which
employment could be terminated without notice
 Deduction of two leaves or two days compensation in case of Leave without permission
 One day leave/one day salary was deducted if an employee were late three times in a
month.
Hiring Criteria of CSRs and General Terms of Working
1. Hiring assistance:
 There were four phases, where each candidate was thoroughly checked and filtered
till final stage.
 Candidates shortlisted based on qualification, age, and experience
 Written test is conducted regarding EQ, IQ, and simple questions about area of
interest
 After passing test, group assessment (depends on position) is conducted
 Finalized candidates are invited for initial interview
 Successful candidates are sent to client for final interview
2. Training assistance:
 4-5 days training based on different call center training modules then employees
were transferred to their job location offices where they received further training of
10-15 days about company products, promotion, and system software usage.
3. Payroll process:
 Payroll cycle calculated from 21st to 20th of every month.
 After the issuance of cheque from PTCL to Ask, salary with incentives must be
transfer to CSRs within 3-4 days as per policy
4. Employees Compensation and benefits:
As per policy, in year 2007, the employees were eligible to receive benefit fromContributions to
EOBI.
 Issues Faced by Call Center Employees
Occurrence of Strike against Payroll – Case
 PTCL CSR’s called on strike at Mall road Lahore in front of Punjab Assembly building on
13th February 2013including female CSRs.
 They claimed that they had not been paid for two months consecutively.
 Strike followed by an urgent meeting of top management with Executive vice president
(EVP) Mr. Omar on issues of declining performance and frequent employee flight
 Management was quite dissatisfied with call center performance and directed EVP to
develop plan of action to reduce employee voluntary turnover and improve
performance.
 First, on 14th February morning, the EVP discussed the meeting points with HR manager
Mr. Haziq and called a meeting with Managers CSS Support (both function I & II), area
managers and Quality Assurance. He instructed them to have a meeting with operation
managers so that they could discuss issues faced by contact center employees, made a
summary of them and then they find best possible solutions.
 Secondly, he conducted Internal Audit and analysis of different HR activities from hiring
to resignation or termination process. He made a review of all personnel policies and
rules & regulationsand concluded that employees have many complaints resulted in
high voluntary turnover of junior professionals within 2-5 years joining.
Findings of Internal Audit and Analysis of HR Policies and Practices
 Delay in Salaries
o As per policy of Ask Development, salary should be transferred within 3-4 days
after cheque transferred from client, but employees face delay of 6 – 8 days in
salaries transfer
 High Voluntary Turnover
o Turnover among CSRs was estimatedon average 7.5% approximately in 2010.
Later, turnover percentage reduced to average 5.6% to 4.7% approximately in
year 2011 to 2012.
 Lack of indirect compensation
o No monthly incentive, medical (personal and family) and growthmodel has
beenintroduced, neither salary raise nor promotion since 2007 despite of
highinflation rate in Pakistan.
 Unrealistic Incentive Criteria
o Incentive criteria for Contact Center employees were unrealistic as it required
that there should be zero error in the quality of call and the one who want to win
must maintain 100% attendance throughout the month. The amount of prize was
min 1000 – 5000max and company was offering one prize per month for the
whole group
  Lack of Employee Ownership
o PTCL was not offering any type of financial and fringe benefits to its employees of
Contact Centers considering them the employees of Ask Development not of the
PTCL, so employees complained that PTCL is not owning them.

 Lack of Employee Motivation & Satisfaction

o Absence of outdoor and recreational activities in the routine job of employees of
PTCL to raise employee loyalty and create team spirit. Theirteam found no time
to hang on with each other to increase the interpersonal relationship.
o Grapevine was observed which function like a termite to the performance. They
became politically charged and showed lack of interest at workplace.

Performance and Compensation Planning ‘2010

Mr. Omar made amendments to HR policies and rules to stimulate and encourage employee’s
performance and their motivation level. The new policies have following salient features:

Closing Communication Gap

To overcome the communication gap and to build strong relationships Mr. Omar instructed HR-
Manager to make a part of policy that reporting managers must hold a daily meeting to update
staff with current information and make daily achievement reports. So that appreciation call
could be given to the high performer of the day. These awards could be given to any member of
staff as a way of appreciating and applauding the exceptional achievements of Customer
Support Representatives and incorporating the essential element of immediate recognition.

Incentive Plans
 In year 2011, first incentive plan was announced with the name of Rewards and
recognition with revised salary cycle for third party employees to inculcate competitive
environment
 Transparent mechanism with a minimum level of subjectivity in the process and
criterion. The evaluation was KPI based and the qualitative measures were also be
substantiated by Management Information System (MIS) generated reports
 KPIs were made by quality team and evaluated by audit team.
 Best performers were nominated for the rewards and in parallel the Quality
Improvement Plan were utilized to improve the performance of those employees who
had not been able to show the adequate or expected level of performance.
 The 3rd Party Agents and Team Leaders had been divided into different categories and
the nominations were made from each of these individual categories.
Rewards and Recognition Plan
Third Party Agents were eligible for appreciation awards after four months of their
joining. These rewards shall be used for providing immediate recognition to Agents and
acknowledging their contributions publicly.

Non-Monetary Compensation
i. Appreciation Certificates: Certificate of appreciation shall be distributed to all winners
by the concerned vendor and Contact Center Management.
ii. Wall of Fame:Photos of star performers shall be placed on the wall of fame in the
accolades corner.
iii. Preferred shift:Agent of the Month would be given the option of switching to the
preferred shift.
iv. Annual Gala:An annual dinner gala shall be arranged for every center once a year.
All agents will be encouraged to take part in the event and may perform any activity
(songs/ skits etc with the consent of a committee formulated by Senior Manager
Contact Centers (SM CC). Subject to availability, EVP Contact Centers / General
Manager (GM) Contact Centers and Senior Executive Vice President (SEVP) of the
respective region may also attend the event.
v. Iftar Dinner: An Iftar cum dinner function shall also be planned and arrangements
shall be made by the respective SM CC (committee formulated by SM CC) at a venue
which may be decided with joint consensus of the agents and approval by EVP / GM
Contact Centers.

Monetary Compensation
i. Call of Fame: Best call is picked monthly and employee is awarded Rs. 1000
ii. Top performers of the month (90% target achievement or above):
a) Top performer shall be awarded Rs. 5,000/- per month (Top 5%)
b) Remaining Top performer shall be awarded Rs. 2,500/- per month. (Top 10%)
iii. Support Staff Award (90% target achievement or above): Given Rs. 4,000 each. (An
agent can win a maximum of 04 rewards in one fiscal year).
iv. Team Leader of the Month: Shall be awarded Rs. 4,000 on the basis for exemplary
work and performance of his/ her team.
v. Best Technical Support Team of the Month: Given a monthly cash reward of Rs.
16,000 each and this amount will be shared for bonding activity like lunch / dinner within the
winning team members.
vi. Top Seller(S) of the month (90% target achievement or above):
a) Top Seller shall be awarded Rs. 5,000/- per month (Top 5%)
 b) Remaining Top Sellers shall be awarded Rs. 2,500/- per month. (Top 10%)
vii. Best Performer of the Month: Winning agent will be awarded Rs. 7,000 along with
a certificate of appreciation from the respective vendor.

Amendments in Compensation 2013 – 2014

Revision in Direct Compensation:
 An incentive criterion was increased from 5% to 6% of the total salary amount of
employee on yearly basis and they were entitled to achieve it through KPI’s score.
 An employee can win at a time multiple category incentive.
e-g (Agent of the Month Award i.e. 10k + Call of Fame Award i.e. 2k + Best Team
Award i.e. (minimum) 1k + Top Seller Award i.e. 5k). With above mentioned example, an
employee can win Rs. 18,000 in a month other than his/her salary.
 Nomination Procedure was implemented.
 20 Working Days were mandatory for qualifying any category of Incentive.
 Late Night Shift awards were introduced
 Revision of total CC strength due to expansion of helpline 1218
 Eligible CSA were given Rs. 16,200, after four months of probationary period and CSE
were to give Rs. 22,200 after one year of experience.
 It was announced that Top 5% Agents who consistently exhibit outstanding performance
(greater than 90%) for a minimum period of 6 months shall be considered for promotion
 The salary ranges would be:

Team Lead II to Team Lead I

Rs. 26,000 to 30,000.

Team Lead III – Team Lead II

Rs. 22,200 to 26,000

CSE – Team Lead

Rs. 16,200 – 22,200

CSA – CSE
Rs. 11,200 – 16,200

Revision in Indirect Compensation

 In year 2014, CSR’s were entitled of a Group Life Insurance and Workplace Accidents
Insuranceand its annual premium was paid by ASK.
 Also given personal medical if hospitalized but no OPD clearance could be claimed.
EVP had sheer focus on resolving HR issues on priority as he acknowledged that PTCL call center
need motivated employees for achieving company’s growth and customer satisfaction

Analysis
Theories and Concepts Applied
1. Reinforcement Theory
In the light of the reinforcement theory which postulates that a behavior which has a
rewarding experience is likely to be repeated. This implied in PTCL for remuneration that high
employee performance followed by a monetary reward will make future employee
performance more likely i-e an employee would do the same thing again for which he was
acknowledged once. By the same token, a high performance not followed by a reward
eventually resulted in strike and turnover at PTCL. PTCL apply intrinsic and extrinsic rewards to
repeat the positive outcome in the future.
2. Expectancy Theory
Like reinforcement theory, expectancy theory focuses on the link between
compensation and employee job performance and suggests that individuals are motivated
to perform if they know that their extra performance is recognized and rewarded. PTCL
used performance-based pay and introducedIncentive plans in 2013 to make link between
employee performance and compensation e-g awarding top performers etc.

SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysesassess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in company.
It addresses where company currently stands, and what are the obstacles to success.
Strengths:
1. Leadership in The Market: PTCL is leading Company to provide landline services in
Pakistan.
2. Enterprise Resource Planning System – SAP:It has centralized billing and customer care
system. Due to this, thousands of complaints have been reduced.
3. Huge Distribution Channels: Easy access to the customers at their residential localities
due to huge wireless and wireline distribution channel.
4. ISO 9001:2008 Certified: PTCL Contact Centre Lahore reached out to customers range
all over Pakistan and Awarded ISO 9001:2008 Standards

Weaknesses:
1. Lack of Human Resources Management: PTCL’s human resources management
department is not effective. It does not have clear policy regarding hiring & training of
work force.
 2. Lack of Training Program: There is no proper training program to improve the skills of
PTCL employees to cope with ever- changing telecommunication sector.

Opportunities:
1. Huge Market size to increase market share
2. Improve customer services: Happy Employees Make Happy Customers as there is cause
and effect relationship between both. Employee that is satisfied and happy with the
company is more motivated with provided products/services, which helps serve
customers with more information and enthusiasm.
3. Skillful human resources: PTCL can improve the skill of its manpower by providing them
the opportunities of advanced courses that will make them to cope with the ever-
changing condition in field of telecommunication.

Threats:
1. Increase in Turnover:PTCL is dealing with post monopoly era, competitors have entered
the industry and the competitionhas increased. Thisincreases the turnover of call
centers including PTCL, which can create a serious threat for the organization.
2. Decrease in Market Share Due to Competition:Dissatisfied customers will shift to other
network providers who offer better services than PTCL and will increase customer
satisfaction. Decrease in market share would decrease the profitability of PTCL, which
will be a real threat in near future.

Key Success Factors

There are many contributing factors to success and retention of employees of PTCL. However,
some are discussed below:
1. Porter’s Cost focus business strategy
2. Reinforcement and Expectancy theories for employee motivation
3. Pay for Performance
4. Building Group Cohesiveness - Team Based Incentives
5. Intrinsic and Extrinsic Rewards
6. Realistic& Systematic Incentive Criteria
7. Career progression incentives and opportunities
8. Closing communication and employee engagement gap
9. Sense of Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB)
Conclusion

SOME OPERATING AND BUSINESS METRICS FROM 2014 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS:

 Operating profit and net profit improved by 19% and 15% respectively
 Revenue grown to 81,061 million
 Earnings per share increase by 75%
 90% shares gained in wireless network
Our standpoint regarding questions at the end of case, it is clear from financial highlights of
PTCL that strategy remained successful from the year 2013 to onwards.
The levels of compensation in all organizations have been rising drastically in both
absolute and relative terms over the past few decades. After studying the strategic mapping of
PTCL in this case, it is found that their compensation strategies are satisfactory after revision.
They invest an adequate amount of consideration to reduce the turnover rate of the third-party
employees and they can motivate their worker and lead PTCL to be a high productive company.
So far, the researcher has justified all the nooks and corners of compensation structures of PTCL
but does not discuss attrition rates and employee performance ratios after implementing the
revised compensation plans. So, we can assume from financial growth of PTCL in year 2014 that
turnover in call center reduced and employees’ issues regarding low salary packages, de-
motivation, job dissatisfaction & poor career growth were catered effectively by designing
effective rewards and recognition program and growth model to instill performance and
motivation.

Recommendations
1. Comprehensive and sustainable compensation system:Companies design compensation
plans to motivate and retain existing employees, and to attract new talent in their
organization. Reward policy should be good enough to influences the employees in a
positive mannerwhich results in their job engagement and performance.
2. Minimize communication gap between management and employees: Before 2013 as
management was of the view that employees’ performance is adequate unless strike
broke out and agents believe the other way around against the policies of PTCL in terms
of compensation and promotion evaluation. Therefore, it is recommended to minimize
the communication gap by conducting follow up sessions with employeeswhere
employees put their view or grievanceson table related to compensation and
performance evaluation. Itsupports management by objective (MBO) concept where
both parties are held responsible professionally and ethically.
3. Employee Referral Program:It is also found that no referral bonus was given to
employees although this practice reduces recruitment cost and hiring time. The HR
Department must convince the higher management to give such bonus as it improves
employee engagement and will contribute to PTCL’s success.
4. Ensure Job & Organizational Fit:Call centers are perceived as “commodity” role as this
job is seen as entry level position or as means of earning until or unless something
better comes therefore staff loyalty is low. Because of this,call center employeesleft
forother companies with slight increase incompensation. So, it is crucial to ensure job fit
and environmental fit of applicantsrelative to their role. Any mismatch willlead to a
frequent turnover.Besides, in this case study, it became clear “From Ask Development”
that recruitment is not effective using generic assessments. The assessment used must
be specific to the role and the environment of the company where employee is going to
work.
5. Restructuring of Organizational Structure: Keeping in view the communication gap,
organizational structure of PTCL should be flattened in lieu various levels of hierarchy. It
improves coordination among management and employees.