The 3 A’s at Compare: Attitude, Aptitude & Academics

During the hiring process every organization looks for some general skill sets in the prospective employees. These skills sets can be the technical and informational skill, the research and analysis skill, the creativity and communication skill or the behavioral and leadership skill. The must-have skill varies from company to company. The priority of skill is matched to the work culture and the philosophy of the organization of course.

For Compare, we have opted for the three ‘must haves’ as :

1. Attitude: The will and positive approach can make or break deals and projects. It never helps to have a highly decorated talent at workstation who has a pessimistic approach. To ensure that the team members are motivated, the organization introduces many HR initiatives. But nothing works better than ‘self-motivation’ and it is only possible if individual has a positive attitude. This helps in accomplishing tasks and goals much faster and the entire work process becomes enjoyable. A positive attitude further helps establish a good relationship with colleagues as well. In today’s era of elevated stress at work, the right attitude provides the necessary magic potion to avoid detrimental health effects. Hence, during the hiring process Compare tries to understand the basic attitude of an individual before closing the position.

2. Aptitude: Every job position calls for some basic abilities which aid in carrying out the responsibilities. The aptitude is a reasonable enough barometer to identify the success probability of an individual. We conduct evaluation tests for every job position and these evaluation methods also help us identify areas of training for future enhancements.

3. Academics: Over the years, we have understood that there are certain job roles in which individuals who have a credible academic record perform exceptionally well. Having said that, we would like to bring into light that there have been the out of ordinary experiences as well wherein employees with average academic score have outperformed.

Hence, identifying the priority list of ‘must-haves’ is unique for every profile and position. This has worked well for us and we are glad that the talent at Compare is a very capable force which is rightly skilled to achieve greater success whenever guided by the right strategy.

 

Learning Curve at Compare

The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice – Brian Herbert

As Wikipedia defines it, a learning curve is a graphical representation of the increase of learning (vertical axis) with experience (horizontal axis). Like most of the internet companies, Compare too has a probation period of 6 months for all new employees. This period is crucial as we surely cannot ignore the fact that however fine-tuned the hiring process is, the probability of the new hire not performing as per expectations is always present. This period is an quintessential training period; the training methodology is a combination of classroom training; assignment-based training and on-the-job training. Learning is of primary importance and all resources are made available to ensure a steep learning curve opportunity for the new hires.

The first step towards learning is creating a non-threatening environment and the work environment of Compare promotes learning for sure. The organizational business model is such that it is imperative that the new hire, especially those in the digital marketing and project management profile, get a comprehensive training wherein they are introduced to every element of the operations and marketing. The training is provided by numerous employees who are the knowledge heads for a particular domain. The new hires are provided with all necessary tools to enhance their learning efficiency. The training programme, based on classroom and assignments, is usually for a month and a half. This training is appropriately scheduled to minimize the challenges at the end of the trainer as well who have to carry out their work function in addition to the training.

After the completion of the classroom and assignment-based training module, the individuals get to implement the learning on live projects. The on-the-job training is always coupled with daily and weekly feedback to ensure the reinforcement of the concepts and methodologies. The assignment of projects is based on individual strength, capability and interest.

This training methodology has helped the organization and the new hires immensely and as a result we see an exponential learning curve. Over the years Compare has provided an excellent learning platform to all its team members. And the learning benefits the individual climb up the corporate ladder and more importantly this growth is not limited within Compare, for they spread out far and wide. The old associates of Compare have established a credible name for themselves in the industry and we are happy to have been able to provide the right learning direction and the necessary hands-on experience.

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.- Harold S. Geneen