Russia’s Employers: “IT Clinics”

Rjob.ru correspondent discussed issues related to personnel training and operation specifics in regions with Alexander Fedorov, General Director of MERLION’s “IT Clinics” project.

How did you recruit personnel for “IT Clinics”?

IT Clinics was established in 2007. The management company’s staff are about 100 persons, including business development managers, marketing specialists, PR managers, designers and many others.

But not all of them are employees. For now, we have opened over 80 “IT clinics” in Russia. Each service center has 5 to 20 employees. In total, over 500 employees are involved in our project. We do not have our own service centers, all the clinics are being developed based on the franchising system.

Do you maintain the unified recruitment system in regions?

Yes, we do, there is the unified quality standard for client service and operations. All franchisees are familiar with the standard and act in compliance with the charter.  But partners are responsible for recruitment of local personnel.   We are studying an option to implement the online recruitment of personnel for service center as per unified standards, but this is what we are planning only. It is difficult out into effect, because this is not only a challenging development, but it also involves a large number of experienced HR specialists. A centralized personnel recruitment system allows for better understanding of the operational structure of service centers in regions and of the level of specialists. Besides, such a system prevents recruitment through good connections, because employees are meant to become the representatives of the federal-level brand.

Which requirements shall job seekers meet with?

Initial requirements are standard: industry-specific education, work experience, responsibility and resistance to stress. But franchisees have their own opinions on an employee, because every partner has its own set of obtained authorizations.  That is why only the partner may properly estimate specialist’s capabilities and competences. But all our specialists shall be skilled professionals, because we are a client-oriented company.  When a client brings his or her gadget to our service center, he or she shall be 100 % confident that we will be able to offer the best option for repair.

Anyone who has proper experience or knowledge in electronics repair and who wants to start business he or she really loves and who wants to work under the brand of a well-known nationwide company may become our partner. Requirements for franchisees are rather strong and there are a lot of requirements, but it is the experience that matters.

Do you recruit students or applicants without experience?

Of course, we do. Students who will become engineers in the future are training in our IT clinics. They start with a simple job and tools like a screwdriver and gradually acquire all skills from professionals with long-time field experience.  Newcomers are trained either by engineers or by vendors.  An engineer teaches new employees the basics such as: safety rules, tools handling, specifics of product repair in compliance with product groups and manufacturers. A vendor, in its turn, gives the key knowledge related to its own products, maintenance and spare parts.

Your service centers have been authorized by many production companies.  Does it have any effect upon employees’ performance?

In our “IT clinics”, for example, in the flagship “IT Clinic No. 999” in Moscow, employees are often trained by vendors such as MSI, ASUS, Lenovo, LG and many others.  This direct training has a positive effect on the experience of highly skilled engineers and on trainees with short-time experience.

All service engineers shall pass specialized brand-oriented training and monthly certification. For example, we have obtained the latest authorization from Redmond. Now we are servicing the whole range of Redmond products, from popular multi-cookers to smart devices.

Applicants in the IT industry are often called the choosiest.  Besides, there is a stereotype that technical specialists are bad at contacts with clients.  How can you tackle these issues?

We do not entirely belong to the IT industry. I would say we are IT support; that is why it’s easier for us to recruit personnel. Actually, service engineers and clients do not see each other; inspecting engineers are responsible for contacts with clients. By the way, we contact training to work with clients and we have also development a script to be used when contacting customers.

Do you have the employee turnover problem?

Of course, in regions it is much more difficult to find qualified service engineers in comparison with the capital of the country.  That is why we do not have any problems of this kind; any employer is trying to keep skilled personnel.

What are operating conditions for your employees?

Workplace safety is one of the key requirements for obtaining the franchise and brand authorization.  For example, all surfaces in the service engineer office are protected with a special anti-static coating; employees use anti-static garments and chairs with an antistatic coating. All these measures are intended to keep equipment and tools intact and to protect from static voltage. For safety purposes, service engineers always use special wrist straps to provide grounding.

Which methods do you apply to improve employees’ performance?

There are sanctions for IT clinics, including a withdrawal of authorization and prohibition to use the trademark. As any other company, we apply not only penalties, but also commendations.  To understand who deserves a commendation or correction of operation processes, the management company's staff, together with the responsible manager and vendor's representative conduct audits in different cities.  On average, such inspections are conducted every 12–18 months. In Moscow, we inspect our branches more often.  Any client complaint submitted to the management company will be reviewed and solved. For this purpose, we have the Quality Department.