Talent Drainage at Radio Awaz (A case study on decreasing advertisement offers due to turnover of talented compares at private radio

broadcasting organization, Radio Awaz )

This case study was written on a private radio broadcasting organization named Radio Awaz. The organization was providing its services in twelve major city of Punjab. This case study shows the relationship of less advertisement offers with turnover of talented compares (RJs) as advertisement was major source of income, so organization was facing financial loss. The organization was facing problem in retaining talented RJs which can gain the attention of listeners so that listeners would listens more advertisement and advertisement offers could be increased for Radio Awaz.

This case study was written by a group of M.B.A students of GIFT university , Gujranwala named as Syed Imran Haider (10123027), Muhammad Salman (10123018) , Umme Aiman (10123007), Noreen Islam (10123034) and Ali Rauf (10123022). The case study was written under the instruction of Mr. Nadeem Akhtar, senior human resource lecturer at GIFT university, Gujranwala.

Talent Draining at Radio Awaz (A case study of private radio broadcasting organization facing financial loss due to employee turnover)
Mirza Muhammad Naeem, C.E.O of Radio Awaz FM 106 Gujranwala, was much concerned about the voluntarily layoff of talented hosts and compares and yearly decrease in offers of advertisements from businesses. Awaz group of radios is providing its services in 12 cities of punjab including Gujranwala, Gujrat ,Sheikhupura, Sargodha, Pakpatan , Okara, Sahiwal, Bahawalpur , Rajanpur, Khanpur and sadiqabad. Gujranwala had large industries and dense population inside the city so there were many more chances of earning through advertisements. It considered the fifth largest city in Pakistan with a population of approximately 2,661,360 as on 24 June 2011 (Extrapolated from a population of 1,415,711 in 2006 and a population of 2,569,090 on February 4, 2011). Due to extensive road and rail links the city has flourished within the manufacturing and agricultural markets. The city was on the Grand Trunk Road, which allows logistical connections to the provincial capitals such as Peshawar and Lahore and also to the capital of Pakistan Islamabad. It was in between Lahore and Islamabad so it had got famous in business for small and medium industries. Gujranwala was known for its extensive production of sugarcane, melons and grains for international export. The city has set up several commercial and industrial centers. So, Gujranwala was a major revenue earning hub for Awaz Group of Radios. About 22% of total revenues are earned from Gujranwala city. Of this 22% revenue, more than 70% revenue was earned from advertisements other major part of revenues is earned from SMS sent by the listeners during live programs. Usually most of advertisements were run during any live program and these type of programs are transmitted during prime time i.e. from 6pm to 10 pm. Advertisements that were run in prime time are much worthy for Radio Awaz than those advertisements which are played on other times.

Source: Awaz Group of Radio (http://www.radioawaz.com.pk/awaz2012/)

Organization history and background: The Chief Executive Mirza Muhammad Naeem was the Pioneer of the Future-Tech Engineering and Systems (Pvt.) Ltd. and AWAZ 105 FM. This was a fast growing venture in the field of broadcasting and telecommunication. Radio AWAZ 105 FM was the subsidiary of Future-Tech Engineering and Systems (Pvt.) Ltd. They were not only Broadcasting the FM transmission but also providing the turn-key solution for the setting up of the complete Radio Stations and Telecom Solutions in the Government, Semi Government and Private Sector. Future-Tech Engineerings team were comprising of a group of highly skilled and seasoned Broadcasting and Telecom engineers with vast experience of Broadcasting Telecommunication, Data Networking and Project Implementation in Pakistan and abroad. The areas of their expertise included but not limited to the setting up of complete FM and AM Radio Stations and basic telephony systems to modern broadband Internet works and DSL projects. Future-Tech Engineering, with its qualified staff of professionals had acquired and reflects the expertise and professionalism. Their teams of professionals possess expertise and vision in different aspects of the Pakistani market, allowing the organization to market a broad range of products from the supply of spare parts, to the installation of Turn key Projects. The company offered an exhaustive product mix backed by complete service and support capabilities ranging from conceptualization and system engineering to program/project management. Sales and revenues of company have showed an upward trend in all product lines. Although their team had the ability to integrate and sell equipment as well as networking solutions, but they consider their technical skills, knowledge and management services to be their key asset. Their engineers can very effectively evaluate products, validate technology, design/implement/optimize telecomm networks, implement SLAs and offer O&M services to any telecomm agency or network operation. Future-Tech Engineering offers voice, data, video and wireless communications network design and implementation. Their engineering and business team had more than 20 years of

accumulative experience in the field of data networking and telecommunications! They knew telecommunications engineering inside and out. Future-Tech Engineerings team had knowledge as well as experience of following major areas 1-System Engineering 2-Voice & Data Networks 3-Wireless Technologies 4-Cable TV 5-DSL Network 6-Video Conferencing 7-VoIP Telephony & Implementation 8-Project Management Radio Awaz, Management and HR practices: According to mission statement of Radio Awaz fm 106; We want to make friendly relations with the people, Guide them to the right way. Make them understand what they find complex. Make them realize the importance of education. Conduct them to walk into the new era of life. Keeping them informed which will help them to feel like a part of this global village. And last but not least, reviving their culture and norms which are becoming obsolete. The organization could not develop a strong culture because of high rate of exit of entry of staff even sometimes slang language was used and conflicts also developed often. Organization was highly centralized all decisions comes from top to bottom and usually C.E.O makes all decisions there is no autonomy or participative style of management.

There is not any formal performance appraisal system performance of any employee were judged by C.E.O and other management staff. (See exhibit 3) Fix salary is paid on basis of number of days of performance. Job advertisement was usually done during radio transmission or job posts were published on the website of the company under job listing section according to which minimum educational qualification for RJs and Reports or news casters is F.A while for management related job post, minimum education was bachelor (see Exibhit.2) The selecting and recruiting criteria were very tough. First time RJs used to take the interview they check the education of applicant, his communication i.e. how he/she speaks and confidence can he/she speak in the front of millions of listeners. After that interview in charge production RJ Sofia used to take another interview she used to ask some personals questions like cast ,brother sisters etc. and used to say to perform any thing and think yourself that you were doing program on radio. If she liked the performance then the final selection was made by the station manager. He used to take interview and if he liked the performance then candidate would be selected otherwise. After the selection training timer period start after training, applicant would be on-air There was no formal training during job and career development program for employees. Management Challenges All businesses keep checking the impact of advertisement on this radio station on their sales by applying different statistical tools such as regression and co-relation etc. If advertisement on this radio station leave positive impact on their sales then they keep offering advertisement otherwise they switch to an another radio station or another media of advertisement so it is very necessary for radio Awaz to get attention of listeners and to make more and more new listeners it order to survive. For this purpose they need such talented RJ's (compares) which can get the attention of public and can make new listeners. (See Exhibit 1 for advertisement rates) In the year 2006, when Radio Awaz started its transmission about 35 large and small businesses played their adds in Radio Awaz. During the year 2007 to 2008, this quantity reached to 80 and most of adds were played in prime time which is most worthy time for Radio Awaz

So, during these times Radio Awaz made huge profits. In the year 2009 no more advertisement offers received by the businesses but existing customers remained committed. The time after 2010, was the horrible time for Radio Awaz when it did not receive any offer of advertisement from its major customers contributing almost 20% of its revenues. The revenues generated by listeners text messages were decreased by 22% after the year 2009. The major cause of problem was seen that a very famous RJ named Zahid Abbasi left the organization in June 2009. Zahid Abbasi was assigned to do a live program named "Punjabi MojMela" that program was transmitted daily at 6pm to 7pm and large amount of calls and text messages were received by the listeners which generated huge revenues for the Radio Awaz. Later, RJ Naveed was assigned to do that program with RJ Kashaf, RJ Naveed was graduated from PU, Gujranwala campus but have done the 1 year job at Mobilink as a customer representative he had also done job as a compare in Radio Pakistan fm 105 Sialkot. While RJ Kashaf had done graduation and working in Awaz 106 for 3 years. This replacement was not proved successful RJ Naveed left the organisation in January 2010 another RJ Abdullah was working with kashaf till January, 2012 but Radio Awaz was still struggling for getting more adds for and to regain its customers.

Discussion Questions: Q.1 What are reasons that Radio Awaz is unable to retain permanent RJs (compares)? Q.2 Does HR practices are according to its mission statement and business strategy if not then how can these be aligned? Q.3 What salary plan would be suitable for RJs and why? Q.4 Should Mirza Muhammad Naeem train their exiting RJ or hire from outside, how? Q.5 How can Mirza Muhammad Naeem motive any new RJ?

Exhibit: 1

Rates for Radio Awaz 106 FM

From 06:00 AM to 10:00 PM Spot Ad. 10 Spot Ad. 15 Spot Ad. 30 Spot Ad. 45 Spot Ad. 60 Sponsored Program 15 Min Commercial Time 75 sec 8,000 Sponsored Program 30 Min Commercial Time 150 sec 15,000 Sponsored Program 60 Min Commercial Time 300 sec 22,000

sec 450

sec 650

sec 1,100

sec 1,500

sec 2,000

From 06:00 AM to 10:00 PM 250 400 600 800 1,000 5,000 10,000 15,000

*Note These prices are exclusive of GST@15%. Payments are made to be advance

Exhibit 2:Jobs Listing Title Presenters/Djs Qualification: FA, BA or MA (Duty will be assigned as per Qualification) Experience: Good Accent, Good Speaking Power with Style and General Knowledge.

Job Information

Title Job Information

Reports (News and Current Affair) Qualification: FA, BA or MA Experience: Minimum 1 Year Experience

Title

Admin Manager/HR Manager Qualification: Bachelor or Master Degree in the Relevant Field Experience: Minimum Three Year Experience

Job Information

Title

Assistant Manager Accounts Qualification: Bachelor or Master Degree in the Relevant Field Experience: Minimum 2-3 Year Experience

Job Information

Exhibit.3 Core Management Posts

1-The Chief Executive Officer Mirza Muhammad Naeem Contact Info Cell: 0333-4444105, 0308-4444105, 0321-6225105 Email: naeem@radioawaz.com.pk 2- Chief Advisor News ChSaqib Ali Khan Contact Info: Cell: 0333-8433030, 0314-4444565 Email: saqib@radioawaz.com.pk 3- Executive Officer Hafiz TahirPerviz Contact Info Cell: 0332-4949105, 0345-6874448 Email: hafiztahir@radioawaz.com.pk