Guest Forum – ECI

on tuesday, april 29th, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm, jobnet will host two representatives from eci: shiri modai, manager of the recruitment center, and gili shiloni, manager of company recruitment in israel.
we spoke with them along with adi bildner, vice president of human resources, who told us about how the company is managed in light of its acquisition during the past year, about the longstanding organizational culture and about recruitment processes at the company.

eci is a global company that provides innovative communications platforms for leading communications and services providers around the world. founded in 1961, eci is among the leading high-tech companies in the country and is currently in a process of growth and renewal. the company has 2,200 employees in israel and abroad.

what are eci's areas of enterprise?
"eci offers access solutions and advanced infrastructure products for transport networks, which form the foundation of future communications. advanced services such as iptv and broadband data, audio and video communications are made possible thanks to the communications systems we develop. the company's areas of enterprise are very broad and it has branches in 24 capitals in europe, the us and asia, in addition to four development centers – in india, china, the us and israel, in petach tikva."

adi bildner, vice president of human resources

in 2007 eci became a private corporation when it was sold to a group of investors headed by shaul shani.

which substantive changes has the company undergone since the acquisition?
"the company has undergone three significant changes. first, following the acquisition we became a commercial corporation traded as a private company on the nasdaq exchange. the company also underwent extensive reorganization, combining the two existing product departments and outsourced supply chain tasks to flextronics. the aim of the reorganization was to simplify the company's internal operations model, allowing it to focus more on its customers and the markets in which it operates."

what measures were taken to retain organizational unity?
"company management saw an obligation to impart three main values to the employees. the first value we inculcated in employees is excellence. eci, which develops innovative products and competes against huge communications corporations like ericsson, is a company on the technological forefront. we're constantly striving to redefine standards of excellence in every area: development, service, compensation, etc.
the second issue is elevating the sense of pride among company employees and boosting the sense of belonging and contributing to the success of the company based on a goal of bringing new life into eci. the third issue is the courage to make decisions, take risks, simplify processes, etc."

how does the human resources department serve the needs of all of the employees in israel and abroad?
"human resources is vital in inculcating these values and creating cultural unity at the company. the department is founded on two main bodies in order to preserve the warm atmosphere and provide the right solution for all employee needs. the company has three main divisions – the network solutions division, the global services division and the marketing and sales division. each division has human resources functions set up to involve the managers.
the second body includes headquarter functions, i.e. organizational training and development, recruitment, internal communications, salary and benefits and community relations. the recruitment department, for instance, has nine recruitment managers and workers who handle recruitment processes for all of the divisions, from start to finish."

what is the organizational culture like at eci?
"the human mosaic at eci is more varied than at other high-tech companies in israel. this comes across in the employees' cultural background, character and the wide age range, which includes young workers and students together with older workers.
another characteristic is the employees' and managers' commitment to meet goals and accomplish tasks. along with challenging, difficult work that sometimes includes long hours, there is a strong desire to meet the development plans and provide the customer the best possible service.
we also run extensive community activity. for example petach tivka organization yedid operates with eci funding and cooperation. shortly before pesach we carried out a food distribution operation in which our employees volunteered to hand out food to needy families."

what can you tell us about the policy on company activities?
"the company policy on activities and employee conditions is an important element in forming the corporate culture. one of our main guiding principles is a flexible organizational culture that places employees at the center. eci grants scholarships to employees set to enter college and creates a connection between the employee and his family and the company. we also organize staff and company-wide get-togethers as well as vacations and numerous outings. the staff in charge of employee conditions is given the tools and the ability to handle individual problems."

how do you maintain ties with workers scattered across the globe?
"the ties between the branches and the development center are very tight and constant. every branch outside of israel has a human resources department that maintains contact with the human resources department and division head here in israel. also, several times a year meetings are held between staff managers abroad and their counterparts in israel."

what makes eci a fun place to work?
"eci has a family atmosphere and a feeling of warmth and caring toward the employees. the style of management is not formal and stiff. in fact there's a lot of openness between the engineers and their direct supervisors. it's also important to us to develop employees professionally and socially. we place emphasis on developing teams and arranging manager training programs to provide proper management tools."

what kind of training and enrichment programs do employees go through?
"we see training as an inseparable part of the work process so we built and invested in a solid training center that includes a wide range of high-tech and individual-development courses. once a year we hold a locating process for training purposes. the respective team leaders and department managers present various employee requests, which are used to build the training program. once a month we also hold enrichment sessions where employees can hear lectures on general topics related to the company, and not necessarily high tech. this month, for example, we held a very interesting lecture on the middle east led by dr. guy bechor."

which positions are in demand at the moment?
"as part of our growth process we'd like to bring into our ranks development engineers with experience in embedded. they're in high demand. we're also looking for java and c++ or board design developers.
one of our attributes is that we deal with a broad range of development languages so you can gain expertise in a number of technologies simultaneously and expand your professional knowledge."

what about opportunities for advancement at the company?
"eci is a large global company and therefore the opportunities for internal mobility are very extensive, both in terms of management and lateral-professional mobility. we're slated to build a professional career track that will allow promotion not just in the field of management, i.e. an employee who has a lot of influence and makes a large contribution due to his professional and technological know-how can earn the same salary as a ranking manager."

considering the thousands of resumes you receive, how do you cope with the recruitment and screening processes?
"human resources personnel and the managers of the staffs seeking employees take part in the recruitment process. the screening processes are very painstaking in order to assess the right candidate. we don't compromise on the quality of the employees brought into the company. the process includes in-depth personal and professional interviews, high-tech tests, personality tests and if necessary we also send the candidate for group dynamics testing."

which qualities are you looking for in job candidates?
"we're looking for people who will be pleasant to work with, people who know how to work in a team and like to provide service. we want to find employees who are willing and able to adapt to changes quickly. the high-tech market is very dynamic and eci has undergone significant transformations in order to keep growing."

does cooperating with jobnet contribute to your recruitment process?
"first of all, based on our familiarity with the market, as a company, if you don't advertise on jobnet you don't exist.
beyond advertising job openings, our cooperation with jobnet has been very fruitful. we use the site's services to control the quantity of resumes we receive. the site allows extensive flexibility in posting and removing job ads and provides us additional forms of exposure, such as home-page and guest forum articles, which help us reach
high-caliber candidates."

so to wrap things up…
"every candidate who comes to us senses the pleasant atmosphere that pervades at the company and is exposed to a range of technologies and opportunities to develop and learn. the many changes eci has undergone in recent years have allowed it to maintain added value in the market and to stride forward."    


for the hebrew article