Yaniv Natan
Tek Experts Vietnam unveiled its new headquarters in Ha Noi this week, marking a new phase of the company's growth in Viet Nam.
The spacious and cutting-edge new office is part of Tek Experts' plan to launch Viet Nam as one of its strategic markets on the world map. Yaniv Natan, Founder of Tek Experts, spoke to the press during the opening ceremony about his company's ambitious plans to grow in Viet Nam.
Who are Tek Experts ?
We are a global company specializing in IT support and Professional Services. Our clients are the world’s leading software companies. We started our business in Viet Nam almost four years ago and chose Viet Nam over other countries in Asia because we really like the attitude of the people here. We were looking for a country where we could recruit strong IT talent that had the right kinds of behavior and commitment to great service, and Ha Noi has both. We found the DNA of the people here in Viet Nam to be exactly what we were looking for.
What makes Tek Experts different to other companies operating in the region?
Our goal is to give people a career, not just a job, and that is why one of the major initiatives we undertake is training and development. Any employee who joins the company must go through continuous training. We believe not just in training our employees technical skills, but also training them to be leaders and managers so they can have a long term career and bring their experience and expertise to our junior members of staff.
What are your ambitions for Tek Experts Vietnam?
So far, we have grown 100 percent in terms of our strength here in Viet Nam. We are really happy with the Vietnamese talent we have, that is why we have been so successful in delivering services from Ha Noi. We strongly believe that in the next three years, we will triple the number of employees in Ha Noi. Our objective is to bring the number of employees to 1,000 and that’s because we are confident we can build a strong business here.
What are the policies of your company to attract IT talent?
The world is competitive and we like that. Competition makes us strive to be better. If there is no competition then you can get left behind. The way we attract talent is by providing them with three main benefits:
First, we focus on career development. We recruit fresh graduates and train them not only in technical aspects but also in commercial and social behaviours, and are committed to giving them a long and rewarding career.
Second, we expose our employees to a multinational environment. They have the chance to sharpen their English, and other languages, and work with top companies in the world. We even give them the opportunity to travel and work with colleagues around the world, which goes a long way to helping them become stars in their field.
And lastly, we have a strong family culture. At Tek Experts, the environment is very open and friendly. Our employees enjoy many social activities. It is a fun and lively place to work, and we aim to create an atmosphere where employees want to come into the office in the morning
Do you think salary is the key to attracting and retaining talent in your company?
Salary is always important, but we firmly believe salary is not the most important parameter. It is only the one part of retaining employees. To retain employees and give them more than a 10 per cent salary hike is very easy for us and we could do that, but there is still no absolute guarantee they will not quit their jobs. Many people think only a high salary will help retain employees, but we discovered very early on that this is not true. I think salary, promotion, career development, culture and social activity are the key to retaining employees.
We are proud that the salary of our employees is far better than other local companies. We can, therefore, retain our employees much longer compared with our competitors.
What are the challenges facing your company as it looks to employ more Vietnamese IT talent?
The challenge facing us is to see whether we can hire enough talent, which we require, within the next couple of years in Viet Nam. We do not want to employ talent from other countries if we can find it locally. My purpose is to develop our employees and we invest a lot of time and money into training and developing them for the long term. So far, we are lucky to have the right talent here and to be able to promote Vietnamese employees into top positions in our company, and we will continue to do that as long as we able to find talent. We can safely say that employees working for Tek Experts in Viet Nam will have an opportunity to travel to other countries to help them adapt to different cultures and new approaches. And this is priceless.