Jazz, Pakistan’s top internet operator, has increased the minimum compensation of its employees from Rs 50,000 to Rs 62,000 in the middle of an ongoing economic crisis where businesses are closing, and people are losing their jobs.
At Dawn TV’s renowned programme “Zara Hut Kay,” where he was invited to discuss Pakistan’s startup culture and the state of telecoms in the current economic crisis, Jazz CEO Aamir Ibrahim revealed it.
Aamir responded, “Our employees are simply like our family; just like you don’t get rid of your children in hard times, why would you get go of your employees,” when asked how Jazz was able to keep and reward staff members despite the current economic climate.
Luckily, neither the head office nor we have put any pressure on ourselves. Instead, we have supported the expansion and retention of our employees. Despite all the difficulties, he continued that Jazz treated its staff well this year and increased the basic pay to Rs. 62,000 monthly.
“We gave our employees good raises. Aamir said that we particularly over-indexed our support staff and the less experienced employees. He added that lower-level personnel shouldn’t have to deal with regular kitchen issues while the more senior employees should be paid for their performance.
Aamir continued the conversation about the need to treat people well by stating that Jazz should hire all of Pakistan’s top talent, particularly in analytics, fintech, engineering, etc. “To do that, I need to establish a setting where people feel safe psychologically and intellectually.”
- Telecom Industry Challenges
Aamir emphasised the disparity between the company’s earnings and expenditures due to the sector’s contradictory policies when discussing the telecom industry issues. Including spectrum, licence renewals, and telecom equipment, about 70% to 80% of our payments are made in dollars. Although we pay in USD, we earn in PKR, he stated.
He also emphasised that while Jazz had been expanding, it had yet to do so at a rate comparable to inflation. “Our growth is 15% if the inflation is between 25% and 30%.” Aamir continued by saying that despite his longtime advocacy for these issues, Jazz’s and the telecom sector’s worries had received little attention.
“We give the government more than one-third of the money we gather, directly or indirectly. He claimed that the government would gain more if this industry, which is currently worth 600 billion, were twice as large.
He said that a long-term policy strategy would aid the telecom sector’s growth and speed up digital inclusion in the nation. Instead of taking the more significant piece of the pie, we should consider extending the pie. A long-term, sustainable policy is particularly critical in this situation.
