Tek Experts chairman: Vietnam could become centre of global IT industry

Yaniv Yatan, chairman of Tek Experts

What are you looking for in Vietnamese IT workers to suit Tek Experts’ business model?

Tek Experts’ business is to support our clients’ customers, and our direct clients are among the largest IT corporations in the world who have extremely diversified customer bases including all industries and all manner of end-users. Our model is to provide on-demand support that is typically offered by the client. For example, when big corporations are struggling or need extra or specialist support, they come to us, and we give them the support they need.

The staff of Tek Experts have extensive technological training, however, the specific skillset required depends on the products out clients offer to their customers. At the moment, we are looking for talented people with a broad skillset, including networks, databases, security, .NET, data backup, and storage, among others.

We are currently looking for 300 new employees and we plan to recruit 300 more soon after. Together with our current staff, these new recruits will bring our total workforce close to 1,000.

Since we do not want night shift workers, the Vietnamese staff will mainly provide support for our clients in the Asia-Pacific region and in similar time zones. Our services will not extend to time zones far away from us.

What made you set up the Vietnam office in Hanoi instead of other cities like Ho Chi Minh City?

As you know, many enterprises are looking to expand business in other countries, such as the Philippines, India or China, but we want to invest and bring value to Vietnam. I like Vietnamese people very much because they are friendly, sincere, open, and especially intelligent. We chose to set up an office in Hanoi because I enjoyed the character of the locals, found them very smart and hardworking, and I believe it has been a wise decision.

We aim to attract talented people from all over Vietnam, so it does not really matter whether the office is in Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi. While it is true that the IT market in Ho Chi Minh City is bigger than in Hanoi, we want to give people who chose to move to Ho Chi Minh City for work a chance to return to Hanoi and have a successful and long career.

Tek Experts’ Vietnam office is currently one of our three biggest offices in the world, and will become the second largest after we complete our recruitment. This is also one of the best performing offices of the company, which is why we are continuing to invest heavily in Vietnam.

Since Tek Experts aims to attract 1,000 highly-skilled employees in Vietnam, have you come across any difficulties in the recruitment process?

The only real challenge I saw is that English is still a major problem for IT workers in Vietnam. I have always thought that Vietnam will become the second largest base of Tek Experts around the world, but at the same time always wondered how the younger generations of Vietnam can go global if English standards remain as they are.

Therefore, in addition to professional skills training, we also provide English training to new employees, with lessons given by native teachers and divided into levels to suit the individual. The training lasts between one to two months, and you can see a clear difference by the end. Their confidence when speaking English also improves significantly.

We have also adjusted the training programme to suit each employee based on what we have learnt during the training programme.

It is not uncommon for IT companies to “steal” talented people from each other. How do you prevent good employees from leaving the company?

I can honestly say that the decision to leave does not entirely usually revolve around salary. Things like the working environment, the training and development potential, the chances to progress and advance, all contribute to a happy workforce. That is probably why our retention rate is very high. Moreover, those who do good work may have the opportunity to visit to other international offices and work with their colleagues there. This is probably another reason why we can keep our people.

IT companies usually look for potential employees from early university through various programmes or scholarship grants, etc. How does Tek Experts approach potential recruits?

Over the years, Tek Experts has worked with many schools and universities in Vietnam. We go to events to introduce the company, to talk about the industry and the jobs we have on offer. We also give students the chance to visit our office, take part in workshops and encourage them to speak with some of our people to get to know more about the industry. This means new IT graduates, and even third and fourth year students, know about us and the industry, and are encouraged to apply to work with us when they graduate.

Tek Experts' new office has an open, modern, and very interesting design. Can you tell us the ideas and the philosophy behind this new office design?

The company's philosophy is to make employees excited and enthusiastic every morning. We designed the sky garden to be an open space where people can socialise, share, and work together away from the typical formal setting, creating a more family-like culture.

We do not expect our employees to sit in front of the computer for eight hours straight, and designed our office space accordingly. If someone is tired, they can take time away from their desk, have a cup of coffee, a chat, something to eat or even a snooze, until they feel ready to rumble. We believe a happy employee will provide the best service to our customers, therefore, we give employees the most comfortable working environment possible to ensure their top performance.

At Tek Experts, the culture of exchange has always been prevalent among employees. No one can know everything there is to know in the IT industry and each person's skillsets are different, so sharing knowledge and experience will only help us improve our ability to provide a great service.

When designing our office, we also wanted to create a quiet and professional working environment. Upon entering the office, you will see many employees talking on the phone, but not hear mush noise. With such an open space, employees can go out to the sky garden and have fun without affecting other people's work. All these elements combined create a good environment for employees to enjoy working at Tek Experts.

The office's sky garden is where Tek Experts employees can relax, socialise and work beyond the confines of their desks

With your experience working in Vietnam, do you think the country has what it takes to become a human resources centre for the global IT market?

I think Vietnamese people are very hardworking and intelligent, but the language barrier could be the only thing standing in your way to the top. I am sure that with a training strategy to overcome this shortcoming, Vietnam will become a centre of technology in the world.

Tek Experts is a global supplier of IT and business out-sourcing support services. After almost four years in Vietnam, the company is making increasingly impressive progress, and is currently an attractive destination for Vietnamese talent, and a great place for IT students to start their career. A corner of Tek Experts Vietnam office Tek Experts has offices in many different countries, spanning four continents, and provides support services to major corporations all over the world. Employees of the company will get to interact with different cultures and share their experience and expertise with others within the global community of the company. Tek Experts also focuses on individual development and provides many training courses for employees from their first day throughout their employment. Thanks to the professional, competitive, and nurturing work environment, employees of Tek Experts all experience constant growth, with 17.5 per cent of employees receiving promotion within three years of working at the company, according to a recent survey. The company also committed to providing employees with a working environment which is not only professional, but also comfortable. This is evidenced by Tek Experts’ new office on the 16th floor of Lotte Centre Hanoi, one of the most dynamic and vibrant offices in the city.