Umesh Malhotra is the CEO and founder of Hippocampus Learning Centers. Hippocampus learning Centers provides low-cost preschool and after-school learning services to students in rural areas. It currently serves over 6000 children across Karnataka and is the largest early education provider in the state.

Hippocampus hires rural women to deliver their innovative curriculum to students. Despite the generally high turnover rate of teacher employment in India, Umesh has managed to find, hire and retain most of his staff. He spoke with us on the work culture of Hippocampus Learning Centers and offered 5 hiring tips for other edu-preneurs.

Meghna Rao: “Impact” businesses can have a hard time finding talented staff that are willing to work for lower pay. Did you have any problems with this? Are there any specific ways you worked around this?

Umesh Malhotra: We realized this issue early on and knew what we didn’t want—we call it the NGO mentality. People believe that they can go in for two hours a day, and volunteer— that’s not us. We’re a business. We needed applicants to feel that it wasn’t easy to get a job at Hippocampus. Working with us is a challenge. Our journey is like… taking people on a trek to Mount Everest. Everyone who joins us has to go through a series of multiple interviews. We were not just looking for capability, but also people with a sense of dedication and purpose.

Meghna Rao: What do you look for in your staff? And how do you deal with these expectations?

Umesh Malhotra: The number one thing that we look for is talent. Most of the people in my team are extremely intelligent and constantly need to be challenged. My job is to set that challenge to a meter where they aren’t overwhelmed. Everyone who has stayed on constantly feels that they are learning. Everyone who has dropped off hasn’t been able to keep up with our challenges. They weren’t able to handle the changes day to day.

Meghna Rao: How selective are you when you hire in rural areas?

Umesh Malhotra: Our selection process is pretty detailed. Only 15% of village applicants become teachers. It has been difficult for us because it’s already tough to find applicants, but we want to be sure that we’re delivering quality.

Meghna Rao: I understand you have a lower turn-over rate than most schools. How do you retain your staff?

Umesh Malhotra: We’ve spent a lot of time establishing a supportive work environment.

We create an open dialogue with our teachers. We never measure a teacher by the performance of a child. That takes the pressure off the teacher and reduces the urge to cheat. It also opens up the possibility for questioning and close feedback of the curriculum.

We also like to establish a consistent level of intimacy: Every teacher needs to be seen by someone from the senior management. This helps establish an entire system of credentials and increases the seriousness about selection. It gives every teacher someone from senior management to identify with. When I walked into a center, people would see me and say: you were the one that interviewed me, right? Everyone had one face. When we had our annual conference, every teacher had one face on the dais whom they know and that they’d spent a half hour with. That additional bonding was very critical.

Meghna Rao: What about challenges? Have you had to make any sacrifices in order to maintain the quality of your employees and services?

Umesh Malhotra: I’ve had to make plenty. Here’s an example: beating children. The common mentality is: my student didn’t do this—whack. So now, here are a bunch of parents and teachers that are coming and telling us, we are working with 3 year olds… how else can we handle these children? How will the teacher keep them quiet? There was an incident where a child was hit by a teacher. The parents called our helpline and complained. Within 3 hours, our team was there and the teacher was fired on the spot. We shut everything down and told the parents that we wouldn’t have a teacher for a while. And as you’d expect, the word got around quickly to other teachers that we’d take such action and close a school in the name of our promise to parents. There are things that you just have to sacrifice to maintain your standards.

 

 

 

 

5 Tips on Rural Hiring from an Edu-preneur

• Establish a serious work culture. Maintain a standard of employment that speaks to the quality of your organization.
• Don’t compromise on excellent staff because of time, cost or other external circumstances. Excellent teachers are the link between your curriculum and your students.
• Develop an intimate work culture with your teachers – make them feel ownership in your success. The interactive nature of teaching to an innovative curriculum requires feedback from those who work with it the closest.
• Don’t be afraid to go against the grain. Hiring in rural areas can expose a completely contradictory set of values—Overlooking red flags can be the first crack in a team.
• Take the pressure off of your teachers. Working on a new idea in uncharted territories can be difficult. Encourage them to overcome the challenges they may face.