How to Hire Operations Executives Who Keep SLAs on Track

Operations roles look very different across industries, but the core is the same: make sure work gets delivered on time, to the agreed standard, at the expected cost. In a logistics company that may mean tracking shipments and delivery partners. In a facility management company, it means staff deployment and client complaints. In e-commerce, it may mean order processing, returns and seller coordination.

Write down which SLAs this person owns. For example, "95% of orders dispatched within 24 hours" or "complaints closed within 48 hours". If you cannot list the SLAs, the role is not clear enough to hire for yet.

• Daily tracking of orders, tickets, shipments or service visits
• Coordinating vendors, delivery partners, technicians or field staff
• Escalating delays and following up until closure
• Preparing daily and weekly MIS reports
• Spotting recurring problems and suggesting process fixes
• Handling client calls and emails about service issues

Good operations people want to know what they will track, how much volume there is, and what the working hours look like. Operations roles often involve early starts, Saturday work or on-call duty. Say so clearly to avoid early resignations.

BetterJobs lets you post an operations job from a one-line description; the in-house AI writes a full description you can edit, and the job appears on BetterJobs and Google Jobs.

• Sample line: "Track 300–500 daily deliveries across Thane and Navi Mumbai, coordinate with 40 delivery partners and escalate delays before customers call."
• Sample line: "Prepare a daily SLA report by 11 am and a weekly root-cause summary for the operations manager."
• Sample line: "Six-day week with rotational Sundays; shift 9 am to 6 pm."
• Mention languages needed for coordinating with field staff, such as Hindi, Marathi, Kannada or Telugu.

Strong operations executives often come from backgrounds where they have already handled volume and pressure: logistics coordinators, back-office executives at service companies, customer support team leads, store operations staff or MIS executives who want more responsibility.

Graduates in any stream can do well. Degree matters less than evidence that they have owned a process and kept it running. Back-office executives and support team leads moving up are often good fits because they know trackers and escalation already.

Give a small spreadsheet that looks like your daily operations data, with 30–50 rows. Include a few problems: duplicate entries, missing timestamps and a handful of breached SLAs. Ask the candidate to work on it during the interview.

You are testing practical Excel skills, accuracy and judgement about what to escalate first. Speed matters less than whether they find the real problems.

1. 1Calculate the percentage of orders or tickets that met the SLA.
2. 2Use a filter or pivot to show breaches by vendor, area or agent.
3. 3Identify the three worst-performing vendors or areas.
4. 4Flag any data errors they notice and explain how they would fix them.
5. 5Draft a five-line WhatsApp or email update to the manager summarising the day.
6. 6Say which issue they would escalate first and why.

Operations work is full of surprises. Use scenario questions based on real situations from your business, and push for specifics: who would they call, what would they tell the customer, and how would they stop it happening again.

Listen for early escalation. Candidates who say "I would try to solve it myself first and tell my manager later" may let small problems become big ones.

• "A vendor confirms ten technicians for a client site at 8 am, and only six arrive. What do you do in the next hour?"
• "Your SLA report shows a sudden drop in one area for three days. How do you find the cause?"
• "A key client calls angry about repeated delays. What do you say, and what do you do after the call?"
• "Two managers give you conflicting priorities on the same day. How do you handle it?"
• "Tell me about a process you improved. What was the result?"

Operations roles need people who are dependable under pressure. In reference checks, ask former managers how the candidate behaved on bad days, whether they flagged problems honestly, and how they treated field staff and vendors.

Also check practicalities: willingness to visit sites or warehouses, comfort with occasional late evenings during peak periods, and a two-wheeler if field visits are part of the role.

Pay for operations executives depends on industry, city and complexity. As a rough guide, many companies offer somewhere around ₹18,000–₹32,000 a month for executives with a few years of experience in metros, with lower ranges common in smaller cities. Benchmark locally.

Remember statutory costs. EPF is generally 12% of basic plus DA from employer and employee, subject to wage ceiling rules, and ESI applies to employees earning up to ₹21,000 a month. With the Labour Codes now in force and rules still being notified, confirm current requirements with your payroll adviser.

Show a path to team lead or operations manager. Operations executives who understand the whole process are hard to replace, and a visible career path helps keep them.

Spend the first week shadowing the current owner of the process, visiting at least one site, warehouse or vendor, and learning the escalation matrix. In week two, the new executive runs the daily report with supervision.

By the end of the month, agree on two measurable goals, such as improving on-time dispatch or reducing repeat complaints, and one process improvement they will lead. Regular short reviews keep them focused on SLAs rather than firefighting. A fifteen-minute daily stand-up in the first few weeks, covering yesterday's breaches and today's risks, is a simple habit that helps a new executive learn quickly and lets you spot gaps early.

Operations executives often leave in the first few months because the job turns out to be very different from the interview. They were told it was a coordination role, but they spend all day on angry calls with no authority to fix anything. Be honest about the pressure and give them real decision rights, such as switching to a backup vendor or reassigning field staff without waiting for approval.

Another cause of failure is unclear escalation. If the executive does not know whom to call when a vendor fails at 7 am on a Sunday, they will either freeze or make a decision nobody supports. Share a written escalation matrix with names, numbers and limits on day one.

Finally, measure the right things. If you judge operations executives only by the number of complaints, they may discourage customers from complaining rather than fixing the causes. Track SLA performance, repeat issues and closure time together.

• Give written authority limits for common decisions.
• Share an escalation matrix covering nights, weekends and holidays.
• Review root causes, not just complaint counts, every week.
• Recognise good saves publicly; operations work is often invisible.