Dilemmas of an HR manager in the BPO industry
Express Computers (IT People), June 24, 2002

The IT enabled services (BPO) industry is being looked upon as the next big employment generator (Nasscom predicts 1.1 million job requirement by the year 2008). It is however no easy task for an HR manager in this sector to bridge the ever increasing demand and supply gap of professionals. Unlike his software industry counterpart, the BPO HR manager is not only required to fulfil this responsibility, but also find the right kind of people who can keep pace with the unique work patterns in this industry. Adding to this is the issue of maintaining consistency in performance and keeping the motivation levels high, despite the monotonous work. The toughest concern for an HR manager is however the high attrition rate.

In India, the average attrition rate in the BPO sector is approximately 30-35 percent. It is true that this is far less than the prevalent attrition rate in the US market (around 70 percent), but the challenge continues to be greater considering the recent growth of the industry (read the less time span) in the country. The US BPO sector is estimated to be somewhere around three decades old. According to Vaibhav, assistant manager-HR, IT&T, keeping low attrition levels is a major challenge as the demand outstrips the supply of good agents by a big margin. Further, the salary growth plan for each employee is not well defined. All this only encourages poaching by other companies who can offer a higher salary.

The much hyped “work for fun” tag normally associated with the industry has in fact backfired, as many individuals (mostly fresh graduates), take it as a pas-time job. Once they join the sector and understand its requirements, they are taken aback by the long working hours and later monotony of the job starts setting in. This is the reason for the high attrition rate as many individuals are not able to take the pressures of work. According to Umesh Vyas, vice president and senior consultant, head-BPO, QAI, the reason behind this is the “glamour and fun component”, which is high in communication to prospective employees. The toughness of the job and timings is not adequately conveyed. Besides the induction and project training, not much investment has been done to evolve a “continuous training programme” for the agents. Motivational training is still to evolve in this industry. But, in all this, it is the HR manager who is expected to straighten things out and help individuals adjust to the real world. “I believe that the new entrant needs to be made aware of the realistic situation from day-one itself, with the training session conducted in the nights, so that they get accustomed to things right at the beginning,” says Vyas.

The high percentage of females in the workforce (constituting 30-35 percent of the total), adds to the high attrition rate. Aniruddha Limaye, vice president-HR & training, Daksh eServices, believes that most women leave their job either after marriage or because of social pressures caused by irregular working hours in the industry. All this translates into huge losses for the company, which invests a lot of money in training them. “If a person leaves after the training it costs the company about Rs 60,000. For a 300-seater call centre facing the normal 30 percent attrition, this translates into Rs 60 lakh per annum,” points out Vyas. Many experts believe that all these challenges can turn out to be a real dampener in the growth of this industry. Agrees Ravi Dutta, the head, HR, eFunds. According to him, the recurring recruitment costs because of attrition are detrimental. The same also leads to recurring training costs. Inconsistent performance directly affects revenues. Dwindling motivation levels leads to loss of interest in the job and higher number of errors.

This only raises the responsibility of “finding the right candidate” and building a “conducive work environment”, which will be beneficial for the organisation. The need is for those individuals who can make a career out of this. According to Vaibhav, the most crucial challenge faced by an HR manager in the BPO sector is to get a large number of individuals who have excellent written and verbal communication skills, at affordable cost. “Even though this sector gives an individual scope for improvement during vigorous training periods, there are particular aspects of speech and conversation which are not trainable,” he says. He adds that there is a dearth of reputed and established training institutes for call centres, therefore organisations have to handle such manpower challenges internally. The company has set an elaborate training infrastructure with specially trained and qualified in-house trainers. “We have multiple computer based training rooms with telecom facilities to take care of training needs of new and existing agents. Voice and accent neutralisation besides cultural training form an integral part of the regime,” he says.

Talking about the pressures, Dutta says, “The average age of the organisation is less as compared to some other industries. Therefore, one has to make sure that the working environment is lively. People who wish to make careers in the BPO sector expect very fast growth and can get restless very easily if this does not happen. Given this situation one has to constantly keep them interested in their jobs; they need constant guidance and counselling to be focused.” Anubha Parekh, vice president, TransWorks Information Services, adds that the HR needs to be vigilant about small things like food, transport facilities, work environment, facility layout, amenities and convenience support to the employees. “Costs to take care of these things should take precedence over other expenses for HR. The HR strategy must have at its centre of focus people needs and requirements. It must also build in the flexibility net to adjust to a sudden demand from employees or for employees,” he says.

All this has induced the companies to take necessary

steps, both internally and externally. Internally most HR managers are busy putting in efforts on the development of their employees, building innovative retention and motivational schemes (which was more money oriented so far) and making the environment livelier. Outside, the focus is on creating awareness through seminars and going to campuses for recruitment.

Though the industry has taken a lot of initiative in conducting training for new entrants and agents, it is development of the skills of middle management (comprising of the team leaders and supervisors), which needs to be taken care of. Due to the vertical movement in the industry, most individuals get promoted a rank or two above their current position. However, since they do not have any management background, things start becoming difficult for them (considering most who join the industry are just graduates). All this not only affects the scale, service and quality of the company, but also on the personality of the individual who feels at loss. According to most industry experts, with technologies, techniques, processes and methodologies being redefined and reinvented by the day, the contact centre manager needs to constantly handle changes in management philosophy and operational practice to successfully and consistently deliver customer goals.

The BPO companies are consequently now busy designing development initiatives for their employees. Limaye says, “We try helping people identify their strengths and weaknesses, pick up their problem-solving skills and their leadership abilities. This being a people-driven business, the emphasis is more on improving their personalities and processes and help each individual emerge as a winner.” He points out that HR managers need to keep in mind that one shoe does not fit all and each individual has different capabilities. So, in spite of the vertical movement in this industry, HR managers should try developing horizontal career options, which will only help in enhancing an individual’s personality and strengths. These options are—growth content specialists, trainers, quality experts or even help in operational and business development of the organisation.

In spite of so many initiatives, industry experts feel that the major concern is that nobody has really taken it as a “career choice” but a “pass-time” or “time-gap employment”. If a mature industry has to evolve, the picture needs to be changed wherein it becomes “the” choice industry like its software counterpart.

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