Retaining BPO Talent

Hi All, I recently read an article in Harvard Business Review which says.... "Indians by their very nature are lazy and that is one of the major reason for people leaving/ not recognising the importance of BPO sector....their mindset does not allow them to work beyond limited number of hours.....hence they keep switching jobs....." think about it.... Please send in your comments..... Regards Tanushree :shock:

Dear Tanushree, Consider this... At the age of 18 years anyone with 10+2 qualification and excellent communicatiosn skill can join BPO. And an employee can expect a salary of Rs.6000 - Rs.8000 pm. Growth options are plenty. At a very young an employee can become Operations Manager. From an agent to Subject Matter Expert (SME) then Team Lead, then Team manager and so on depending upon the organization structure. Apart from this, depending upon the employee's interest and upon the company policies he/she may be moved to other departments ... 1. Night shifts :---A BPO employee has to work when it is day time for Americans. More alertness is required, which we are not used to. Has to0 have food during the odd hours. It is not that easy for a human body to adjust suddenly from normal system to new system. 2. Missing festives:-- Most of them work in 24/7 or 24/5 environment. Employee has to come even on festive days. That's a big disappoint to many. Ofcourse most of the companies are paying double the salary, or providing off on another day, those doesn't really compensate spending time with family members and relatives on the occasion. 3. Leaves:- Getting leaves is an another issue. Since it increases the burden on the fellow employees and also work flow may disrupt. 4. Health :-- Health related problems are another factor affecting the industry. An employee has to withstand the pressure and work environment. 5.Last but not the least, most of the employees leave when there is a real problem at the work place, check with supervisor of the employee. If an employee don't adjust to the above, he look for an alternative. There comes job hopping into picture. Good reputation, more monetary benefits, more facilities are what most employees look for before moving. On the other side there are several positive notes like pick and drop facilities, free lunch, dinner, variety of foods, weekend parties, money at the young age etc. Switching job is not really related to laziness especially When you consider BPO sector. Over to members.... Regards Subhash

Are you sure you read this in a "Harvard Business review"? It is very unlike them to write something so frivolous. Let us consider this: There used to be a time when the greatest bane of the HR manager was the employees union and all his decisions first had to run the union approval test. The fundamental problem with this was that while it provided the employees a very strong platform and negotiating power, it left very little scope for individuality of the employee. Today, the BPO employee has no unions to fight for his rights. What he does have on his side, are market forces. The demand is much larger than the supply and the employment provider of choice will walk away with the best talent. Considering that BPO is still a relatively new industry in India, the churn in the industry is just reflective of this quest for equilibrium. IMHO

Hi Subhash, You gave a fine and elaborate analysis of why people leave call centers, but this problem is not just with call center employees.....BPO employees here would include recruitment, training staff etc.... even though they are not expected to stay during night shifts...they still do not wish to continue beyond a year or 2.... i'll give an example... I am pursuing MBA and we recently finished with our campus placements....one of the top notch's Bank BPO recruited 5 students from our campus....we would be taking care of the training department (not delivering training but arranging training programs, calculating ROI etc....) they are offering one of the best packages but even before considering the offer 3 students rejected it....(could be other reasons as well).... and this job would be like any other job....from 10-5, No night shifts, almost all sat sun off etc.... the training manager in that bank had 5 positions because last year he had 3 campus placements and they left within 1 year.....he said its similar case almost every year..with almost every BPO... so what is the root cause..... is it the mindset....or something else??? Regards, Tanu

Hi Chandrasekhar Thanx for replying.....yes i read this article in HBR (JAN-2002 issue...1st article in the magazine...and is written by a lady..) The author has used words like "LAZY"....."MINDSET" with a clear referance to the Indian context....she has backed it up with analysis also. She says this is happening only in India...."so it could be due to the mindset....." I put this question to the forum members because i felt that even to this date job hopping continues.... I agree with u when u say the churn in the industry is reflective of a quest for equilibrium. Agreed.....but could you walk me through such instances happening in other countries.....coz I seriously have no idea if this could be applicable to any other nation or other nationals.... waiting for your reply.... Regards, Tanu

Dear All, I agree with Subhash when he says Odd working hours, missing out precious time with Family, 24/7 working days. But over and above this what i feel that strong reason behind BPO high attrition is the monotony in the work and minimal growth opportunities. Even after promotion there are less chances of the change in Job description except the scope of supervision widens. The growth in terms of learning is minimal which propels the employees to go and join some other Company. The quest of learning in Indians are very high. Looking forward to have more inputs on this from fraternity. Deepa

Hi Tanu, Analysis?... I'd love to see that article... will try to source it. For the analysis to hold good, The author will have to prove the following points... 1. The churn happening in the industry is not contained within the industry; i.e. people are actually leaving BPO jobs to opt for other industries. 2. If they are opting to move into other industries, the number of work hours put in by them are significatly lower than those they put in the BPOs 3. The trend observed in India has been compared with other countries that have identical working conditions, including Number of work hours, compensation, and shift timings. This is to ensure that she is not comparing apples with oranges. If she can sustain her arguments on all these counts, then we will have to concede that her arguments merit some serious consideration. Even then, we need not conclusively agree with her and can investigate further. Do let me know