BPOS bet on staff retention

Arresting decline

New Delhi, May 18: The India’s BPO industry, which provides millions of jobs, is embracing employeefriendly policies such as job enrichment and innovative pay structures to arrest high attrition levels, according to HR experts.

Going by estimates, attrition levels in this industry is in the range of 30 to 55 per cent.

“Attrition level in the BPO industry is much higher compared to many other industries. Today, we are seeing this rate tottering at around 50– 55 per cent,” said Rajeev Menon, the head of innovation and product management of talent assessment firm MeritTrac.

“Yet we have noticed that the industry has settled down and attrition levels have been reducing,” Mr Menon added.

Faced with high attrition rates, BPO players are making significant investments in resources and employee welfare services apart from adapting welldesigned processes for performance review, experts opined.

“BPO firms have been offering job enrichment, training programmes, and innovative pay structures. The companies have enhanced employee benefits and are offering offshore assignments, which are acting as a motivation for many,” Mr Menon said.

The Indian BPO industry has started to consider employing various strategies, including increasing the absolute numbers of skill pool availability, bringing training and access to niche skills to a larger group of trainable population, setting up businesses in rural areas, Spectrum Talent Management director Vidur Gupta said.

According to executive search firm Mancer Consulting, attrition rates in the BPO/ KPO sector has been above 30 per cent.

Faced with high attrition, BPO players are making significant investments in resources and employee welfare services apart from adapting welldesigned processes for performance review.

In the last five years, India has lost one million jobs in the customer contact business to countries like the Philippines. Over 40,000 jobs were lost to Egypt itself in the time period 2008- 2013.

“In the last five years, India has lost one million jobs in the customer contact business to countries like the Philippines. Over 40,000 jobs were lost to Egypt itself in the time period 2008- 2013,” it said.

As per the consulting firm, India’s BPO/ KPO sector currently employs a workforce of 1.98 million directly and 7.5 million indirectly. One of the reasons cited for BPO jobs moving away to foreign shores such as Philippines is rise in Indian salary levels.

“From the past few years, the Indian BPO industry is facing a stiff competition from BPO service providers in Philippines, Ireland, Brazil, Canada and Poland and one of the reason is that these countries are able to provide cost effective alternatives,” Mr Gupta said.

Experts also felt that major challenges faced by the BPO industry would be to recruit, motivate, reward and develop talent in their ranks.