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Vipin V. Nair

Companies too, are encouraging their employees to take up such programmes as work-related stress is seen asa major reason for the large-scale attrition in the ITES industry.

New Delhi , Nov. 23

IT'S not just fancy dress competitions and cricket matches that help employees of IT-enabled services companies reduce work-related stress.

Discovering one's spiritual side is proving to be a better method for many youngsters working in the nascent sector.

According to an official with `The Art of Living Foundation', a non-profit organisation that offers courses to eliminate stress, as much as 30 per cent of the people who join the Foundation's programmes are from the ITES sector.

"In the past six months, we have seen that there has been a noticeable growth in the number of people from this sector who take up our courses. Today, these young people account for about 30 per cent in a group," the official said. "We find them very stressed out and unhappy," he said.

Companies too, are encouraging their employees to take up such programmes as work-related stress is seen as a major reason for the large-scale attrition in the ITES industry.

Employees, mostly in their early twenties, work during the night, servicing companies in the US and other parts of the world. The call centres and business process outsourcing companies handle work such as customer queries, processing application for various financial and banking products and offering remote technical assistance.

The night shift and the monotonous nature of work lead to high level of stress. Sudarshan Kriya, a special breathing technique to reduce stress, is a popular method practised by youngsters, the Foundation's official pointed out.

The Delhi-based Hughes Software Systems (HSS) will shortly make it mandatory for employees of its business process outsourcing (BPO) division to undertake a basic course from the Art of Living Foundation, said Mr Aadesh Goyal, who heads the unit.

"Compared to many other jobs, working in the BPO industry is more stressful," Mr Goyal pointed out. HSS has already made it compulsory for all its other employees to do such a programme at its expense when they join the company.

The Art of Living Foundation has special schemes for corporates. Apart from HSS, companies such as HCL Perot, Hero Honda, Telco, Sasken and many others send their employees to stress reduction programmes.

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