The Hindu Business Line : There is so much fun in headhunting

STORY so far: The company decides to enter the field of IT-enabled services, a sector that is promising to grow phenomenally over the next few years. I go on a visit to a call centre and am amazed at the services it offers. It looks like the IT spider is slowly inching its way up the pipe!

Episode 37

As I logged on to the Net that evening, I remembered what the boss told me as we were coming out of the call centre. "Swati, study this field thoroughly and we will have a chat over coffee tomorrow."

The first hit, tells me "Business Process Outsourcing is the long-term contracting out of non-core business processes to an outside provider to help achieve increased shareholder value." This is from the big firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, at their global Web site.

But the next line on that page disappoints me. "BPO web site content is currently being redeveloped." Have they been caught unawares about a growth potential, I wonder.

When the Nasscom chief Kiran Karnik was in town a few days ago, he had commented how the potential of the State and Chennai for ITES and BPO ventures needs to be marketed better. That would happen, I mused, only if our politicians had time to spare after attending to all the other matters.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the delegation of one or more IT-intensive business processes to an external provider that in turn owns, administers and manages the selected process based on defined and measurable performance criteria. That is a Gartner definition from a site that is more helpful, www.wipro.com/spectramind. Why BPO, it asks and answers: "Some of the motivation factors as to why BPO is gaining ground are: factor cost advantage, superior competency, utilisation improvement, economy of scale, business risk mitigation and so on."

Improvement in cost, quality and productivity has encouraged customers to rapidly scale up their offshore operations, I learn. But quite stressfully, "It is no longer seen as a one-time cost reduction or process improvement but customers are demanding year-on-year improvements in process metrics." That will surely squeeze the margins out of the industry.

All of a sudden, Indians are realising the greatness of India, not for its ancient culture, temples and so on, but for "robust communication infrastructure, a large English-speaking workforce, low labour costs, appropriate time-zone difference with the West and the brand equity built by the software services sector". These have become compelling reasons for global players to choose India as the BPO destination.

Telecom services have improved, so also the power situation.

The Indian BPO industry has been growing 70 per cent a year and is now worth $1.6 billion, employing 100,000 people, states Spectramind. "BPO has to grow only 27 per cent till 2008 to deliver $17 billion in revenues and employment of a million people," according to McKinsey, but mind you we are growing at least three times that number.

*******

Bosses don't waste time over coffee. There was more work waiting. He outlined the jobs that were being offered to the company. "Swati, our focus has not changed. We are only trying to use our strengths extra time." That will need more people, I asked. "Yes, we will recruit them." Well, that is the next assignment — to organise the recruitment of about 300 operators to man the stations in a site to be developed for this purpose in the software belt of the city.

"I spoke to the minister today," the boss said. "He has offered us land in the `Technology Park'." And we need to put up the structure, I wondered. "Yes, Gupta tells me he can have a building ready for the ops within a month."

*******

At home that night, I draft the copy for the appointments pages of the newspapers. "Wanted". As I sit back to relax for a few moments, I reflect on how it was only some months back that I was searching for jobs. Now, I am preparing the ad to recruit people.

That is how things change — one day you search for a roof on top of your head, another day you start letting out properties; one day you go about asking for advice, a different day, oh no, I don't like giving advice, and that stops the current of thoughts.

*******

Who cares for education, as long as you have good English, tells me a news report. Recruiters are happy with just a school pass. Young people are good but they keep switching jobs and what is called the `attrition rate' is high in the industry. The job is a demanding one, prone to monotony and boredom, while the staff have to remain cheerful on the phone, and alert to the callers' needs.

On this I had spoken to the boss and also a consultant to advise us on the venture. We took into account the business needs of our clients-to-be, and they were major players in their respective fields. And, importantly, they were looking for knowledge service, not simply some funny-accented English.

*******

Interviews are on, and there is a long list of candidates to be called and spoken to. We had filtered almost 50 per cent after we gave them rudimentary tests, such as to test their skills of listening and speaking.

That packed away scores of candidates who could not come out of the typical vernacular influence on English, or Ind-glish, such as `yes saar', `poo-r', `ko-fee' and so on. And there were all those swank boys and gals in the lobby.

In the interview room, I was witness to all sorts of funny stuff. "When do you go to sleep?" Gupta asked. "9 p.m. sharp and I will never change that habit. Early to bed... " said the kid. "Please rise, will you."

(To be continued)

Swati_CA@hotmail.com

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
There's a school bus to lease out

Books for the taxman

What if I pay out and quit my job?

Gaining from the rulings

There is so much fun in headhunting

Keep the neurons up and working