The Hindu Business Line : Keeping 'em engaged

Companies in the business process outsourcing space are watching possessively over their talent with `baited' breath. The temptations they hold out range from higher education opportunities to a `chief fun officer.'

KEEPING one's attention constantly on the task at hand sounds simple but is actually rather difficult. Consider, then, the challenge the HR departments of companies in the IT-enabled services and business process outsourcing (ITES-BPO) sector face today. While the sector is seeing a lot of action, the talent it attracts is predominantly in the 25-years-and-less category. It's one tough job for the HR head to ensure that this talent is kept constantly engaged, and is not tempted to stray as competitors beckon.

Why is it important for companies in the ITES-BPO space to fight to retain talent? Well, it's important because the sector's already booming, and all set for hotter action. Consider this: According to estimates by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the Indian ITES-BPO industry is headed for a growth rate of 54 per cent and will touch $3.6 billion for the year ended 2003-04. This is a mere two per cent of the global outsourcing market currently estimated at about $773 billion.

The ITES-BPO segment covers a wide range of activities, including medical transcription, call centres and back-office operations. A joint study by Nasscom and KPMG forecasts an employee strength of close to 3.7 million people in the sector by 2012 as against the present workforce of 0.4 million. Here's taking a look at why talent here is constantly on the wing and what companies are doing to make it stick on.

What job-hoppers say

According to Nandita Gurjar, Vice-President, Human Resources, at Progeon, the BPO outfit of Infosys, the attrition rate (or number leaving a company for every hundred employee on the rolls) is close to 10 per cent within the first month of signing on. The reasons they cite for quitting are on these lines: This industry is not for me; or, I have got a better placement; or, My results are out and I am moving on. The next batch moves out from the organisation between one and three months of joining when the attrition rate touches 20 per cent.

Again, the reasons sound familiar: My biological clock is not getting used to this timing; This job is too tough for me to handle, and so on. After this, the attrition rate drops and becomes insignificant as everybody adjusts to the new way of working. This tempo picks up after 18 months of employees handling clients, and then it is time for them to move on to greener pastures. As Nandita puts it, once the initial phase is over, it is time for them to move on, showcasing their skills to the outside world and checking out their market value. She has a word of caution, though. "What these youngsters have to realise is that their roles will become increasingly difficult and more complex as they move ahead in this field," she says. If these process executives join a Fortune 500 company and then move to another in the same space, they have the opportunity to become consultants, she says.

Figures overblown?

Sulakshana Patankar, Senior Vice-President of the Pune-based WNS, feels that sometimes these attrition rates are blown out of proportion. If the attrition rate is about 25 per cent yearly, then it is nothing much to be talked about and organisations are able to manage their jobs efficiently. But if it becomes a 100 per cent attrition rate, then, of course, it is unmanageable. "Media reports cite a particular company as having 100 per cent attrition, does it mean the company doesn't operate anymore," she questions. The attrition rate is usually close to 30 per cent during the first three months of employees joining a company and then it goes down slowly. In the manufacturing sector, it is about two per cent; in IT, it is 15 per cent; and, in BPO, it is 25 per cent. She feels that this is nominal for any upcoming industry. There is another interesting aspect to the way you look at attrition: It depends on whether the company is process-based or project-based. In certain processes, there is high attrition and the same can be said with regard to call centres also. The other aspects companies have to consider are the client base, the time zone and the processes, before recruitment starts. Here comes the tough part for HR personnel — keeping employed youngsters from straying.

CFO is chief fun officer

What Progeon has created is the post of a Chief Fun Officer whose main job is to look out for creative ideas to keep this flock together. Features like `Family day', occasions to meet their counterparts and have `peer talks' aim to create open and transparent systems that demonstrate to the employees that the management has taken note of their work. Counselling sessions and grievance cells help too.

The grievance cell takes care of the code of conduct and deals with any kind of harassment that could probably occur in the workplace, ranging from an unsavoury SMS to a colleague to sexual harassment. "At Progeon, we ensure that any kind of grievance that is brought to our notice is immediately dealt with and that such things don't happen again," says Nandita. So far no serious offences have been recorded, though, she says.

WNS also targets a friendly employee-management relationship that takes care of problems faced by employees. WNS rewards its workforce with `star of the month' award and cricket matches. Sometimes `goodies' are given to employees who have worked efficiently, Sulakshana says.

Higher degrees, the carrot

How does a company like Wipro attract and retain talent? With about 9,300 employees spread across its six locations in the country, the company's Vice-President of Talent Engagement and Development, Varadarajan (or Raja) has his plans in place, including initiatives to create a sense of belonging for employees and career development opportunities. Physical fitness is also a focus. "People who join us are in the 22-23 years age bracket. They are ambitious and want to pursue higher studies. So we have tied up with engineering and management institutes that allow these people to work and study at the same time," he says. What the company does is give 100 per cent reimbursement to those who opt for such courses. It also lets teachers from these institutes come to the campus and provide education. The programme, which has been on for the past one-and-a-half years, has so far seen about 150 employees opting for higher studies. The company estimates that around 500 students are likely to take up such courses for the current academic year.

Fighting `going round in circles'

Not far behind is MsourcE, the BPO arm of MphasiS, which is also in the process of providing higher education opportunities to its employees. Lalit Khanna, Location Head, HR, for MphasiS, says the company is also in the process of getting together the entire BPO clan to ensure that poaching of talent does not take place. "What invariably happens is that companies invest a lot of time and money on these employees. Once these people realise that they are able to take on the job, they start looking around for better opportunities and end up with the competitor. Again the cycle gets repeated with the competitor. The net result is that the employee is forever in the training period and after maybe four to five years comes back to the same organisation he started with. And by the time the company starts utilising the productivity of the person, it is late," he points out.

The best way to fight this, he says, is to focus on training frontline managers to take care of the people, work with them as partners so that the industry obtains employees who are trained for the job and who can be put on the job immediately rather than going round and round in circles in training to reach desired productivity levels. With about two lakh people already in the industry, the requirement stands at one million by the end of the next four years, he says. According to Raja, the attrition rate ranges from process to process and usually it is higher in the voice sector, in the night shift, and comes close to 40 per cent. In the supervisor category, it is less than 10 per cent and at the managerial level, it is almost zero. "The attrition rate ranges between 5 and 10 per cent. Due to this, the industry does not spend too much on training," he says. Khanna feels the attrition rate is low for his company as compared to industry standards and the company plans to increase its manpower to about 8,000 by the end of the current financial year. MphasiS also uses technology such as data mining and data interpretation to retain its employees. The `Formal Framework of Voice' of the employees gives the management feedback from employees on the gaps in the system. Another interesting factor is the non-interference of the management in the community services undertaken by employees on their own. "The only thing we insist on is that it should be within the framework and the ideas are discussed so that the management can offer an appropriate response," he says.

Hesitant about asking permission for time to do your personal jobs? You don't have to be, as help is at hand at Spectramind (Wipro) which has a 24-hour help desk (concierge desk). The company also offers 24-hour medical assistance so that small ailments such as cold and cough can be taken care of immediately. For Pune residents, the city is expected to generate close to 15,000 jobs in 2004 and almost every BPO outfit is looking at doubling its capacity. WNS, which has a strength of 5,000 in total of which 2,000 is from Pune, plans to ramp up to 8,000 by the current financial year. Of this about 3,500 will be in Pune.

Progeon, with more than 1,900 employees, is also planning to double its strength and is looking at entering areas other than its traditional financial space, such as healthcare. Currently there are about 20 large and small BPO outfits in Pune and many more are in the pipeline, says Sushil Gupta, head of the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) in Pune. The icing on the cake is the 30,000 sq ft incubation centre at the STPI with ready-made infrastructure where companies can set up shop immediately without capital expenditure, even before they register. It helps companies in their pilot operations before the big business pours in.

Picture by K. Ananthan

rsavitha@hotmail.com

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