The Hindu Business Line : Don't we have enough technology to minimise the cost of recruitment?

Story so far: I attend a seminar on LPO or `legal process outsourcing.' Soon after, I get to visit NiyamPal, an LPO unit run by Jambunath, a friend of mine. It awes me to see how legal professionals not only advise overseas clients on laws of different countries, but also transcribe from other languages. At this rate, they should be able to argue cases too in courts abroad, over the wire, I think. In this perfect marriage between professional skills and information technology, that has made things like LPO possible, what can be the limits, I wonder?

Episode 128

Legal process outsourcing or LPO was the focus last week. Responding to the piece,

S. Gnana Haran writes: "Business processing outsourcing (BPO) today is taking many avatars. To come up with a new line of outsourcing opportunity one has to look at areas where there is considerable cost arbitrage between the US/Europe and India. Success lies in identifying such areas and developing the business beyond the arbitrage factor. So, LPO isn't going to be the last thing." How reassuring, that is!

"But while reading your article, the `L' there conveyed another opportunity — in outsourcing at the `local' level. This has fascinated me for long. But I don't know if already something is happening in this area." What is the local PO? "I am referring to opportunities in outsourcing accounting work at the local level," explains Gnana.

"Chartered accountants (CAs) could pursue this opportunity by creating flexible organisation structures, wherein commerce graduates, particularly women, could do such work from home with computer and Internet connectivity. With VAT around the corner (in Tamil Nadu), even small firms need to keep accounts. Many of these units need not have full time accountants." Good idea! "A major barrier here would be resistance from the small business people who want to maintain secrecy and, therefore, look for people whom they depend on," points out Gnana. Yet, it should be possible to overcome these hurdles, I guess.

Billions in this business!

There's another mail on LPO, from Melissa A. Joseph. "LPO is the new flavour of KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) that is taking root," she writes. "The new twist is already pushing the boundaries of high-end work. Things are beginning to happen across India in areas such as financial services, design and marketing analytics."

As the legal system in the West crouches and slouches under its own pressure with an overload of suits and cases, the legal firms and the legal fraternity there are looking at ways to increase efficiency, take better decisions on cases, while at the same time reduce costs of doing so, explains Melissa. "For example, if one can rigorously pursue data on legal precedents and earlier judgments of the higher courts, it would be possible to predict the outcome of the case and accordingly take steps. In this case, the parties involved can either go for an out of court settlement or continue with the legal process." That's right. And it can save a lot of time and money. Wish we applied the technique closer home too!

"This decision support is a key process that is now being outsourced to India. This is the icing, and there are other vanilla tasks that are undertaken as well like preparation of pleadings, docketing, proof-reading, transcription of recorded documents, content, case studies and law firm marketing among others." Amazing that all these things happen outside the courtrooms! "The opportunity is estimated to be in the region of $200 billion for the US alone, not considering the equally potential European market," she writes. That should be equal to the GPD of several countries, I'm sure.

"India is expected to receive about 60 per cent of around 40,000 legal jobs outsourced by the US by 2010. The revenues to be generated by such Indian companies will be approximately $56 million during July 2005 and July 2006. Fresh lawyers there demand anything between $250,000 and $300,000 per annum; in India, the range is $6,000 to $15,000. International attorneys are impressed not only by the labour cost differential, but also by the quality and speed of work done." Thanks Melissa, for the startling stats.

Headhunting brainstorming

During the week, I have been participating in a series of meetings with the boss, along with Gupta, Chandru, and a few other department heads. We all have been putting our heads together to find out what could be the best way to recruit engineers for the company's production and research wings. Ideas have been varied.

For instance, at the meeting held on Wednesday, Chandru said, "Sir, referrals are the best method. We can tell our staff to spread the word around so that they can suggest possible candidates for recruitment. Maybe, I can make a beginning, by proposing the eligibility of my wife's uncle's cousin, for a suitable position in the production wing."

Gupta didn't seem to relish the idea; he was vigorously shaking his head.

"Let us give the job to a head-hunter, pay the fee and they will do everything," he said, gesticulating elaborately for effect. "What about referrals, Guptaji?" I asked him. "No use," he declared, pouring cold water on Chandru's proposal. "Campus recruitment is one thing we haven't tried out," I said. But the boss was sceptical. "Do you think it works, Swati? How about walk-in interviews?" he asked.

I took a deep breath and said, "I'm not in favour of walk-ins, because these cater only to the city population, unless candidates from afar decide to travel for the purpose. Job ads are another alternative, but we'd be swamped by applications as a consequence; and a few of us would have to spend whole weeks vetting the same. Head-hunter route may save us of that labour, but we can never be sure if the parameters we are looking for have been applied in the filtering process... "

When I paused for breath, Gupta interrupted, "So, what's your suggestion? Don't recruit anybody?" Everybody laughed, and I took that humour in my stride. "You may laugh again if I were to tell you that we can tap the talent in villages."

Strangely, there was total silence for a few moments, possibly because none in the room expected something as audacious as ruralising recruitment.

But the boss seemed interested. "Tell me how, Swati?" he asked. "We can connect to the colleges through the education satellite, and the charges aren't unaffordable," I said.

"Recently I happened to see one such hiring in-progress, in a village 120 km from Bangalore. The coordinator was my college teacher, and he had invited me over to watch how a bunch of boys and girls in the final year of engineering were responding, as if in a face-to-face interview, to questions fired at them by recruiters. Such as: `How do you think information technology can help farmers?' And... "

Chandru was too curious to wait till I finished. "Is anybody using the facility?" he asked. When I reeled out the names such as Intel, IBM, Accenture, Flextronics, Cognizant and Verizon, his jaw dropped. We have enough technology to minimise the cost of recruitment, both to the employers and the candidates, I said. That statement took some time to sink in in the minds of those present at the meeting. Send in your thoughts by Friday.

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