Human Capital is the most crucial resource on which the IT & ITES industry depends. Intelligent employers always realize the importance of retaining the best talent. Apart from location advantage that India has, the factor for the country’s immense success as a Offshore unit/ BPO centre, is owing to its abundant & cost effective human capital. India’s human Capital is one of the key assets that helped the country sustain its edge in the ITES sector.

HR professionals, working in Call-Center/ Contact Center/ BPO industry are leaving no stone unturned to retain human capital, but nothing is working in their favor. In spite of all efforts the average attrition rate in the BPO sector is still very high.

In order to control attrition and employ effective retention measures we need to find answers to the following questions:

1. Why people leave? : In an industry like BPO, the work can often be monotonous and opportunities for career growth minimal. Employees leave, either because they want more money, want a change, hate the working conditions, hate their co-workers or because their spouse gets a dream job in another state. Surveys have also brought to notice that
• night shifts,
• inability to handle stress,
• monotonous work,
• company policies &
• problems with boss/co-workers are some of the most common reasons listed by BPO employees, as reasons for quitting jobs.

There are massive costs associated with attrition or turnover and, while some of these are not visible to the management reporting or budget system, they are none the less real.

2. What is the cause? : If your organization is going through attrition problems, then the first and the foremost step is to nail the cause. The best way to find the cause is by conducting a survey among employees to find the reasons for attrition. It is a good idea to conduct employee satisfaction surveys during appraisals. That ways dis-satisfaction can be curbed at an initial stage. HR must conduct exit interviews to know the reasons for resignations and it can be ascertained whether the issues bear merit and whether they can be resolved. Steps can be taken to avoid similar reasons from occurring in the case of others.

3. What can be done? : Companies adopt variety of strategies to tackle the problem of retaining manpower. It ranges from cash incentives to career concern for the employee. Many companies are offering provisions for further education to their employees, as most fresh graduates want to study further. Although, it is impossible to scrap problems totally, there are certain ways by which organizations can retain manpower.

• Before & during hiring:

i. Selection of the right candidates through competency screening.

ii. Use of psychometric tests to get people who can work at night and handle the monotony.

iii. Conduct through background checks on new employees

iv. Assessing the Reasons for opting the Job

v. Offer attractive, competitive benefits and package.

vi. Clarify incentives and other benefits. Keep these promises, later.

vii. Clarify Key Responsibility areas to the candidate and set the expectations right also make them understand the company’s Appraisal System, so they know the growth prospect before coming on board.

viii. Develop an effective induction program

• During an Employee’s Tenure:

i. Empower employees with tools, time and training to perform

ii.Regular HR interaction and 3rd party appraisals. 3rd Party appraisals make sure that unbiased opinion about candidate comes out. Immediate superior may be biased but not all superiors or co-workers are. Hence, setting up an effective 3rd party appraisal system is a great tool. Regular employee interactions helps in listening and solving employee complaints and problems, as much as possible.

iii.Train your front-line, managers and administrators. The quality of the supervision an employee receives is critical to employee retention. Frequent employee complaints arise on this issue.

iv. Group Medi-claim Insurance Scheme; Personal Accident Insurance Scheme.

v. Subsidized Food and Transportation

vi. Company Leased Accommodation

vii. Recreation, Cafeteria, ATM, gym and Concierge facilities;

viii.Personal Health Care (Regular medical check-ups)

ix. Loans

x. Giving employees a choice of rewards; Rewards are as different as the people who receive them and it doesn’t make sense to give rewards that recipients don’t find rewarding. Some people are excited about sports events, others about movies. Some employees would love a dinner in a romantic restaurant, others a book by their favorite author. Food, fun, education, improved work environment, gifts, travel, family-oriented activities – the options are endless.

xi. Performance Incentives; Bonuses and incentives are paid after every quarter if the employee sustains in the organization and he gets extra rewards if his performance exceeds the target assigned to him.

xii. Offer retention bonus

xiii. Go in for Employee Engagement Practices

xiv. Fun at work is must.Celebrate successes and recognize when milestones are reached. Buffet lunches, birthday parties, employee picnics and creative contests will help remind people why an organization is a great place to work. Include fun elements at work like Parties, bashes, outings, picnics etc

Valuing the employees is the key. Effective HR management must be practiced at both leadership and everyday levels. HR practices must reflect company policy as to how it will manage and relate to its employees. Transparency in communication is a must. Employees must believe that the management keeps them informed about key issues. That means that The Top brass and the HR regularly keep the people up to date with important events affecting the company. HR must take steps to be aware of employee problems and try to solve them, creatively.

We all know the benefits of India as a Quality BPO destination. With major business hubs like Bangalore, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad reaching saturation with High realty prices, distances, cost of living and employee attrition, new destinations like Chandigarh, Ahmadabad and Jaipur are coming up big time.

Jaipur- The capital city of Rajasthan, just 4 hours drive from NCR (Delhi); famous as the Pink City of India and Country’s major Tourist destination. Jaipur is known for its heritage, royalty, culture, peaceful government, hospitality and GREAT food for many decades. In recent times, Jaipur has come up as a major IT and ITES stop.

Major Benefits of Jaipur as a BPO destination:

• Low Cost of Commercial Real Estate and Manpower Prices
• Comfortable Housing distances for employees increasing Job Satisfaction
• Rising Women Employment and special safety measures by Local Government taking proactive measures.
• STPI Center with excellent services and great directive support to industry.
• Peaceful Government with stable control tenures and policies.
• KPOs like Financial Services booming due to large accounting background commerce graduate manpower.
• Exemplery MNC setups like Genpact, Deutsche Bank, Infosys, Teleperformance setting up large infrastructure
• Home Grown BPOs like VKALP, Go4Customers are coming up as well.

To support my views, I would like to site some case studies.

Genpact a world Leader in Global 3rd Party BPO has grown from 100 seats to over 3000 seats in Jaipur alone with 2 different sites in Jaipur and a new SEZ site is coming up. Jaipur Site boasts to be one of the best in cost, attrition and quality globally and continues to grow larger

Deutsche Bank has set up Global Processing Centre at Mahindra World City, Jaipur. B Operations International (DBOI) has set up this KPO for financial and investment back office processing.

Infosys Inaugurates its Second BPO Campus in Jaipur: Speaking on the occasion, Kris Gopalakrishnan, said, “Jaipur is becoming an exciting destination for the IT-ITES industry. The Honorable Chief Minister, Smt. Vasundhara Raje has proactively put in place progressive policies and has invested in infrastructure to ensure rapid growth. Our investment in the second campus firmly establishes Jaipur as a significant center for Infosys. We are extremely happy to be in Jaipur and acknowledge the support and encouragement of the state government.”

Amongst these global giants another case study is of VKALP which started as a training company for the customer service Industry set up a 30 seater BPO in 2005. Since then, we have diversified into a globally competitive BPO in India with 250 worsktation BPO. Jaipur has allowed this entrepreneurship to grow and we are strongly focused to reach 1000 seats by 2011.

We Jaipurites, love our City, our sweets, our cricket, but are very serious about Jaipur developing as a MAJOR Buisness Hub in India and make a Global Impact.

Thanks for your time in reading this
Ruchir Gupta
ceo at vkalp dot com

Please also see some other writings on this topic:
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/ahmedabad-jaipur-potential-bpo-havens/348789/
http://www.bpowatchindia.com/Top_BPO_Destinations_Americas.html