Amit Malik, 21, is just a simple graduate, earning Rs.15000/ p.m. Vani Saxena,18, is pursuing a degree course through correspondence and getting Rs.14000/ p.m . Rajan Sharma, 25, with just 4 years of industry experience and enjoying Rs. 22000/p.m . It seems that all of them are top achievers at a very early young stage. …No doubt, they all are part of the upcoming and fast growing BPO industry where the average employee earns similar pay packets. For the first time in India, just high school pass outs and undergrad students are getting such kind of opportunities and mindboggling salaries . Apart from this they are enjoying pick and drop facilities, an AC office environment, subsidized café’s facilities etc. For all this, their only desirable qualification is good spoken English. It’s enough to evoke jealousies because most in the service class do not draw such salaries even after 20-25 years of work experience.
Look at the statistics. Around 400,000 “white coller workers” are directly employed in this industry, which is expected to increase around 1100,000 by the end of 2008. It clearly shows that the growth is tremendous. That figure is fabulous and enough to induce even those people who are working in another industry with good experience and qualification, but not getting commensurate salaries. So ready to enter in this Good money, party oriented, open culture and stylish life. Just wait a bit. Look at the other side of the picture to take a right decision…
Prateek Bansal is 25 years old and lives in Delhi. He smokes a pack of cigarettes daily to reduce tension. He goes back only once a year to his paternal home after much cajoling by his parents. He doesn’t bother to call his parents who are living in a distant remote town and he doesn’t remember how many girls he had dated (actually slept with). Initially he planned to send a good amount of his salary to his parents and younger siblings but instead has ended up borrowing from friends and colleagues. Rahul Miglani is 23 and has been working with the call center of a multinational bank in Mumbai for last two years. He has decided never to return to the BPO industry. He considers it a den of promiscuity though his two years experience will not be counted in another industry and the salary will also be less. He says, “Sleeping around for promotions is quite normal here up to vice president level and changing partner is just frank culture”. He says he took at least 6 months to understand that everyone is not going with everyone to any extent.
Vipul Khanna died of drug overdose a few weeks ago. Khanna’s wife had left him when she caught him during one of his ‘one night stands’. “There is so much pressure from the management to meet numbers and after getting abused so often by a distant ‘gora sahib’ you tend to make up your self esteem by drinking, dating, smoking or using drugs whenever you can” says Khanna’s friend.
Yes, BPOs in India are big trouble. According to a NASSCOM and Mckinsey study, BPOs are sucking thousand of young graduates from all over the country. It is spawning social and ergonomics problems on an unprecedented scale. Stories abound BPOs workers loosing control over their lives and straying into drugs, crime, over-dating, unlettered promiscuity, eventual depression and suicidal tendencies. Such problems relate more to voice based call centers rather than those that do pure back office work. But the hard fact is voice based business accounts for 70% of industry revenue.
Why is the BPO situation so pathetic on the human ground? No exact answer…According to WIPPRO BPOs survey, call center agents face multiple pressure points like odd work timings with little breaks, monotonous job, fake personality syndrome, strict daily based targets, cultural clashes, limited career growth, inexperience and immaturity to handle situation. Look at the day (actually night) of BPOs worker of a ‘US Process’
10:00 P.M : They reach office after a hectic cab journey.
10.30 P.M : Log in to a particular process.
12:30 P.M : First break for just 15 min. before that you cannot leave your bay.
3:30 P.M : 1/2 hrs. breakfast break
6:00 A.M : Early break or log-off
6:30 A.M : Board cab for again an average of 1 hr hectic drive.
Shift Work 10:00 P.M to 7:00 A.M is not only grandpa’s domain anymore. Youth power is sunk in it. According to Dr. Jonathan Schwaitz, a researcher at the University of Oklahoma says, shift workers have more psychiatric problems like depression, ulcer, dual personality, cardiovascular disease and, in BPOs, ENT problems due to disturbed body internal clock.
That is made worse by the nature of job, which is monotonous, repetitive and heavily target oriented. When Rajan becomes Richard and Kavita becomes Kate, it is not just a temporary new identity, but somewhere it begins to seem that real personality is less worthy. More often they deal with racist and abusive customers that makes the matter worsen. Above this, everyone is coming from different cultures and backgrounds.
When culture mixes fast, most small town workers are not able to correlate their relations in the right order and their personal and professional lives mismatch, creating trouble for everyone. Career growth is very limited because everyone can’t be a team leader or manager and industry structure prevents vertical growth, which is very necessary for self-esteem and self worth. Upward positions are limited and mostly occupied by premier institutions’ ‘Management gurus’. This is the only industry in India where every person is quite young and the average age is just 25. In such a young industry it is very difficult to take lifetime decisions on logical grounds and without peer pressure it becomes more difficult. Because most of the youngster’s stay outside their native place.
Now the question automatically arises as to what should be the way to solve the problem of draining youth without hurting a rapidly growing business. We don’t have any magic mantra to sort out this industry problem, but definitely we can adopt some techniques and creative measures to balance the equilibrium of business and humanity. In some companies like Wipro, IBM Daksh, Infosys BPO, and Genpact, strategic HR managers, psychiatrists and psychotherapists are grilling their minds to solve this million-dollar problem. After a number of brain storming sessions few measures come as a ray of light in days dark trouble.
Ø Standard counseling service- According to D.P. Singh, VP (IBM- DAKSH) both personal and professional problems can be handled best by an experienced counselor. IBM Daksh recently launched Mitr, a counseling service for their employees that allows them to phone in, meet or email a counselor. Yes, it can be very helpful for both employees and employer if it is handled with an honest and holistic approach. It can reduce unnecessary attrition rate sharply, which is very high in this industry. Most of the cases of attrition is simply due to relationship conflict. It will be a win-win situation for both partners if employees were taking the right decision at the right time.
Ø Employee first policy -It can give leverage to industry. Because if you lose one customer it is a loss, but if you lose one well trained and performing employee for a small reason it is a total loss for the company. It can break the morale and feeling of self worth of every employee in the company. Whosoever employer will come first with such a calculative policy, it will definitely benefit because abusive behavior of the ‘white man’ is one of the major causes of leaving the industry.
Ø Clear career growth plans- If employees have clear career plan in industry and outside of industry, it will help both parties. Because every worker can’t hit the ladder of success as team leader or manager very fast. Suppose he or she is a performing employee and not getting his/her desired salary or position but getting enough financial support and placement assistance to pursue further education like BBA, MBA, BCA, MCA and other professional courses in different areas of study. He will stick to the company for a much longer duration. Because employees feel that at least they are getting enough support for education and career advancement The work in BPO industry is quite monotonous. So 2-3 yrs are sufficient time period to work as a call center agent and then move to another industry for better prospects with better educational qualifications. Employers need to understand that the industry structure is such that employees can perform well in most cases for short duration only. So unnecessary long term commitment will not be good for both parties. Employers have to adapt the HR strategy for short term. It will give the leverage to both sides because both will understand the situation well. Yes movement will take place but it just like where fresh entries will always open
Ø Break the breaks –Calling breaks of 15 mins. are not enough. Strict rule of handling minimum calls per hr should be relaxed because we are dealing with humans and not with machines. Yes it will increase the wage bill of the company but high satisfaction level among employees will increase productivity, which will in turn be beneficial for the company. Due to high pressure of performance in the job, most of the employees get attracted to drugs, unethical relations, and depression, which cost very high to both the company and employee.
Ø Nigh shift dilemma – ‘Provide short nap’ in between work. According to doctors 2 hrs. are sufficient to regain the energy in nights. Yes, in the first place this idea looks radical but working regularly at nights can be very stressful and dangerous to the physical and mental heath of employees in the long run. Cases related to sleep disorders are regularly increasing in call centers. This is a clear signal that a different practice be adopted for night shifts. Many young people do not join call centers due to night shift. The BPO industry can attract a good number of talented young staff with a ‘short nap’ policy in night shift. It will give boost to the entire potential candidate to join a call center, the employees of which are known to have sleep disorder problem.
Ø Regular and intensive training programs - Young recruiters should not get training only during induction time. Training should be a regular part of the BPO industry. It will definitely help to reduce the job pressure and the all employees will speak same lingo, which will further reduce the burden of an excessively interfering management. New potential problems will automatically be solved if we provide a platform to speak during training programs. These training programs can be in the form of various entertaining kind of management games and fun loving activities which will provide freshness to a monotones job and more interest will be generated rather than dissatisfaction. Re-cultural training program can prepare the worker to handle potential socio–economic problems easily. Appointment of a Chief Fun Activities Officer can be a good investment to make the environment happy and healthy.
Ø Yoga and meditation- This ancient practice of India is highly applicable in and relevant to the BPO industry because it is the only technique which takes care for Body, Mind and Soul in a balanced order. Just 20-25 min. practice can give great results in terms of quality and quantity to big company bosses and employee both. The requirements are very simple, an appointment of qualified yoga and meditation teachers and a circular to report ½ hrs before their regular timings and inspiration of and small incentive to join yoga.
No doubt, challenges are very high for employees and employer both, and industry pressure is increasing because more international players are joining this field. China is also preparing itself to participate in the BPO boom. To combat both, the front BPOs India should look at is long-term sustainability. They should also take the responsibility to prepare quality manpower and not physically and mentally deprived youth. Otherwise new industries are also coming up fast in India and the youth will move in that direction. We will lose a big business and a potential area of employment generation. Now the time has come to adopt and apply practically more human based strategies. Yes initially the implementation of the aforesaid techniques can be opposed by various interest groups and the profit margin will slightly dip in the short run. But ultimately only those will survive and grow who will practice human based strategies. So let’s hope BPOs will think to re-engineering their systems for better tomorrows for youth business and country. Then only can youth sucker business be turned into youth power business.
Look at the statistics. Around 400,000 “white coller workers” are directly employed in this industry, which is expected to increase around 1100,000 by the end of 2008. It clearly shows that the growth is tremendous. That figure is fabulous and enough to induce even those people who are working in another industry with good experience and qualification, but not getting commensurate salaries. So ready to enter in this Good money, party oriented, open culture and stylish life. Just wait a bit. Look at the other side of the picture to take a right decision…
Prateek Bansal is 25 years old and lives in Delhi. He smokes a pack of cigarettes daily to reduce tension. He goes back only once a year to his paternal home after much cajoling by his parents. He doesn’t bother to call his parents who are living in a distant remote town and he doesn’t remember how many girls he had dated (actually slept with). Initially he planned to send a good amount of his salary to his parents and younger siblings but instead has ended up borrowing from friends and colleagues. Rahul Miglani is 23 and has been working with the call center of a multinational bank in Mumbai for last two years. He has decided never to return to the BPO industry. He considers it a den of promiscuity though his two years experience will not be counted in another industry and the salary will also be less. He says, “Sleeping around for promotions is quite normal here up to vice president level and changing partner is just frank culture”. He says he took at least 6 months to understand that everyone is not going with everyone to any extent.
Vipul Khanna died of drug overdose a few weeks ago. Khanna’s wife had left him when she caught him during one of his ‘one night stands’. “There is so much pressure from the management to meet numbers and after getting abused so often by a distant ‘gora sahib’ you tend to make up your self esteem by drinking, dating, smoking or using drugs whenever you can” says Khanna’s friend.
Yes, BPOs in India are big trouble. According to a NASSCOM and Mckinsey study, BPOs are sucking thousand of young graduates from all over the country. It is spawning social and ergonomics problems on an unprecedented scale. Stories abound BPOs workers loosing control over their lives and straying into drugs, crime, over-dating, unlettered promiscuity, eventual depression and suicidal tendencies. Such problems relate more to voice based call centers rather than those that do pure back office work. But the hard fact is voice based business accounts for 70% of industry revenue.
Why is the BPO situation so pathetic on the human ground? No exact answer…According to WIPPRO BPOs survey, call center agents face multiple pressure points like odd work timings with little breaks, monotonous job, fake personality syndrome, strict daily based targets, cultural clashes, limited career growth, inexperience and immaturity to handle situation. Look at the day (actually night) of BPOs worker of a ‘US Process’
10:00 P.M : They reach office after a hectic cab journey.
10.30 P.M : Log in to a particular process.
12:30 P.M : First break for just 15 min. before that you cannot leave your bay.
3:30 P.M : 1/2 hrs. breakfast break
6:00 A.M : Early break or log-off
6:30 A.M : Board cab for again an average of 1 hr hectic drive.
Shift Work 10:00 P.M to 7:00 A.M is not only grandpa’s domain anymore. Youth power is sunk in it. According to Dr. Jonathan Schwaitz, a researcher at the University of Oklahoma says, shift workers have more psychiatric problems like depression, ulcer, dual personality, cardiovascular disease and, in BPOs, ENT problems due to disturbed body internal clock.
That is made worse by the nature of job, which is monotonous, repetitive and heavily target oriented. When Rajan becomes Richard and Kavita becomes Kate, it is not just a temporary new identity, but somewhere it begins to seem that real personality is less worthy. More often they deal with racist and abusive customers that makes the matter worsen. Above this, everyone is coming from different cultures and backgrounds.
When culture mixes fast, most small town workers are not able to correlate their relations in the right order and their personal and professional lives mismatch, creating trouble for everyone. Career growth is very limited because everyone can’t be a team leader or manager and industry structure prevents vertical growth, which is very necessary for self-esteem and self worth. Upward positions are limited and mostly occupied by premier institutions’ ‘Management gurus’. This is the only industry in India where every person is quite young and the average age is just 25. In such a young industry it is very difficult to take lifetime decisions on logical grounds and without peer pressure it becomes more difficult. Because most of the youngster’s stay outside their native place.
Now the question automatically arises as to what should be the way to solve the problem of draining youth without hurting a rapidly growing business. We don’t have any magic mantra to sort out this industry problem, but definitely we can adopt some techniques and creative measures to balance the equilibrium of business and humanity. In some companies like Wipro, IBM Daksh, Infosys BPO, and Genpact, strategic HR managers, psychiatrists and psychotherapists are grilling their minds to solve this million-dollar problem. After a number of brain storming sessions few measures come as a ray of light in days dark trouble.
Ø Standard counseling service- According to D.P. Singh, VP (IBM- DAKSH) both personal and professional problems can be handled best by an experienced counselor. IBM Daksh recently launched Mitr, a counseling service for their employees that allows them to phone in, meet or email a counselor. Yes, it can be very helpful for both employees and employer if it is handled with an honest and holistic approach. It can reduce unnecessary attrition rate sharply, which is very high in this industry. Most of the cases of attrition is simply due to relationship conflict. It will be a win-win situation for both partners if employees were taking the right decision at the right time.
Ø Employee first policy -It can give leverage to industry. Because if you lose one customer it is a loss, but if you lose one well trained and performing employee for a small reason it is a total loss for the company. It can break the morale and feeling of self worth of every employee in the company. Whosoever employer will come first with such a calculative policy, it will definitely benefit because abusive behavior of the ‘white man’ is one of the major causes of leaving the industry.
Ø Clear career growth plans- If employees have clear career plan in industry and outside of industry, it will help both parties. Because every worker can’t hit the ladder of success as team leader or manager very fast. Suppose he or she is a performing employee and not getting his/her desired salary or position but getting enough financial support and placement assistance to pursue further education like BBA, MBA, BCA, MCA and other professional courses in different areas of study. He will stick to the company for a much longer duration. Because employees feel that at least they are getting enough support for education and career advancement The work in BPO industry is quite monotonous. So 2-3 yrs are sufficient time period to work as a call center agent and then move to another industry for better prospects with better educational qualifications. Employers need to understand that the industry structure is such that employees can perform well in most cases for short duration only. So unnecessary long term commitment will not be good for both parties. Employers have to adapt the HR strategy for short term. It will give the leverage to both sides because both will understand the situation well. Yes movement will take place but it just like where fresh entries will always open
Ø Break the breaks –Calling breaks of 15 mins. are not enough. Strict rule of handling minimum calls per hr should be relaxed because we are dealing with humans and not with machines. Yes it will increase the wage bill of the company but high satisfaction level among employees will increase productivity, which will in turn be beneficial for the company. Due to high pressure of performance in the job, most of the employees get attracted to drugs, unethical relations, and depression, which cost very high to both the company and employee.
Ø Nigh shift dilemma – ‘Provide short nap’ in between work. According to doctors 2 hrs. are sufficient to regain the energy in nights. Yes, in the first place this idea looks radical but working regularly at nights can be very stressful and dangerous to the physical and mental heath of employees in the long run. Cases related to sleep disorders are regularly increasing in call centers. This is a clear signal that a different practice be adopted for night shifts. Many young people do not join call centers due to night shift. The BPO industry can attract a good number of talented young staff with a ‘short nap’ policy in night shift. It will give boost to the entire potential candidate to join a call center, the employees of which are known to have sleep disorder problem.
Ø Regular and intensive training programs - Young recruiters should not get training only during induction time. Training should be a regular part of the BPO industry. It will definitely help to reduce the job pressure and the all employees will speak same lingo, which will further reduce the burden of an excessively interfering management. New potential problems will automatically be solved if we provide a platform to speak during training programs. These training programs can be in the form of various entertaining kind of management games and fun loving activities which will provide freshness to a monotones job and more interest will be generated rather than dissatisfaction. Re-cultural training program can prepare the worker to handle potential socio–economic problems easily. Appointment of a Chief Fun Activities Officer can be a good investment to make the environment happy and healthy.
Ø Yoga and meditation- This ancient practice of India is highly applicable in and relevant to the BPO industry because it is the only technique which takes care for Body, Mind and Soul in a balanced order. Just 20-25 min. practice can give great results in terms of quality and quantity to big company bosses and employee both. The requirements are very simple, an appointment of qualified yoga and meditation teachers and a circular to report ½ hrs before their regular timings and inspiration of and small incentive to join yoga.
No doubt, challenges are very high for employees and employer both, and industry pressure is increasing because more international players are joining this field. China is also preparing itself to participate in the BPO boom. To combat both, the front BPOs India should look at is long-term sustainability. They should also take the responsibility to prepare quality manpower and not physically and mentally deprived youth. Otherwise new industries are also coming up fast in India and the youth will move in that direction. We will lose a big business and a potential area of employment generation. Now the time has come to adopt and apply practically more human based strategies. Yes initially the implementation of the aforesaid techniques can be opposed by various interest groups and the profit margin will slightly dip in the short run. But ultimately only those will survive and grow who will practice human based strategies. So let’s hope BPOs will think to re-engineering their systems for better tomorrows for youth business and country. Then only can youth sucker business be turned into youth power business.
1 comment:
Dear Mr. Gaurav,
It seems that your understanding of the operation of the BPOs is deep and exhaustive. Are you an economist? Anyway, economics cannot be complete without a humanitarian approach. Looking forward to more such articles.
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