Page - 1

The Back Office Processing (hereby called BPO) Industry is one of the largest providers of employment in India. They employ an estimated half-a-million Indians, mostly in the 20-35 age groups, and these numbers are only increasing. Thus, the number of people who
are directly affected by the Indian call centre industry is nearly 1.5 million Indians including dependents. For a vast majority of them, the BPO industry is considered a boon as it enables them to earn wages much more than was possible previously.

The industry is by large un-regulated compared to other industries and has grown rapidly unchecked over the few past years. It has had systematic issues, especially related to coping with human resource management, in times of rapid growth .Indeed most BPO Human resource personnel are either recruiting or trying to control attrition.

A Few Issues

The BPO industry is marked with some operational issues and they are enumerated as follows: -

Lack of Labor Guidelines: There is very little over-time pay and it, thus, leads to systematic overworking or understaffing of resources in both small and big BPOs. The understaffing is also responsible for the erratic quality or projects due to rush jobs. Labor regulation has been avoided because historically Indian regulations have been misused to offer hassles to industry rather than relief or solutions. Recently, a committee headed by Arjun Sengupta had submitted a draft of the Unorganized Sector Workers’ Bill to cover the workers in this sector.

Lack of Health Guidelines: There can be medical counseling (without too much expenses) to cope with effects of prolonged night-shifts, or sitting in chairs, especially chronic back-aches, and personality counseling. This shall help especially when there is project requirements for extended over times.

Employee Retrainabilty: There can be career counseling to help young employees plan a career in a still turbulent sector (Not everyone will be a team leader). There is no provision for re-training for workers being laid off and there is little chance of unemployment benefits in India. Retrenchment in this sector happens at a larger scale usually when companies lose a few big clients as in the recent mortgage sub prime crisis or even earlier when a big computer maker of American-origin shifted. The insecurity of being laid off leads to further attrition. In this scenario, companies that offer skill enhancement and re-training are likely to have a sustainable edge in human resource management.

Next

* Contributed by -
Ajay Ohri is an alumnus of IIM Lucknow and has worked with some of the largest BPOs in India (including two very big BPOs listed on NYSE). Read about him at http://iwannacrib.com, India's first site for equalizing the playing field for students and office workers. These views are his personal views.