Attrition Tsunami
Call Connect - February 2005

The sea bed rocked, the earth gave way, and the world was stunned to hear of the devastation that was leashed on us with such terrifying suddenness. It took our breath away that a natural disaster of such magnitude could take us unawares in spite of all the modern technology that we have amassed.

It proves only one thing- that one can never be too well prepared. A similar disaster seems impending on the Indian economy if we do not have the facility to look at our surrounding and take heed. Today the BPOs offer top class compensation and faster growth in packages than any other industry in India. It is a process oriented industry with a high level of efficiency and effectiveness. It is definitely not a short lived dotcom phenomenon. BPO's and Call centers are here to stay.

But attrition is perhaps the biggest cancer that this industry faces today. If anything can affect this industry it is attrition. The industry which features an almost 30-35 percent rate of attrition is now getting its act together to stop unethical hiring practices. Retaining its knowledge pool and at the same time ensuring cost saving is really what the industry is looking at.

Attrition by definition is a natural reduction in workforce as a result of resignation, retirement of death. In the BPO/ITes sector, however it has come to mean a disquieting rate of manpower loss. People are jumping jobs at an alarming rate for a few hundred rupees more, or simply because their peer group has moved on. Stability, growth and vertical rise within the organization mean little for a twenty years old who prefers to earn an extra thousand bucks to blow up at a nightclub.

So the present scenario the world over sees the burgeoning BPO sector always trying out never ways to tackle high employee attrition. Performance - based cash incentives, more frequent appraisals, easy education loans, and opportunities for higher studies and housing facility, are the usual carrots dangled before employees to prevent them from moving on to competition.

What escapes most of the youngsters who are happily switching jobs is that attrition is not merely a problem for the management. It will soon become a very real problem for even the CRS and TL who jumps jobs as frequently as he changes shoes. China, Dubai and Philippines are only some of the other countries who are only some of the other countries who are opening their doors to the BPO industry. Sitting smugly with the idea that our stronghold is English is frankly foolish. It is behaving like the proverbial head in the sand ostrich.

They can and will learn English and what's more, they already the have infrastructure, cheaper telecom and far better connectivity in terms of travel and communication. It will only be a matter of months before urban unemployment is again on the rise in this country if we are not careful enough.

Most companies in the ITes and BPO sector do not have a formal policy to woo back its employees. Even retention is tracked with a half hearted effort. This is because of excess ready workers and non requirement of highly trained technical staff. Poaching by other companies is another major area of concern which needs to be addressed.

However companies like Wipro Spectramind and Intelenet among many other are taking a serious look at the problem of attrition Wipro's Homing Pigeon Policy where they track employees who left in the Past 6 months and Intelenet's incentives to the CRS's, Team Leaders and Managers are paving the way slowly.

Call Connect wishes to do its bit to curb this alarming phenomenon around us. Nasscom has already warned that in the backdrop of stiff competition and falling billing rates, this high rate of attrition can severely affect the industry.

Why does attrition happen in a country where unemployment is a big hurdle? The answer lies in the fact that BPO's and Call centers cater mostly to foreign countries and English is the mean of communication normally used. It is the urban youth who are really adept in English and are in the age group of 19-25.

This in turn means that these youngsters look at employments in BPOs and cell centers as a job, not a career. Most of these youngsters are also pursuing an educational or vocational degree simultaneously.

There is high level of accountability in BPOs as everything is tracked, from their work hours to key deliverables such as customer satisfaction, call handle time etc. Chetan Desai, Chief Operating Officer at Quest says that “one of the prime reasons of attrition is the night shift. It can be quite a task to keep youngsters enthused after a point in time when their social lives get affected by odd working schedules. Another reason is that career paths seem restricted and the work gets repetitive after a while”.

Perhaps the biggest issue to hit attrition these days is poaching. A lot of lateral movement is happening within the industry resulting is happening within industry resulting from higher remuneration being offered for similar job profiles.

Call connect spoke to various levels of management to try and get down the hard facts.

At the top management level, Dinesh Kamat, CEO of Caltech states that more than all the technology and gadgets, it is really the human element which drives an organization. If an organization can handle the problems a CSR faces with motivation and counseling, a lot can be done towards curbing attrition.

Afshan Khanzada, a process trainer at Infowavz believe that peer pressure and the urge to earn those few extra rupees is what drives the youth. Being a trainer Afshan says that she shares a good rapport with the CSRs and she feels she, and trainers like her, are helping in their own way to curb this phenomenon.

Says GTL, senior manager, Shanker Bora, “we invest in training the new joinees with the right skills to meet the requirements of individual programs. Fun at work thus becomes a way of life here. Says, Bora,”Traning should be targeted at educating employees on the career opportunities in a BPO so that they have a long term perspective in their mind at the start of their career”. Yasmin, at the other end of the spectrum is a 20 something CRS who has jumped jobs three times in two years. Her point of view is that, ‘For us an extra 500 or thousand INR make a lot of difference. So if another organization is offering more for same for the same job, why would I hesitate to take it?”

Youngsters like Yasmin are right in their own way-but the very advantage of youth prevents them from seeing things in the long run.

While it is not easy to measure the cost curbing attrition, it can certainly be ascertained by the cost of recruiting and training new agents. This money can easily be utilized for employee development, performance awards and incentives. At GTL, says Mr. Bora, ‘we provide employees with the opportunity of doing MBA along with financial aid'. Quest offers job rotation to avoid monotony, internal promotion and competitive remuneration. Senior Manager Trinity Gonsalves also asserts that Intelenet has tied up with NMIMS for management programmes for its staff and has an employee grievances cell.

Gymnasiums and well equipped cafeterias are other services offered to make the working hours for the employee more interesting.

Poaching is another major threat that BPOs face. It is imperative that there should be an agreement amongst firms to chalk out a code of ethics and nor resort to poaching. Trinity Gonsalves, Senior Executive at Intelenet, affirms that although poaching is a problem, it is definitely becoming a fast fading phenomenon as organization see the harm they will do themselves if poaching is allowed to continue.

Organization like Quest and Intelenet believe in hiring the right age and experience profile, with competitive remuneration, job rotation and encouraging internal promotions. What is revealing is that as Call Connect spoke to people from various rungs of the BPO sector, everyone unanimously agree of the attrition will definitely plateau after a while. More technically qualified manpower, the industry working in tandem with the government so that it can start educational institutions on the line of BPO requirement and ensuring steady and uninterrupted skilled manpower will not only keep attrition at bay, but also keep the Indian BPO industry far ahead of its competitors. Commitment is the need of the hour when competition ahead is tough and the market wide open.