Indians write the BPO script in Philippines

22 Jul, 2008, 0745 hrs IST
Deepshikha Monga & Chaitali Chakravarty, ET Bureau
The Economic Times

NEW DELHI: BPO firms, which have so far been big job creators in India, are now shifting employees from here to emerging outsourcing destinations, including the Philippines.

Not only are domestic BPOs like Genpact, Sitel and Intelenet hiring people in India in droves for their Philippine operations, MNCs like Citibank and Accenture with operations in that country, too, are relying on Indian talent.

“While at the associate level, the Philippines has talent that is comparable or superior to their Indian counterparts, there is a complete void at middle and senior management level. It’s largely Indian executives who fill this void at Indian, local and captive BPO firms in the Philippines,” says Quatrro BPO Solutions managing director Raman Roy.

The Philippines has emerged as an attractive rival outsourcing destination to India, on the back of its large English-speaking population, a slew of fiscal incentives and lower property rates. Apart from the capital, Manila, other places — Cebu, for instance — have also come up as favourites for setting up call centres.

“I have lost five managers in the past one year to BPO companies in the Philippines. The local firms offer superior compensation packages to executives who have cut their teeth with Indian BPO firms,” says head of another BPO firm, wishing to remain unidentified.

Another BPO firm chief says his company, too, has faced talent crunch at senior and middle management positions in the Philippines. He pointed out the example of MNCs — Citibank is a case in point — that employ a number of Indian executives to manage their captive operations in the Philippines.

There is a significant movement of voice processes to emerging destinations like the Philippines and Eastern Europe, says Positive Moves Consulting managing partner Vibhav Dhawan.

“Large MNCs, with presence in India, are expatriating a significant number of Indians to meet their talent needs in the short and long term in these new markets,” he adds.

Genpact, India’s largest BPO firm, went to the Philippines in 2006 and since then, has built a sizeable presence there. Speaking of its strategy to meet talent needs, Genpact president & CEO Pramod Bhasin said: “We start by using a mix of expats from India and hiring locally. The long-term goal is to have grooming and training for the local talent to eventually manage the Philippines operations. That time is, however, another 1-2 years away.”

Adds Nasdaq-listed BPO firm ExlService Holdings CEO Rohit Kapoor: “It’s certainly a challenge to find mid- and senior-management talent in the Philippines. We are dealing with it by taking our senior managers from India while also hiring local talent. So, our country manager, migration and transition and process head are all Indians while the HR head, operations and facilities heads are natives.”

Manila was ranked second among outsourcing destinations in Asia-Pacific by research firm IDC early this year, behind Bangalore. The BPO industry in the Philippines currently employs over 3 lakh people.

 

Coping with attrition

July 14, 2008 | The Hindu

The BPO industry in India is facing the challenge of finding quality human resources, given the current attrition rate.

Attrition is emerging as a key business concern for organisations. It is turning into a bigger issue than attracting talent. The annual attrition rate is 20-30 per cent (reduction in the number of employees through retirement, resignation or death) across industries in India. It is as high as 44 per cent in BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) vertical and 35 per cent in BPO (business process outsourcing). Attrition is an expensive phenomenon, potentially impacting the bottom line of businesses.

The cost of attrition is not just the loss of that employee but it includes an array of hidden costs such as recruitment costs, selection costs, training costs, cost of covering during the period and opportunity costs.

The organisational costs associated with the turnover in terms of hiring, training and productivity loss costs can add up to more than five per cent of an organisation’s operating costs, says Cabot Jaffee, Chairman, Global Talent Metrics.

As far as India is concerned, attrition is a serious trend, especially in today’s knowledge-driven marketplace where people are the most important assets. While organisations cope with attrition by devising compelling retention strategies, it is imperative for organisations to predict attrition early in the recruitment process to curtail loss of time, cost and effort.

What is the biggest challenge for the BPO industry in India today? Well, it is none other than attrition. The BPO industry in India, which is expected to employ around one million people by 2008, is facing the challenge of finding quality human resources, given the current attrition rate. According to NASSCOM, the outsourcing industry is expected to face a shortage of over two lakh professionals by 2012. Where is it leading to?

According to Jaffe the challenge of attrition, though not special to India, is unique and intense in a manner not seen in other markets across the world. “This makes it imperative that any knowledge or psychometric tools in this area be locally validated,” Mr. Jaffee says.

However, many industry officials feel that results shown by a psychometric tools (designed to eliminate high attrition risk during the selection process) and attrition are not necessarily correlated.

Survey findings

Global Talent Metrics has conducted a survey in partnership with IIM Bangalore and AlignMark of the U.S.-based tools provider for optimising human capital resources, on the attrition rates in India. The survey reveals that pay, contrary to popular notion, is not the top reason for attrition.

Lack of career growth opportunities and recognition from supervisors are more compelling drivers for attrition. Nearly 50 per cent or more people rate the following four important factors in selecting or leaving a company — clarity or career path, relationship and recognition from supervisor, career growth opportunities and pay. About 70 per cent of the respondents do not consider family-oriented events as important factors to leave a company, although employees conveniently use family-oriented events like marriage, childbirth, need to stay closer to family — as explanation for departure.

Mr. Jaffee feels that to control the attrition levels in an organisation, it should adopt certain recommendations. Fundamentally, a company should select candidate whose preference and aspirations are in line with what the company has to offer. Since job content is key driver for attrition, a well-institutionalised job rotation programme will be a great retention strategy. The company should provide career growth opportunities along with rewards and recognition. The most important aspect is open communication and fair treatment. Along with an open culture, these will increase retention of staff. The last but not the least is the brand image of the company. It will surely stop an employee from moving out.

– SHANTHI KANNAN

 

Don’t just blame odd hours for BPO attrition

10 Jun, 2008, 1407 hrs IST, Jayashree Bhosale, ET Bureau

PUNE: Anand (name changed) is a Senior Executive in a big BPO company. After going through a stressful life, now in a rocky third marriage, he finally decided to seek help. “There was an overlap between my personal and professional life. I had challenges in my personal life regarding relationships outside my marriage. I faced problems at the workplace too.

Today’s capitalist culture tries to push people beyond a point,” said Anand. Anand is just one example of the booming outsourcing industry which has been facing the challenge of a high attrition rate which is close to 60%. Studies have attributed this to factors like a stressful job environment in the BPO industry, including odd working hours. However, a study conducted at a BPO by psycho-therapist Dimple Shah, who heads Revival Life, revealed that a majority of the problems of these employees are not work-related . They are more related to personal life and family.

“Work-related stress in BPOs is hugely hyped. The measures that the companies take to reduce stress are also hyped. Measures like out-ofcountry vacations, good canteens, etc do not go to the root of the problem, which originates from their personal lives and requires counselling, either individually or in a group,” she said.

The Revival Life study covered the period from December 2006 to June 2007, covering nearly 100 people at one Mumbai BPO. Ms Shah said the stress levels at this BPO were low since they did not handle inbound calls. “We found that 50% employees were normal , 40% had anxiety, 27% had depression and only 10 % had stress. The proportion of those suffering simultaneously from all, that is stress, anxiety and depression was 20 %,” Ms Shah remarked , adding, “These 20% people need therapeutic solutions, which takes a longer time.”

With the high attrition rates, the human resource (HR) department is busy fire fighting, occupied in recruitment and training, with not much time to spare for counselling activity. “The HR department tends to use motivational and communication programmes for solving employees problems of the employees. However, such measures are useful for only about 20% of the workforce. The real solution lies somewhere else,” said Ms Shah.

 

BPO workforce, journalists getting insomniac

Santanu Saraswati

Kolkata, May 18, 2007

Chandrika Chhetri is still fighting against depression at her Namchi residence, a small town in Sikkim. After completing her honours from a reputed south Kolkata college, Chandrika took up a tele-caller’s job with a BPO company at Sector V.

Chandrika has to answer every question her company’s client in Sydney, Melbourne and Toronto used to make over telephone. Sometimes, she has to hear all abusive language her clients used to throw from the other side of the telephone. “We didn’t have any fixed work schedule. Sometimes, I have to reach my office by 4 in the morning, sometimes at 8 in the night. Just after a month, I started having fragmented sleeps. It was really taking toll on my health. To make myself awake, I started smoking and drinking at least 20 cups of coffee from the canteen. It was really a horrendous experience I had during my six months of job with that company,” Chandrika said.

Chandrika had to undergo treatment under a well-known psychiatrist. She, still, has to visit his chamber once a month.

Anamitra Chakraborty has not slept for months properly. After every half-an-hour, his sleep breaks that has compelled him becoming an irregular employee of a BPO company operating at Sector V. “I used to drink 15-20 cups of black coffee at night just to make myself awake at the night. The company, I am serving, is having most of its client base in North American countries, and there is a time difference of more than 12 hours. So I have to work everyday from 7 pm to 7 am. But finally it landed me with the habit of taking sleeping peels regularly. First, I started with minimum doses, and after few months with 10-15mg of alprazolam. My employer served me show-cause notice and I had nothing to say except submitting my medical prescription. The doctor advised me three months complete medication,” said Anamitra.

Anamitra is not the precedent. Some have lost their job as their competency in solving the clients’ problem gradually witnessed a downward trend. Some, under doctor’s advice, change their trade, just to go back to the normal life.

Piyush Goswami is now working with a multinational bank as a junior executive. Piyush was compelled to lose few years of experience of working with a software BPO having office at Infinity Building career after his doctor advised him to go back to his normal daily schedule for getting cured from acute insomnia. “I lost my sleep and my marriage was on the verge of breaking. Thanks to one of my friend who made me visiting the doctor,” said Piyush.

City is having sleepless nights. At least for the past five years the city has witnessed a tremendous rise in psychogenic and physiological disorder caused due sleeping disarray and fragmented sleep. The worst hit of this disease are the business process outsource workforce, the healthcare employees, the medical practitioners and even the journalists who have either shifting work schedule or prolonged and continuous night shifts.

City doctors termed the disease as mainly -“BPO-genic”. A recent survey on city’s highly skilled workforce revealed that more than 80 per cent of them are suffering from insomnia, a major cause of depression, obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, decrease efficiency, acute abdominal pains and irregular periods, caused due to late-hours of watching television, attending late-night calls of the patients and shifting work schedules. Doctors, though blaming the changing life style pattern of the city, failed to find any solution other than changing jobs from BPO sector or changing profession.

“Depression caused due to acute insomnia has become a common phenomenon among the city’s highly skilled workforce, especially working in the business process outsourcing companies. In the past five years, there has been 82 per cent rise in psychogenic and physiological disorder among people working in healthcare, BPO, multinational companies, electronic and print media. And 45 per cent of this are patients having perennial sleeping disorder, and the rest suffering from depression caused due to situational insomnia,” said Dr Shiladitya Ray.

Ray is of opinion that fragmented sleep may even give rise to diseases like trigeminal neuralgia, burning skin, decrease efficiency and irregular period among women. Psychotherapist, Sunita Kumar, observed that there has been a steady rise in the number of her patients at Apollo Clinics, suffering from insomnia and depression. “When we start questioning our patients, in most of the cases, it is found that irregular sleeping hours or continuous nightshifts is what has made the patient vulnerable and feeling isolation. Except few hours of counselling and prescribing medicines, we don’t have any other solution for these patients. And if the patient doesn’t change profession and go back to normal life, chances of relapsing the disease is almost 200 per cent,” said Kumar.

Not only depression or insomnia, Kumar observed that fragmented sleeps or sleeping disorder has given rise to high level of toxic anxiety and loss of appetite.

Experts recommend that adults get between seven and eight hours of sleep each night to maintain good health and optimum performance. Those who think they might have a sleep disorder are urged to discuss their problem with their primary care physician, who will issue a referral to a sleep specialist.

The study also finds that fragmented sleep profiles, akin to individuals suffering from middle of the night insomnia, healthcare workers on call, and parents caring for infants, medical practitioners and even journalists, alter natural systems that regulate and control pain, and can lead to spontaneous painful symptoms, said Dr Tapan Basu. “Our research shows that disrupted sleep, marked by multiple prolonged awakenings, impairs natural pain control mechanisms that are thought to play a key role in the development, maintenance, and exacerbation of chronic pain,” said Basu, a pain-manager with Belle Vue Clinic.

Consultant psychiatrist, Dr Rima Mukherjee, observed that there has been a steady 10 per cent rise in the number of such patients at her clinics in West Bank Hospital and Arabinda Seva Kendra in the past one year. Mukherjee, even blames rise in accidents on city roads because of fragmented sleeps. “People are becoming susceptible to chronic psychomatic disorder and dependable on sleeping pills and alcohol. Because of fragmented sleeps, BPO and such-types of workforce are gradually losing efficiency and concentration,” Mukherjee said.

Doctors suggesting immediate visit to clinics if fragmented sleeps persists for more than a week. “Otherwise, sleeping disorders will take its toll on city’s health slowly.

According to Parikshit Bhaduri, head of US-based software development company, Connectiva Systems, there are cases, where sleeping disorder has finally taken toll on the efficiency of employees. “I found two of my very efficient colleagues doing mistakes, which were unlikely of them. When I started enquiring their details, it was found that both of them got the habit of playing on the computers, chatting with their friends in other parts of the world throughout the night. Finally I made them compelled of leaving their laptops in the office at the time of leaving for home. It worked wonders,” Bhaduri said.

Psychoanalysts like Nandita Mukherjee, however, differ with the doctors regarding curability of this disease. Nandita suggests the best way to get cure is the willingness of the people suffering from such diseases. “Apart from counselling I always advice my patients to start yoga and reduce the amount of coffee or tea intake. Drinking tea or coffee, especially at night, causes immense harm on sleep. High intake of coffee or tea, even gives rise to loss of appetite apart from fragmented sleep. Counselling does help, but people suffering from depression out of sleeplessness could benefit from practising yoga. But I don’t think, change of profession is really possible in our country where getting a fresh job is really very hard,” Nandita said.

She even warns the students, who have the habit of studying at night and sleeping in the day. “Our body never allows change of schedule so easily. All these types of diseases are result of this. So it is always better to lead normal lifestyle what our climate and body permit,” she added.