Human Resource & BPO

The BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry is a rapidly growing industry that has been providing job opportunities for millions of people worldwide. However, the industry has been facing significant challenges in the form of high attrition rates. Attrition refers to the rate at which employees leave an organization, and in the BPO industry, it is a major concern for HR managers.

In the BPO industry, HRM plays a crucial role in managing the workforce, retaining talent, and reducing attrition rates. HR managers in the BPO industry face many challenges in managing their workforce due to factors such as long working hours, high-pressure work environments, and low job satisfaction.

Attrition is a major challenge in the BPO industry due to a variety of reasons. Some of the main reasons for high attrition rates in the BPO industry are:

1. High workload and stress: The BPO industry is known for its high-pressure work environment, and employees often have to work long hours to meet deadlines. This can lead to high levels of stress and burnout, which can result in employees leaving the organization.
2. Low job satisfaction: The BPO industry often involves repetitive and monotonous work, which can lead to low job satisfaction. This, coupled with the high workload and stress, can result in employees feeling demotivated and dissatisfied with their job.
3. Limited growth opportunities: The BPO industry is often seen as a stepping stone for employees to gain experience before moving on to other industries. This can lead to limited growth opportunities within the organization, which can result in employees leaving the organization.
4. Immature Career Decisions: Considering the average age group of human resources in the BPO industry, it has been clearly observed that a slightly better salary, peer influence, rumour-driven action and complete lack of career orientation are major drivers of attrition. Unfortunately, the essence of stability which is overtly rewarding is completely ignored due to a lack of knowledge or exposure or more importantly lack of proper insight and guidance.

The first issue is the nature and climate of the industry itself and it is something that is clearly obvious to anyone who plans to be a part of the same. The second and third are operational issues that are predominant but definitely resolvable. How - that we will discuss in another article separately as it is in itself a huge domain of discussion. The fourth issue is largely dependent on the talent engagement division or the human resource division of the company in collaboration with the operational managers and leaders.

In an industry like the BPO, I have observed through my 18 years long association - directly or indirectly (in the capacity of a consultant), that roles unlike other industries are clearly defined but roleplays are not. Let us understand the core departments - Admin, HR, Training & Operations. Admin will have sub-cores like infra, logistics, medical, cafeteria, security, finance and accounts. Operations will also have sub-cores like MIS, CWFM, Quality, Compliance, Training, Centre of Excellence, production floors and client servicing. HR will have sub-cores like recruitment, salaries & payrolls, induction and attrition management and talent engagement & development. Training will have sub-cores like technical, non-technical and communications.

If we closely look at the roles and sub-roles of Admin, HR, Training and Operations, we can on clearly see interconnecting lines going through each of them. Let us understand the interconnecting lines that initiate from HR. We see that end customers are all the departments but accountability only lies with HR.

Let us take an operational process and ignore the other aspects. The process we will discuss will be HR to Training to Operations.

There are targets from operations set for HR stating demands for a certain number of resources. A basic quantifying earmark is outlined basis on which HR gets going with recruitment. Post joining and induction, training comes into its role play and subsequently all resources clearing trainIng joins operations. Operations quantify the joinees basis their abilities and performance and tier them. Some are labelled as outliers and non-fits and the rest go through. More or less the cycle of an average human resource.

What if operations and training were proactively involved at the point of recruitment?

Would that resolve outliers and non-fits? Would operations get a better quality of resources?

Would process expenses see better justifications where attrition costs hold a heavy hammer on the top constantly?

My questions clearly outline my weights on what the answers should be but I leave it to each stakeholder to answer them.

To address the issue of attrition in the BPO industry, measures like employee engagement, training and development, performance management and compensations are in place. Now the question - where do we place them as? Routine? Proactive? Reactive?

The industry itself is so dynamic, that routine can only be very very broad outlines when departments like HR, Training or Operations come into question. Proactive measures can be absolutely outcome-defined and experience-defined otherwise they would only be bold statements and not meaningful exercises. Reactive measures may be too late as the outcome has already been strongly defined. So what is the way out?

My experience and applications have been extensive and on multiple scales and I have come to understand that the measures have to be a mix of both. If I were to classify them, I would do so first with definition and then with consequence.

Routine - based on clear standards defined from the outcomes of certain experiences that have limited variability. Examples would be selection benchmarks of candidates, primarily communications (verbal and non-verbal), history of employment in case of experienced joinees (stability count) and minimum joining qualifications (courses and educational pursuits come in way of dedicated attendance which is a key requirement of this industry).

Proactive - based on continuous outcomes and challenges conceived through experiences on circumstances causing attrition. Examples would be training need identification, employee orientation programs and process selection (voice or non-voice).

Reactive - based on real-time control of outcomes and immediate measurement of the same to quantify the measures and prioritise key elements of the measures applicable. Examples would be instant recognition, horizontal movements (floor support or quad management), counselling, active engagement and KPI-oriented exercises.

Masters of this domain would have multiple arguments and suggestions, but I feel the core boundaries should be governed by the above principles. This industry is perhaps one the most serious contributors to a national economy but it is not yet taken seriously - nor by entrepreneurs nor by employees.

In conclusion, I would infer that quality is an attribute that is most sought after in this industry but any operational process of this domain at any scale still asks loudly - Are we Defined? Are we Measured? Are we Analysed? Are we Improved? Are we Controlled?