Honey – Who shrunk my Market ?

What’s giving H.R managers in BPOs sleepless nights …….. Or perhaps sleepless days?

“Scaling up and meeting the manpower demands of the company’’ – But the question
remains – how?

In the Indian ITES sector, close to 200 personnel are hired every working day of the year, while this might spell good news in terms of growing employment opportunities, it also means increasing challenges for the HR managers. Nasscom’s annual market intelligence study forecasts a requirement of 1.1 million professionals in the ITES-BPO segment by the year 2008. The key question is – How would the industry meet this ever growing demand?

The high attrition rate that is gripping the industry is taking it from the frying pan into the fire. Currently it’s about 35% in non voice and 45-50% in Voice based projects.

Most BPOs are adopting the following strategies to scout talent and retain it:

Facilitate industry interface: Many BPOs are signing non–poaching agreements in order to prevent internal cannibalization.
Career path: It is necessary to communicate to the agents that there is a clear growth path for them in the next five years. In terms of growth opportunities, data management, transaction processing and other back-office support activities are really going to be the key growth drivers for the offshore BPO industry.
Before we talk about becoming the employer of choice, let\'s think if we are the industry of choice\' says Sunil Kumar V.P HR at Vertex on career path for employees.

Recruiting from smaller towns/ Change in demograph: Due to the high demand and supply gap many companies are moving towards cities like Chandigarh, Bhopal, Lucknow and Dehradun, to attract talent. There is also a change in employee profile, with organizations looking for older and experienced people who will bring stability.

The recruitment firms or ‘headhunters’ are having the final laugh as this means more business for them. \"I noticed the frenzied hiring that was going on in the ITES companies and realized a business opportunity in that” says Madan Padaki, Co-founder and Director – Merit Trac, a major player in the recruitment process outsourcing space.

The paradigm needs to change from recruiting heads to recruiting hearts. The key to retention of employees is to win the hearts, as well as the minds, of the people.

(Sunder works as a Trainer with a global BPO. He can be reached at sunder_trg@hotmail.com.)