Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A PROJECT ON
ATTRITION
SUBMITTED BY
Ayyangar Nisha Jagannathan
TYBMS Vth SEMESTER
PROJECT GUIDE
Mrs Swati Nalawade
YEAR (2007-08)
S.I.E.S (Nerul) college of Commerce
Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathy Vidyapuram,
Plot 1-C, Sector V, Nerul, Navi Mumbai-400706
1
2
If employees are to be
products,
Their shelf lives are
getting shorter
“ATTRITION”
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The successful completion of this project was a result of the kind co-operation &
guidance I have received from various persons & institution. Though I would like to
acknowledge them individually I mention below only few though the contribution from the
Firstly I thank the S.I.E.S (Nerul) college of Arts, Science and Commerce, and the staff
of the college for having given me this opportunity to do this project and providing me with
time and effort to give me the necessary information and clearing my concepts regarding my
Finally I am grateful to my friends and many other Call center employees for providing
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CERTIFICATE
5
DECLARATION
2008.
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INDEX
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Human Capital is the most crucial resource on which the Information Technology &
Information Technology Enabled Services (IT & ITES) industry in India depends. Next to the
location advantage that India has, the factor for the country's immense success in the overseas
markets, is its abundant & cost effective human capital which is one of the key asset that has
kept India sustain its edge in the ITES sector Human Resource (HR) professionals all over the
world, working in Call-Center or Contact Center or BPO industry are leaving no stone
unturned to formulate strategies to retain human capital, but nothing is working in their favor.
In spite of all their trials the average attrition rate in the BPO this sector is still very high.
In the best of worlds, employees would love their jobs, like their coworkers, work hard
for their employers, get paid well for their work, have ample chances for advancement, and
flexible schedules so they could attend to personal or family needs when necessary. And never
leave.
But then there's the real world. And in the real world, employees, do leave, either
because they want more money, hate the working conditions, hate their coworkers, want a
So, what does that entire turnover cost? And what employees are likely to have the
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OBJECTIVE:
various Indian BPO companies (especially the call centers) and propose innovative strategies
that these companies can adopt to get a better solution to this Herculean problem that the BPO
industry is facing. Though the issues and options analyzed are with respect to Indian service
providers, the same may be applied to service providers across the globe as the issues and
METHODOLOGY OF STUDY:
(Especially the call centers) the Internet and print medium like magazine and newspaper were
used in which the interviews of HR managers were published. The reason behind choosing
call center segment of BPO is, Customer care based call center activities constitute for more
than one third of the total employment and revenue in BPO segment.
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DEFINING ATTRITION:
death"
as businesses faced a scarcity of talented IT resources during the dotcom era, organizations in
offshore countries such as India are experiencing similar pains. Skilled employees are hopping
from job to job and taking with them the customer knowledge and technical expertise that any
company needs. Their salaries are increasing, along with their perks, benefits, and bonuses.
investment pouring into China, Russia, and India have created tremendous
2004) results filed by Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, and TCS listed attrition rates
between 7.6% and 17.7%. while an April 2005 BusinessWeek article estimated an attrition
rate of 60%, with some Indian service providers experiencing up to 80% turnover.
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To put these attrition numbers into perspective, if a company has 100 programmers and
an attrition rate of 25%, then 25 of its IT staff will leave each year. Think about the time and
money it took to find, interview, hire, train, and coach those 25 people. Now think about
losing them and starting the hiring and training processes anew.
How do the hiring and training processes break down in terms of total costs in India?
The typical time for advertising, interviewing, screening, negotiating, and hiring a new
employee is about two weeks. Companies usually allot one week for programmers to become
familiar with the new business, two more weeks for technical training, and one last week for
customer training. Now imagine a 25% attrition rate and replacing 25 of these programmers
each year. Based on a yearly salary of $15,000 for the human resource person and $25,000 for
the programmer, it would cost an additional $63,000 annually in acquisition and employee
training costs. After considering these figures, it quickly becomes apparent why companies are
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REASONS FOR ATTRITION:
It is not easy to find out as to who contributes and who has the
does not happen for one or two reasons. The way the industry is projected
and speed at which the companies are expanding has a major part in
attrition.
For a moment if we look back, did we plan for the growth of this
industry and answer will be “NO”. The readiness in all aspects will ease the
problems to some extent. In our country we start the industry and then
develop the infrastructure. All the major IT companies have faced these
realities. If you look within, the specific reasons for attrition are varied in
nature and it is interesting to know why the people change jobs so quickly.
Even today, the main reason for changing jobs is for higher salary and
better benefits. But in call centers the reasons are many and it is also true
that for funny reasons people change jobs. At the same time the attrition
• Organizational matters:
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The employees always assess the management values, work culture,
work
difficulties in getting the businesses and retain it for a long time. There are
always ups and downs in the business. When there is no focus and in the
• Working environment:
Employees expect
rules and stick approach will not suit the call center. Employees look for
• Job matters:
No doubt the jobs today bring lots of pressure and stress is high. The
employees
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leave the job if there is too much pressure on performance or any work
related pressure. It is quite common that employees are moved from one
process to another. They take time to get adjusted with the new
campaigns and few employees find it difficult to get adjusted and they
leave immediately. Monotony sets in very quickly and this is one of the
main reasons for attrition. Youngsters look jobs as being temporary and
they quickly change the job once they get in to their own field. The other
sales and meeting service level agreements (SLA). The employees move
out if there are strained relations with the superiors or with the
Moving from one job to another for higher salary, better positions
and better
benefits are the most important reasons for attrition. The salary and
offered from MNC companies in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai have gone
up very high (Rs 15000 to Rs 18000 per month) and it is highly impossible
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employees expect salary revision once in 4-6 months and if not they move
to other organizations.
• Personal reasons:
The personal reasons are many and only few are visible to us. The
foremost
The next important personal reason is going for higher education. Most of
the BE, MCA and others appear for GATE examination or other
examinations and once they get cleared they quickly move out.
with the AC hall etc will tend to get various other health problems and
• Poaching:
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The demand for trained and competent manpower is very high.
Poaching has become very common. The big companies target employees
of small companies. The placement agencies have good days for doing
more business.
The employees with 4-6 months experience have very good confidence
and dare to walk out and get a better job in a week's time. Most of the
spread message and refer the know candidates from the previous
• Employee’s advocate:
employees’ careers and jobs. The company’s overall plans and strategies
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expectations are met. By doing this it is easier to meet the company’s
business targets.
and at the most the department heads will be accountable for the
would help to retain the talent. Everyone has to contribute to hold the
employees little longer period. All the leading companies are trying several
In terms of stated work pressure, only 17% have claimed ‘light pressure’.
Majority of the breaks were for meals and there were no significant
Not specified 9%
Almost 2/3rd employees travel more than 10 kms to work everyday. This is
a huge strain on quality time available with the family and ostensibly
Can’t say 3%
Although taxi / bus services are provided by most employers, as many as
more, 79% waste more than 30 minutes of their productive lives everyday
benefits.
refused the question implying that conditions are created such that all
probably are coerced into working overtime. The oppressive part was
further that as high as 41% claimed to not having been paid for overtime.
BASE 100
BASE 100
1-2 hrs. 29%
Paid 59%
>2 hrs. 27%
Not Paid 41%
Refused 44%
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• Recreation clubs, Canteens, Entertain programmes , fun
Many companies have canteens though the quality of food is not great.
BASE 100
No – No canteen 13%
Can’t say 4%
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• Other practices include:
programmes.
little more in all large Companies. Surprisingly the attrition rate is not
understand them and by the time you make an attempt to understand the
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leaves, another close friend will also leave and he will lure another 3-5
persons. Moving for higher education and marriage are the major reasons
for attrition. To tackle these will be impossible with any type of strategies
like demand the relieving letter from the previous company, have non-hire
bring the entire company under a forum. Nasscom has attempted to bring
out certain guidelines on the matter and the impact is not felt yet. The
MNC culture, high salary level and benefits offered by them are the only
two major aspect of attrition and no one can halt them doing so.
Relationships:
effective and high morale teams. This understanding is what bridges the
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The Insights Discovery System generates reports that reveal
different from that of the direct manager. The "Value to a Team" section of
evaluate all employees against one set of standards. Insights can help
employees better identify what values (needs) are most important to each
individual and how these values impact the person's attitude towards
work. Values can range from an employee feeling stable and secure to
It can:
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- Motivate and retain employees whose basic monetary and material needs
may have been satisfied, but who are seeking their internal drives
style
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• How much would you invest to keep your employees focused
and happy?
This is the question on the minds of CEOs and managers worldwide as the
interview to make sure an individual has good work ethic, motivation, and
organizational goals.
You probably know someone who owns an outdated, overused vehicle but
won't entertain the thought of trading it in even though they can afford to
upgrade. Why, you might ask, do they keep it? Well, the owner has
probably invested substantial time, money and care into keeping it in top
enormous compared to the cost of upkeep on the old one. Even with
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When this same logic is applied to employees, we find the cost of replacing
accumulated, skills learned and trust and relationships they have built with
existing employees than starting from scratch. Yes, there are financial
reasons behind this focus on retention. However, there are many other
corporate culture and employee morale and loyalty. All these factors can
organization they take their training and knowledge and often times,
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• Drivers of Turnover
competition for key talent. For many firms, surprise employee departures
can have a significant effect on the execution of business plans and may
increases exponentially.
When managers or supervisors are asked why good people leave, most
respond, "It’s about money." Or, they dismiss the departure matter-of-
popular belief, research indicates that money is not even on the list of top
five reasons employees give when asked why they are leaving an
organization.
one in which people are generally satisfied with the quality of their work
life. On most days they feel good about going to work. They feel
empowered to help shape decisions that affect them, they have the
resources and skills to satisfy customer needs and they are generally
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From the organization's perspective, the organization is healthy if it is
need for change; it is adaptive and thereby ensures its future - meaning
leave if they don't like their manager - even when they are well paid,
receive recognition and have a chance to learn and grow. In fact, disliking
or not respecting the boss is the primary reason for talent loss. Research
shows the reasons for employee departures are (in descending order):
1. Employee/manager relationship
8. Unclear expectations
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9. Lack of flexibility; no 'whole life balance'
10. Salary/benefits
It is very important to know that the above factors are often NOT the
the reasons for departing. The rationale behind this discrepancy is that exit
hesitant to tell these company representatives the truth for fear of burning
fresher or laterals with less than three years of work experience, money is
still considered to be the highest priority. Employees want not only work
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recognition, but also extra perks." A number of professionals are looking at
more challenging jobs. "In several cases, faced with a choice between
more money and a challenging job, employees have opted for the latter as
know that developing next-level skills will keep them ahead in the job
market, and finally result in better compensation. They also look for a job
people prefer to be associated with a brand. Respect for the job should be
created by BPOs. The youth should feel proud to be a part of the billion-
dollar industry.
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Mentoring and handholding new recruits from day one to four months are
important tasks; during this period, they should be familiarized with the
culture of the company. It is at this time that new entrants experiment with
different options. Hence they should be exposed to the best values the
company, employees will be confident about the future and not try to look
question.
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communication begins right from recruitment. In cases of peer pressure,
by brand building, which attracts the right talent and helps in retention as
well.
HR practice.
• Firing
Sometimes, firing can look like attrition. Looking at firing and attrition
job due to reasons like, job pressure, health problems, personal reasons,
inefficient boss, lack of job security etc. All the above reasons are
interlinked and can be the reasons for good workers to quit. If the team
unable to perform, but they continue to be part of the team damage the
morale of the team. A performer will not want to be part of the team, which
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only reduces his performance, but also affects him financially. At this
manager who is not capable of “cleaning up” the team by firing non-
performers. With the above, the performer employee feels insecure and
• Consider feedback
experts point out, feedback can be got in two ways—during the employee’s
tenure, and through exit interviews. Inputs can be secured from existing
this tool will be analyzed, and action will be taken on it. Our employees are
very excited that their feedback is being taken seriously,” says Sahoo. Exit
interviews help management learn the reasons why employees leave the
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Whenever the demand for a professional in a particular field heats up, the
perks associated with the job start to pile up. Standard perks for an India-
based "fresher" (a new entrant in the IT services industry with little work
employees even have access to an agency that will handle such "domestic
2004. Salaries in India grew by 11.6% overall, while China trailed with a
found that salaries for middle managers rose by as much as 30% in the
last two years. These salaries are often paired with expansive benefit
school.
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Captive centers and IT service providers have to offer innovative
recently, the opposite was true in India, but that trend has begun to
through which 24/7 aims to educate employees about the BPO industry
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and discuss related careers. Multiple providers have followed the lead of
social standing. It's important for U.S. firms with little international
programs accordingly.
• Change Locations
The high prices and resource crunch in top-tier Indian cities such as
where labor and real estate costs as well as attrition may be cut in half.
Such benefits come at a price: The infrastructure quality lags that of more
advanced cities, and the search to find qualified people may take longer.
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better suited for the other Asia-Pacific offshore centers in its portfolio, such
• Rotate Employees
into different disciplines about every two years and expose them to new
provider with 4,000 employees and six development centers in India, has
Offshore employees are asking for a clear career path with increased
training or job rotation. It may become the only reason your best
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• Combat Poaching by Encouraging Referrals
competitors and offer to double salaries or buy out contracts on the spot to
and add a personal touch that a print or radio campaign lacks. A Voice &
employees found that referrals constituted 23% of new hires. For some
companies, the number was even higher, at 40%. The study also observed
that recruits hired through employee referral programs are "stickier"; that
about job satisfaction issues, and act on the data gathered. The aim is to
determine why some employees depart and some remain with the
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company, and to define the traits of productive, successful employees.
Many companies examine the reasons employees leave, which don't reveal
employees happy, then they truly have to be designed with the employee
three young children a monetary bonus as thanks for working overtime for
five months straight. To the father, however, days off might have been
more attractive, since they would have allowed him to spend time with his
family.
should tailor incentives for their employees if they want to retain them. If
your company doesn't bother, don't be surprised if workers head for the
door as soon as year-end bonuses are handed out or stock options vest.
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With huge projects ramping up within exceedingly short windows, it can be
have a process to hire the right people in the first place. Simple measures,
such as incorporating skills tests that relate directly to the job in question,
COSTS OF TURNOVER
with insight into how costs are calculated and the reasons why certain
costs were include or excluded form the calculator. The calculator should
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• Administration and sourcing costs
functions together with the costs associated with interviewing, testing and
attracting applicants.
• Lost productivity
to leaving the organization and new less skilled employees are one the
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manage their turnover costs. Determining the cost of turnover is the first
force. Human resource accounting experts Cascio, Hom and Griffeth define
exit expenses as having two main components - direct and indirect costs. A
company incurs both direct and indirect costs that result in losses in
administrative costs. Direct Costs are actual dollars spent each time an
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The cost of turnover can be calculated by measuring the time taken to
administer each activity plus the direct costs such as advertising costs. The
turnover costs calculated using the calculator represent dollars spent. The
the average company salary. In addition the direct costs to a company for
1. Process Administration:
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Resignation Administration -
Recruitment Administration -
process. Writing the job ad, posting it onto job boards, organizing
turnover.
2. Sourcing Costs:
Agency expenses -
Advertising costs -
The cost associated with posting job ads to job boards or traditional
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3. Interview Costs:
Interview -
The more interviews held and the greater the number of candidates
Testing -
costs.
Travel -
the interview location. Although this may not be done for every
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• Cost of New Hire
The two costs measured in this area are the administrative tasks
associated with inducting a new hire into the organization and the
sometimes the total cost of training that an individual has received whilst
undertaken by employees will be used back on the job an add value to the
particular jobs have high training, often there is a corresponding lower rate
1. Induction Administration
substantial amount of time. The activities included here would include the
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processing of new hires into organization systems (HR) and introductions
to fellow employees.
The fixed costs associated with inductions include the cost of materials
Induction Training -
includes the costs of the materials, presenters and the opportunity costs
associated with the new employee taking time off work to participate.
Relocation Expenses -
source the best talent for alternate locations. An average cost needs to be
• Productivity Losses
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The most detrimental aspect of staff turnover is lost productivity.
Evidence has found that leavers often miss work or are tardy before they
depart.
reduce the time spent in an adverse environment and thus reduce job
dissatisfaction.
Studies have shown that employees leaving a company will have a greater
considering resigning from the organization. Not only does staff take more
sick leave but Hom and Griffeth state that their overall productivity
work if their work depends on the leavers or they must assume the
leavers’ duties.
The second effect of loss of productivity occurs when new hires join the
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organizational processes or product/service knowledge to be effective.
Studies have shown that a new hire will generally take between 3- 8
• Excluded costs
Not all the costs associated with turnover have been included in the
assumed have been excluded. These costs, although hidden, may be the
• Employee Demoralization
Turnover may erode the morale and stability of those who remain
employed. Their morale suffers because they lose friends and may
interpret motives for quitting as social criticisms about the job. A belief
less personalized service because they do not know the clients and can’t
employees may provide careless service before they leave. Turnover also
interrupts the transmission of service values and norms, which are the
under certain circumstances or for certain firms. That is that the exit of
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marginal performers may improve overall firm productivity, while new
replacements for leavers can infuse companies with new ideas and
McEvoy and Cascio found that generally it is the poor performers that will
leave their place of work. There are two possible explanations for this:
firstly, terminated staff has on average a lower tenure than current staff
and so have not had the time or opportunity to develop the skills
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necessary to perform well; or the current performance management
systems which exist are encouraging high performers to stay and poor
performers to quit.
avoidable and those that are unavoidable. After all, leavers whose
departures are unavoidable resemble stayers more than they resemble the
leavers whose departure is avoidable; they do not resign because they are
their reasons for leaving, they may not wish to burn their bridges behind
them.
since a company has no control over these events and can therefore not
turnover.
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Article -
creating havoc for the industry and especially for the HR department. The
attrition rate varies from minimum 30 per cent to a maximum 90 per cent
per annum. The software also saw this rate till the incident of September
11, 2001. I wonder why the attrition rate was not so high in any other new
industry like telecom, retail stores, banking etc. Who has to introspect, how
Attrition is not a new problem and it has existed earlier and will continue to
exist in any industry. But there is a limit for every thing. The call center
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industry is new and every one is in a great hurry to make some thing or do
some thing, become someone in the sun rise industry. The government,
many others play a major role in developing any new industry and extend
Our country is fortunate to be identified as one of the best places for BPO
and the beginning is really good. Now the growth of BPO industry is mainly
depending on the cost effectiveness and quality of the manpower. All other
factors are being taken care by the government through liberalized laws,
providing infrastructure like telecom and we are best in the IT. The cost
What drives young people to quit call centres and data processing
units as fast as they join them? As industry attrition rates (how soon people
executives in various BPO firms tried to pinpoint the reasons that make
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young people between the ages of 22 and 26 shuffle jobs in months. They
"This industry is still not being accepted for a long term career," said
BPO employees have high aspirations. They want to see 'wealth' in this
lifetime and have low respect for authority. This is because most BPO
ICICI OneSource President and CEO Raju Bhatnagar said the pulls of the
try to pick the best talent, he explained, and good talent is prone to be
the average person, train and retain him/ her for the longer haul.
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4. Employees face pressure at home and at work
Philips Software CEO Bob Hoekstra felt BPO employees are in a piquant
home.
"There is an enormous conflict in age group [in terms of the fact that]
youngsters are serving mature customers, and they are prone to make
mistakes," he said.
CASE EXAMPLE
The BPO/ITES sector is only expected to grow larger, and more profitable,
over the next few years. Most young people are eager to jump on the
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But is working for a BPO all that it's made out to be?
My workday began with calls I had to answer for five hours continuously,
without a break. As soon as I was through with one call, the next one would
be waiting. There was no time for me to even say a few words to the
person sitting next to me. After five hours of constantly answering calls, I
would get a 20-minute break. Then, I would take calls again for another
three hours. Without a break. I would take around 350 calls a day.
One day, I reached breaking point. After taking 156 calls at a stretch, my
process, I missed a call. The calls that are directed to us were constantly
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that I had missed a call. My supervisor came and asked me why I was in
What this means is that my dialer shows a red bar when the person on the
other end of the line hangs up without getting a response. The red bar is
an indication that I did not take the call -- that the call was not 'live'. At
I fielded all my calls till 1 am. But I had made up my mind -- I would quit this
job with its inhuman pressures and its lack of empathy for employees. Workplaces like this
have only one goal -- to make money. This job expects you to work even if you are feeling ill;
even if your throat hurts. You cannot take even a 10-second break; the dialer throws calls at
you continuously and you have to start pitching (taking them) immediately. If you do not
respond to the person at the other end of the line, s/he might hang up. That shows on your
machine. You have to ask for permission to go to the toilet. Often, your request is denied by
your supervisor.
You repeat the same five sentences 350 times a day. Isn't it pathetic?
When I started out, there was no pressure. Gradually, though, the stress
grew beyond the levels of human tolerance. Working at the call centre was
a great learning experience for me. Now, it was time for a break. When I
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worked, I had no time to watch a film, no time to read a book, no time to
meet friends, no time to swim. For the last few months that I worked at the
call center, I had time only for two meals a day. As a result, I lost my
get up at noon and go back to work at 3.30 pm. Now that I have quit, I can
go out with my friends. I can spend time rediscovering myself. With the
approximately Rs 65 per hour that I made, I can buy a few books and have
some fun. Maybe that will take away the pain that came with this job. But,
believe me; the money could in no way make up for the pain!
I'll never work at a call centre again. Nothing is worth the ordeal I
went through.
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Explained below are suggestions for the above story as well as for any other call center
organization.
In spite of the salaries and facilities being high (especially for a graduate who
starts his / her career with a BPO company) the average attrition rate is very high in this
industry There are numerous reasons for the attrition to be high which can be categorized into
“Drive Attrition” which caused due to the employer; the second one can be termed as
The reasons for Drive Attrition are due to employer’s policy / policies of
terminating the employee at the end of the contract period for employment. Also the quality
policy of the BPO companies guides them to retain only the most productive employee and
hence makes them to terminate employee at regular intervals. A BPO company operates 24
hours a day and 365 days a year. The companies do not have a particular day as weekly off for
its employees. The employees are not even entitled for national holidays declared by
Government of India, as the company works with clients calendar. The call agents can avail
leave (which should not affect the schedule) only with prior consent, and any unauthorized
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associated with the taking up a career with a BPO company. The job of a call center agent (to
start off) can be compared to a telemarketing or a telephone operator. Hence the scope to take
up any other job (in case needed) or change of field is ruled out, as the experience gained in a
call center will not be an iota of importance. Many others quit, as the chance to climb up the
corporate ladder is bleak. Only a few very get promoted to the cadre of team leader and as
soon as promotions are announced the many of frustrated employees quit Further BPO
company work does not provide any scope for skill up gradation for the employee. The
employer trains the employee to speak good English and nothing else, which adds to the Drive
attrition rate. Also the nature of job in a typical BPO company is psychologically very
stressful. The working hours are artificially created which affect the natural rhythm of human
body. The symptoms of chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, peptic ulcer, insomnia
and even depression are caused due to change of 24-hour biological rhythm of the body, hence
Listing out the reasons for non retaining of human capital include lack of growth
opportunity for the employees, lack of time based promotion, poaching of employees by other
competitive BPOs for higher salaries, employees quitting to pursue higher education, loss of
employees personal life, employees physical stress and health reasons, uneasy relationship
retaining human capital. It ranges from cash incentives to career concern for the
employee. As only 5 out of 150 employees become team leaders in a year, companies like
Daksh services and Global Vantedge believe that cash incentives are a great way to get
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employees to stay on. Companies like GE, Wipro Spectramind Offer management diplomas
and MBA courses to their employees, as most fresh graduates want to study further. Further,
scholarships. If an employee leave in between, they he or she has to discontinue the course.
Exl Service.com and ICICI one source hires outstation candidates (Mainly Non-Metros)
and put them in shared company accommodation. Also as an incentive the company picks up
the utility bills. If the employee leaves he or she loses the apartment.
Also for leading call centers like 24/7 customer and MsourceE non metro talent currently
constitutes nearly 25-35 per cent of total hiring, and the main reason for this to happen is to
Many companies like HCL Tech BPO Services, GTL, Tracmail, and Vertex India use
various psychometric tests to get people who can work at night and can handle the monotony.
They also believe that giving career counseling and planning career paths to its employee help
to control attrition. Some of the BPO firms have adapted to the strategy of employing
housewives and retired school teachers. They believe that this would help in controlling
attrition, as they feel that the tendency and the potential of the employed to get shifted would
reduce drastically, where as some other BPO majors like Wipro’s Spectramind believes that
recruiting the undergraduates itself is a strategy to control attrition. Spectramind removed the
graduation prerequisite for their employees in order to keep human resource level from
waning Leaving alone the legal and mandatory benefits such as provident-fund and gratuity,
other strategies that are designed by the BPOs for providing benefits to the professionals
include;
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Group Medi-claim Insurance Scheme; This insurance scheme is to provide adequate
insurance coverage of employees for expenses related to hospitalization due to illness, disease
employees and their dependent family members are eligible. Dependent family members
This covers total / partial disablement / death due to accident and due to accidents.
Subsidized Food and Transportation; BPOs provide transportation facility to all the
employees from home till office at subsidized rates or even at zero cost. Lunch is also
accommodation for all the out station employees, in fact some of the BPO companies also
undertakes to pay electricity/water bills as well as the Society charges for the shared
accommodation. The purpose is to provide to the employees to lead a more comfortable work
life balance.
Recreation, Cafeteria, ATM, gym and Concierge facilities; The recreation facilities include
pool tables, chess tables and coffee bars. BPOs Companies also have well equipped gyms,
Corporate Credit Card; The main purpose of the corporate credit card is enable the timely
and efficient payment of official expenses which the employees undertake for purposes such
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Cellular Phone / Laptop; Cellular phone / Laptop are provided to the employees on the basis
of business need.
Personal Health Care (Regular medical check-ups); Some of the BPO'S provides the
facility for extensive health check-up. For employees with above 40 years of age, the medical
Loans; Many BPO companies provide loan facility on different occasions like, during the
times of medical emergency, at the time of their wedding, also new recruits are provided with
interest free loans to assist them in their initial settlement at the work location.
Educational Benefits; Many BPO companies have this policy to develop the personality and
knowledge level of their employees and hence reimburses the expenses incurred towards
tuition fees, examination fees, and purchase of books subject, for pursuing MBA, and/or other
Performance based incentives: In many BPO companies they have plans for, performance
based incentive scheme. The parameters for calculation are process performance i.e. speed,
accuracy and productivity of each process. The Pay for Performance is high as 22% of the
salary.
Regular Get together and other cultural programs: BPOs also organizes cultural
program as and when possible but most of the times, once in a quarter, in which all the
employees are given an opportunity to display their talents in dramatics, singing, acting,
dancing etc. Apart from that the organizations also conduct various sports programs such as
Cricket, football, etc and regularly play matches with the teams of other organizations and
colleges.
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Wedding Day Gift; Employee is given wedding day gift voucher worth Rs. 2000/- to Rs.
to encourage employees to refer friends and relatives for employment in the organization.
Employee Stock Option Plan; Some BPOs also give ESOP scheme to their employees to
In spite of these benefits that are given through innovative strategies, people still leave BPOs
at a faster rate and retaining them has become a real challenge for the HR managers.
Now, the actual question, What types of retention strategies are required to solve this problem
and retain the Human capital, which is a crucial resource in the high growth IT-ITES industry
in India .
BPO service providers moving into value creation and value enhancement processes
of clients; The BPO service providers must look at value creation and value enhancement
in the process or activity that they do and this would be the one of the best strategy for the firm
to control attrition. Although a majority of players face high attrition rates there is a certain
class of players who have a much lower rate of attrition than the industry
average, and these operators operate in the niche segment in areas like research and analysis.
Office Tiger has set up its shop in India at Chennai. The attrition experienced by
Office Tiger, a US$20 million annual turn over company stands at 8%, much lower in
The major reason being that, Office Tiger offers specialized services such as business research
for banking industry and analytics to its clients, where there is a lot of value addition
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happening. Indian BPO’s can adopt this strategy, the main reason being that the Indian
software giants like Infosys, Wipro and Satyam have already proven their potential in the
world’s software market segment for the credibility and creative ability of Indian work force.
Hence Indian brain is acknowledged world over for the spectacular creativity and capability
Hence if the Indian BPOs have a better edge over the other players in the world in moving
towards the value creation and value enhancement processes of its clients. This would mean
that BPOs have to go for specialized services segment or in other words move towards the
KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) where the stress is laid on as business research
areas and this would for sure reduce the attrition rate drastically.
Changing perception of employees from life style to career; The perception of the
employee about the BPO has to change from being a life style to a career option. One
way of doing this is to re-construct the organization structure. The chances to climb the
corporate ladder should be made to look bright. In the present day the options that a BPO
Some modification done to this corporate ladder in increasing the number of levels,
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can give a prospective picture to the path ahead for a call center agent, and also will
aid to change the perception from life style to career, which will control attrition to a
Change the employable target audience and also in a way become socially
responsible; Neither age nor physical appearance is a hurdle for call center employment.
So the BPO firms should take in those who are physically handicapped, and hence in a
way become socially responsible. This could be the best adopted strategy for Indian BPO
companies, the reason being that two percent of Indian population are physically
challenged (www.indiastat.com), this would mean that two percent of One billion, which
is a real big number. Also there are many schools in India, who give formal education to
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the physically challenged. So the Indian BPO’s can definitely look this as a viable
strategy for bringing down the rate of attrition. Also this strategy will make target
employees to be more committed and loyal to work, as they would look at this job as a
career and would not shift jobs very frequently. Another reason for not shifting jobs
would be that any other job would not give them a salary comparable to BPO company
standards
Make employees feel that the company cares this can be done through effective
environment for the employees and also a way to show that the employer cares and they
just may stay. The employees should be well aware of what's happening with the
company. At any time, all of the employees should have a pretty good idea of how
business has been, and they should be aware of what issues the company is attempting to
address. The people should also be kept up to date with important events affecting the
company. The managers should listen to the employees when they have ideas for
improvement. They may have some ideas to improve productivity, and when they do
Clarity in expectations; employees should be very clear about the appraisal system,
Giving employees a choice of rewards; Rewards are as different as the people who
receive them and it doesn't make sense to give rewards that recipients don't find
rewarding. For example, some people prefer more pay, while others prefer more time off.
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A promotion might be more rewarding to one person, while a job-sharing arrangement
might be more rewarding for another. Some people are excited about sports events, others
about movies. Some employees would love a dinner in a romantic restaurant, others a
book by their favorite author. Food, fun, education, improved work environment, gifts,
travel, family-oriented activities - the options are endless. How can one know what will
also letting employees choose their own rewards from reward menus and catalogs.
Personalizing rewards shows that a company cares enough to discover what "interests"
Adding value; the key employees seek frequent opportunities to learn and grow in their
careers, knowledge and skill. With out which will feel they will get stagnated. A
careeroriented,
valued employee must experience growth in value for him/herself within the
organization.
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QUESTIONNAIRE ON ATTRITION
AIM: To find out the reasons for increasing rate of attrition in BPO industry, and suggestions
from the respective employees to be implemented which will help to reduce the attrition rate.
1. Occupation: ________________________
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(Strongly agree, somewhat agree, neutral, somewhat disagree, strongly disagree.)
10. This office has policies that are supportive of its staff: ________________________
of my work: ________________________
in my office: ____________________________
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17. What is the extent of work pressure at your work place? ____________________________
1. Heavy pressure
2. Moderate Pressure
3. Light Pressure
1. Up to 10 km
2. 11-19 km.
3. > 20 km.
4. Can’t say
19. Do you face any problem when to wish to take a break? ____________________________
3. Refused
1. 1-2 hrs.
2. >2hrs.
3. Refuse
21. Are you paid for the hours you work overtime?
________________________
1. Yes
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2. No
22. Which is the break where you consume much time? ________________________
1.Tea/Coffee/Refreshment break
2.Lunch Break
3.Break fast
4.Dinner
6.Not specified
1. Yes.
2. No.
1. Good
2. Average
3. Poor
4. Can’t say
(Yes, No.)
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CONCLUSION:
The strategies suggested in the project are not exhaustive to retain the human capital of
BPOs. These are just the basics and if implemented in a proper way can give good results.
The organization has to maintain quality of service, which they attain by inculcating the right
philosophy and principles in our staff. Training programmes are thus very important. It is a
challenge to create passion for work in people and that applies for HR people too. Secondly,
they have to battle with attrition, which is highest in the BPO employees. Besides a good
salary, the company needs to give people fancy designations, career paths, and empower them,
which will lead to better productivity. They should also have a succession plan for at least the
top two levels. They have to attract the right talent, because there is a dearth of trained
personnel. The parameters of judging talent are different for various roles; soft skills have
assumed immense significance today. People are in a sensitive state of mind; a customer care
executive cannot afford to be rude with their customer. To curb the high attrition rate, the
success mantra for a BPO is not just offering a fat pay packet, but chalking out long-term
development and career growth for employees, along with giving them a sense of
empowerment. A company should always innovate, keep their employees busy with various
projects. So that the functioning of an organization is not plagued by somebody’s sudden exit,
it is important to keep a databank of apt substitutes ready. They should try to chat with the
employees trying to understand who is not happy and may leave the organisation. They should
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try to address their problems and grievances and always keep the replacements ready. This
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