A BPO HR head’s job is not an enviable one. Look at a typical HR head’s list of tasks: One, stop the spi-raling attrition. Two, arrange interviews of a couple of hundred, at times even a thousand or more candidates per quarter. Three, set in processes so that only those employees who ‘fit in’ with the demanding nature of job are hired—which is about 25–30% of all people interviewed. Four, train the selected employees. Finally, ensure satisfaction among the current employees.

In some ways, the dilemma is to choose between keeping the present set of employees happy and thereby preventing attrition, and to concentrate on the hiring process that is happening at a breakneck pace. Today, most BPO operations are starting to look at outsourcing bits and pieces of their hiring processes. Even though HR departments shy from admitting that they are moving portions of their hiring process to external agencies, they have started the experiment to tackle some of the hiring-related issues.

What Thomas Profiling Is

One of the most renowned psychometric profiling systems used across the world is the Thomas international profiling system. The system is used in 51 countries and is available in 49 languages with 30,000 clients across the world including 300 of the Fortune 500 companies. In India, Ernst & Young, Arvind Mills, Asian Paints, Dr. Reddy’s lab, Hindustan Lever Limited, i-flex Solutions, Cisco, UB Limited (Breweries), Tata Teleservices, Pfizer, Ranbaxy, and Phoenix Global Interactions, are some of the organizations that are currently using Thomas Profiling. The Thomas Profiling system is used to take the subjectivity out of behavioral assessment in a wide range of areas including recruitment, team building, training, job compatibility, motivation, stress, and appraisals. There are several benefits of using psychometric profiling. They are: Eliminating guess work in dealing with people while hiring Increased transparency Reduced cost to the company Higher retention High morale Enhanced strategic aims of the company

As MphasiS CEO Jerry Rao said at the company’s half yearly results conference call, "Traditionally, we have hired people and trained them in accent and keyboarding and basic skills, and then put them into specific skills that our clients need. We have done all that in-house. But there are mature companies who can recruit, train them, give them the accent skills, give them the keyboarding skills, and then give them to us."

The Outsiders
So, what are the advantages of outsourcing portions of the hiring process? "We pay them a higher fee than we would have paid to the old recruitment people, but we get trained people and we don’t have to see 10% of them not getting through the accent training. Also, our job is to run the business, and if somebody else is good at training then let’s have the trained resources," adds Rao.

Bangalore-based HTMT has also been using external agencies to help them out in their pre-interview hiring process, especially conducting tests for candidates in venues other than Bangalore. "We work with some external agencies, and are considering outsourcing some of our functions like conducting tests in outstation venues," says Dr Solomon Suresh, HTMT’s HR head.

MeritTrac is a Bangalore-based competence assessment company, which among other services, helps BPO companies in their hiring processes. MeritTrac offers ‘BPO assessment modules of tests’ that include tests for communication skills (voice test and listening comprehension tests), basic intelligence, and domain-specific skills. Says Mohan Kannegal, director, technology and content, "In addition, MeritTrac also has the ability to roll out this recruitment assessment in 10 cities across the country including Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Bangalore. We take care of all the necessary logistics arrangements and coordination to roll out these tests—like screening of resumes, arranging for the venues, intimating and scheduling candidates for assessments, administering the tests and scheduling interviews with the client." In other words, all the logistics of the pre-interview stages are taken care by the external agent. MeritTrac currently offers services to GE Capital International Services, ICICI OneSource, Dell International, Digital, Accenture, Nipuna, 24/7 Customer.com, MsourcE, and TransWorks. In addition, MeritTrac also works with the governments of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala for BPO assessment tests.

As a result, the kind of logistics that MeritTrac handles is mind-boggling. According to Kannegal, the company has in all conducted more than 110,000 assessments across the country, of which about 70% were for the BPO industry. The company conducts about 6,000–7,000 tests a month.

"Looking at the kind of logistics we handle, there are times when I feel that we are half an event management company and only half an assessment agency," says Kannegal jestingly.

All in the Mind
There is also a school of thought that the attrition problem can be fixed at the pre-interview stage i.e., even before an employee joins a company. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? But it is possible if one hires employees with the right mindset. Theoretically speaking, if one hires employees who ‘fit in’, then they are likely to be happy and stick on with the company. So BPO employers are trying to understand their prospective employees. And they are using psychometric tests as a tool to do that.

"The biggest advantage of psychometric profiling is that it provides an objective dimension to candidate evaluation procedures, which can often be subjective during interviews. Used along with information obtained from other assessment tools, the result can help to mitigate the risks and costs of a bad hire," says Prahlad Rao, managing partner of Team Value Profiling Services (TVPS). TVPS has an exclusive agreement with Thomas Profiling to offer their internationally profiling products to companies in India and neighboring countries like Sri Lanka and Maldives. AOL, Mainstay, 24/7 Customer.com are some of TVPS’ customers who use psychometric profiling.

"Psychometric profiling helps because it gives a good idea whether the person is indeed the right fit for the job," says Dr Solomon.

Says Progeon HR head, Nandita Gurjar, "We use psychometric testing while hiring senior employees. We find it effective at that level. I am open to looking at psychometric tests for other levels too in future. It gives a more knowledgeable idea of who the person is rather than a subjective opinion gained during an hour or two at an interview."

But there’s a caveat. "Psychometric profiling is a great tool as long as it is administered by professionals with a behavioral science background. Otherwise, more harm than good might be done. The chances are that if not analyzed correctly, the right candidate may be turned down or the wrong candidate may be hired," adds Dr Suresh, who holds a doctorate degree in organizational behavior from IIT Madras.

The Experiments
Employers like MphasiS have begun to experiment by hiring employees with different profiles like part-timers, trainees, etc. Others too are trying out novel ways. HTMT, for example, is trying out something called ‘exemplar cloning’. "Generally speaking, we are attempting to create a profile of the model employee—the exemplar—who has all the traits that we look for. It’s also an employee who is very happy with what he is doing here. Using this profile, we try to assess new candidates and try to model the existing candidates to that profile," says Dr Suresh.

Others like Progeon are not looking at too much of variance with their current hiring policies—at least not for the time being. "So far, we have not experimented too much. The youngsters at Progeon have been doing a tremendous job so far. The kind of maturity and customer service orientation they show for their age is unbelievable. But we do not rule out older people," says Gurjar. But then Progeon is still just around 1,000 employees strong. And with size and unbridled growth come most HR challenges.

However, the BPO industry is still a young one and processes (including HR processes) are yet to mature. "As an industry, we are in the process of learning the art of hiring. We are getting closer to maturity. But till we get there, it’s a quest," says Dr Suresh. And the painful process of learning by trial and error continues.

TV MAHALINGAM in Bangalore

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