Print this article

Comments

Email this article

1 AM. An unevenly lit agglomeration of makeshift eating joints outside a big BPO company in one of the fastest growing towns of the country, Gurgaon (this publication is also headquartered in the same town). These joints serve everything from paranthas to Chinese fare and even good old Maggi noodles 'served plan' (sic).

Almost at the center of this alfresco food court sits the ubiquitous panwalla dishing out tobacco sticks to one and all. And sit there for just half an hour and you will not fail to notice that almost everyone seems to be paying him a visit.

The muted camaraderie and the scent of consumerism (with a lot of smoke around) are evident in the early winter night air.

This is representative of that generation of Indians who are creating a wave. A wave that has also been featured in the mother of all rhetorical exercises: the US elections.

n Overall employee satisfaction is up 9% and BPO employees are more satisfied than their IT counterparts. Higher satisfaction in bigger BPO shops n The top reasons for joining the company remain the same as last year, viz, good work environment, high growth opportunity, and good salary, though not in the same order. The importance of these three parameters have increased significantly vis-ŕ-vis last year n Travel time as a reason for stress has climbed up to second position at 34% this year as compared to sixth place at 25% last year. Work timings is the biggest reason for stress this year too Size Does Matter Company Employees Daksh 5,000 EXL Services 4,087 eFunds 3,936 ICICI OneSource 3,902 24/7 Customer 2,800 HCL Tech-BPO 2,565 Transworks 1,800 HTMT 1,610 iSeva 700 Sykes 617 NIIT Smart 612 Ajuba 490 Motif 341 The averae E-Sat score of the top 5 companies (in terms of no. of employees) stood at 84.6 out performing the industry average of 80.7

They are also representative of a group of employees that their employers are going out of the way to keep satisfied. And the techniques being used by the unsung HR manager would put a conjurer's bag to shame. From free lunches (whatever happened to the good old economics law-"there's no such thing as a free lunch"), to junkets under the guise of training, to dance classes too. And in its second edition this year, the Dataquest IDC India BPO Employee Satisfaction Survey 2004 puts this average employee at the center and the HR practices of the industry under a microscope. All in an attempt to measure the level of satisfaction of BPO employees.

The Bigger the Better
It is best to begin with the good news. Employee satisfaction (E-Sat) has seen an upward shift. The average E-Sat score has moved up to 80.7 (on a scale of 100) this year from 73.8 in 2003-that's a 9% jump. And this has happened in the face of attrition and bad press. This overall increase in satisfaction is best exemplified by Hinduja TMT, which has seen an increase, albeit marginal, in the satisfaction of its own employees, and yet has slipped from the second spot last year to the fifth position this year. In effect, the other companies that were surveyed this year have outperformed Hinduja TMT. Daksh was at number five last year with an E-Sat score of 75.6, while its score this year has moved up to 91.6-a 21% improvement in performance from last year. In terms of size too, the bigger ones have fared rather well as compared to their smaller peers in the industry. Daksh, the biggest of them all in this survey, emerges clearly at the top. And in just the last one year, the company has improved its performance considerably. The numbers tell the tale.

Ranked by employee size, EXL Services emerges at number two, but fails to make it to the top five, though by just a whisker. Economies of scale play a role (after all not all laws of economics can fail). ICICI OneSource, the other biggie in the pack, has seen the E-Sat score of its employees rise by a good 18% from 75.1 last year to 88.6 this year. eFunds, with over 3,936 employees, has also outperformed the industry by upping the E-Sat scores of its employees by 20%. The average E-Sat level of the top five companies (in terms of number of employees) stands at 84.6, clearly outperforming the industry average.

Scale not only enhances the opportunities for growth available to the employee, it in turn also provides the HR manager a chance to rotate job roles for employees, or even change processes to keep boredom from the repetitive nature of the job at bay. And therefore, it is no surprise at all, that the top two reasons for joining any one of the top five BPO companies are growth opportunities and a good work environment. Ironically, the chief reason for leaving happens to be salary. It is as if the employee comes looking for work nirvana, only to fall prey to the weight of the paypacket. As many as 22% of the workforce surveyed agreed strongly to the statement "I would leave this job if another reputed company offered me a job with 20% hike in salary".

Money, Money, Money
The one key reason why BPO employees were taking flight last year was for higher education, in search of a degree. But the number of respondents citing education as a reason for leaving have also seen a drastic drop: from 42% of the respondents citing it as their main reason to quit last year, the figure this year is down to 29%. The young generation of go-getters is still looking at greener pastures, only, now it is within the purview of the BPO industry. Salary emerges as the chief reason for leaving and one out of every two employees cite it as their reason for making that jump. And salary is among the top three reasons for joining too. Naturally!

The importance placed by employees on salary has seen an upward shift as compared to last year. "And why not, nothing comes for free and its not love but money that makes the world go around," says a twenty-something employee at one of the bigger centers in the country. While this generation is not only candid about their being in it for the money, they are driving a consumerism wave too. And most of them are at home in an industry that is young in age. Over 92% of the employees in the industry are under 30 years of age. And therefore it is hardly surprising that typical discussions revolve around either clothes-branded ones here-or the latest gadget, which is invariably a feature-rich cellular phone. But it also marks the beginning of rationalization within the industry. The onset of maturity has begun. Growth opportunities are what this set of workers is now scouting for. Look at any BPO company ad and you will realize that growth is precisely the agenda that is occupying maximum print space. And the employers are getting through to their audience, which comprises graduates plain and simple. This is strikingly evident from the fact that, last year, Infosys was the dream company for the largest number of respondents. Not any more. This year, the top three spots were all occupied by BPO companies. And far fewer respondents were leaving for matrimony or just because their friends were moving out. Definite signs of onset of maturity.

Mohit Chhabra in New Delhi

Next Page :

Methodology: How We Did It

Page(s)   1  2