IBM Daksh, the BPO subsidiary of IBM, is unique in terms of its identity, as IBM has rarely retained a companys maiden identity even after two-and-a-half years of its acquisition.

IBM Daksh, which did not participate in DQ BPO E-SAT last year, made a grand entry at #3, sharing the position with veteran, Genpact. Together, these two were ahead of all other large BPO firms.

Unlike most other large firms in the survey, IBM Daksh performed well on the salary front, matching the performance in this parameter even with small companies. Expectedly, it also did well in corporate governance, as IBM did in the IT employee satisfaction survey.

Its been a homecoming of sorts for most of the ex-employees of IBM Daksh, and would certainly sound like music to the management. In an industry where most BPOs have been struggling to contain attrition, the highlight of the year for Daksh has been a significant number of ex-employees joining back. In the Mumbai office alone, approximately 51 employees joined back during 2006-07.

The management, however, needs to be more in tune when it comes to meeting the requirements of its current employees, as employees cite reasons like no sense of belonging to the organization.

The management, on its part, has been laying adequate stress on the importance of using communication all along, and 2006-07 was no different. This year, the focus was on promoting communication through Intranetall employees could log onto the Intranet and discuss various issues and also throw up suggestions. Most importantly, Daksh already engaged in regular roundtable programs wherein suggestions are thrown up during discussions and employees are also informed of any action taken on the suggestions.

The year also saw some regular HR initiatives being rolled out, like the Educareer program, which enabled employees to get a post-graduation degree or even an MBA. But, one of the firsts was an online employee-counseling program, wherein employees could simply log in and take counseling sessions.

In order to provide adequate growth opportunities to its employees, Daksh also undertook a program aimed at identifying development needs in terms of leadership competencies, and the right profiles for high-potential employees were worked out in IBM.

However, the most surprising aspect is that Daksh has scored low on the infrastructure front. The BPO has well-being service audits in place, wherein factors such as internal air quality, water, food quality, etc, are audited as per international standards. The low scores on the infrastructure aspect can be attributed to transportation, which at this scale can be a bad experience, claims DP Singh, HR head. IBM Daksh has recognized this and has put in place a Center of Excellence for transport-related challenges.

Page(s)   1