But the companies have woken up to this tactic. An HR manager working with a reputed BPO company says that nowadays companies lay a lot of significance on "dependability" and pay much attention to the antecedents of the recruit. Companies are trying to identify potential job hoppers at the interview stage, and then not hire them. Nevertheless, be it no-poaching agreements or not hiring high-risk individuals, the average attrition rate has gone up this year.

The most common factor for employees leaving an organization or being dissatisfied is money and nothing else. Not very surprising as the BPO industry is in a cost-saving mode, with increments getting lesser and lesser. In fact, according to the DQ-IDC Survey, the average salary hike across categories has decreased from 17.2% to 14.8%. It is quite a significant drop and surely one of the main factors that promotes dissatisfaction among employees. The second most common reason cited by exiting employees is growth opportunity, followed by higher opportunity and, of course, job timings. The survey findings reveal that transport facility, work pressure, and work timings are among the top reasons for employee dissatisfaction.

Source: DQ-IDC BPO E-Sat Survey 2007

Pursuing higher education continues to be one of the top three factors unlike the IT industry

It has also been noticed that salary is a big issue in everyday voice-centric call centers, while in the KPOs, employees are known to put up with lesser salaries as long as the work is challenging and interesting. HR managers also seem to support the view and, hence, are taking more interest in employees workload, trying to find cues that trigger an employee to call it quits. In the end, there is only so much a company can do to control attrition as it is more of an industry wide issue, and not specific to any particular company. And as the BPO companies keep squeezing salary increments, attrition is bound to go up.

Innovative HR
Many companies on the E-SAT Survey are employing a variety of innovative HR strategies to hold on to their employees. Take the case of Hyderabad-based Brigade. The company has appointed a Chief Fun Officer, who looks into ways and means to ensure that employee stress levels are low and they remain highly motivated. The secret behind Brigades joie de vivre is not that hard to miss. Frequent hiring and retaining can be quite costly, so if you can hold on to your employees, anything is justified.

Or take the case of Bangalore-based e4e, most of the employee grievances are sorted out during the HR powwows, wherein the management and employees discuss problems face-to-face. The company also has a policy where it is mandatory for employees to take seven days off in a year, and it is the managers responsibility to see that his junior takes it.

In both the above instances, the companies were able to arrest attrition by proactively reaching out to employees; e4e has been ranked at #1 and Brigade at #7 on the E-Sat Score Rank. Similarly, a lot of companies are pursuing newer ways of employee retention.

Whither Woman?
One of the disturbing trends noticed in the latest survey has been the falling ratio of woman employees. Based on an analysis of figures from companies that have been consistently participating since 2005, namely e4e, Genpact, HCL, Ajuba, Motif, and Cambridgethe ratio of man versus woman has increased more.

In 2005, the man:woman ratio stood at 1.8:1 (12,136 males for 6,708 females). The ratio increased marginally to 1.97:1 in 2006 (17,822 males for 9,044 females) and now there are over twice as many men for each woman, 22,696 males for 10,870 females.

Source: DQ-IDC BPO E-Sat Survey 2007

It is not anything related to work, but traveling on the roads for hours that is the chief cause for stress. Therefore, transport issues are on the top of agenda, for employerstop of mind for employers

Could it be that women are unable to cope with the pressures of the BPO industry, the unearthly timings and high stress, and are opting out? Hopefully, as things improve, the ratio will improve. It is also said that BPO companies would be a dull place if women start shunning them.

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