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Right from the early years of its existence, the Indian BPO industry has been wrought with these clichéd associations-night shifts, monotony of work, attrition, digestive disorders on the one hand-and a fun work environment and college like atmosphere at the other. While night shifts and the consequent health issues and attrition haven't gone away and continue to be among the biggest bother, there is beginning to emerge a new face of the Indian BPO industry-that it's a serious career and not a 'stopgap arrangement'. This, in turn, has pushed the satisfaction index up.

Don't know for sure if God called on some BPO employees (like in Chetan Bhagat's 'One Night@ Call Center') but the dip in attrition rates by more than five percentage points is being looked upon by many BPO managements as divine intervention.

Nevertheless, the BPO dichotomy still exists. The 'big positives' often get offset by isolated but unfortunate cases of rapes, reinforcing the vulnerability of women employees in the BPO sector.

But one rape case, whether it be the HP BPO case in Bangalore or the allegedly more recent one in Pune involving an IBM Daksh employee (under police investigations), the changing face of the Indian BPO industry is relegated to the background. The only focus then becomes issues like employee safety and what companies are or are not doing to ensure it. Even as the companies are working on strengthening their inner mechanisms, it will still take some time for it to stop impacting overall employee satisfaction.

It's a Career!
As per the survey findings, growth opportunity or lack of it is among the top three reasons for joining as well as leaving a company. Thereby becoming a key factor for determining satisfaction. Some other factors gaining importance from the employees' perspective are training, certifications, leadership development, etc. People are realizing that a BPO opportunity can actually become a great career. The industry is evolving and the focus for the employees is moving away from just fun and parties to 'how I can develop myself'. Some of the oft asked questions that employees are posing to their employers are: “What sort of a career growth am I getting; where am I going to be five years from now; how does it fit into my career plan; etc.' In a nutshell, employees are becoming more ambitious and are looking at BPO jobs to fulfill their aspirations.

BPO companies too are rising to this trend and focusing on meeting the career aspirations and needs of their employees. It's no longer just about number of bodies but also about inter-personal relationships and increased focus on individual recognition and growth. That probably also explains the fall in attrition rate, which is a mirror of the satisfaction levels running within the company. The attrition rate dropped from 21% in 2007 to16% in 2008.

Seven of the top 15 BPO companies (as per the DQ Top 20 BPO companies based on revenue) are also among the top 15 BPO employers in the country. But, these bigwigs are not among the biggest gainers or losers of the day. With the exception of EXL Service and Aditya Birla Minacs, it is the smaller entities like e4e, Knoah and Ajuba that have been most susceptible to the spiked highs and lows

Companies are undertaking a slew of initiatives targeted toward focused training, certifications and up-skilling for their employees to aid them in their career progression. For instance, Ajuba runs a Leadership Enhancement and Assessment Program (LEAP) designed to hone leadership skills. Brigade too has undertaken mentoring, coaching and leadership development initiatives. Big BPOs like Genpact, IBM Daksh and HCL BPO have comprehensive programs. Genpact has introduced Information Management Leadership Program to nurture its top talent and prepare them to lead Genpact in the future. It also has a program that acts as a launch-pad to help high caliber employees to pursue a career in Transitions. On the education front, it has Senior Leadership Program targeting Executive Education tailored for senior Genpact employees. Besides, the company has seventy-eight programs running across domain, and continuous education. HCL BPO has launched its career progression program last year for BPO employees to pursue career in software/infra divisions of HCL Technologies. It also has a Common Fast Tracker Program to provide an accelerated career progression path for team members to develop them as future team leaders and motivate the top performers of the organization. IBM Daksh runs a team leader up-skilling initiative and an accelerated management program to enable junior management to move into middle management positions.

This transformation of the Indian BPO does not go back a long way-maybe just a year or two. So it might be wrong to classify this as a full-fledged trend, but the shift definitely signals the beginnings of one. As far as the trigger point is concerned, it's hard to get a hold on the exact one. The most likely explanation would be the increasing flow of high-end analytics work into India, warranting the need for up-scaling as well as bringing about some change in the fundamental image of BPOs-away from the low-on-skills work image. According to Raju Bhatnagar, VP at Nasscom, with the kind of level of specialization that is emerging, it's not the usual run-of-the-mill employees that will do. Also, some of the HR firsts that the BPO industry has been known for and associated with (transport facilities, free food, employee welfare incentives, etc) have now become hygiene factors for all BPOs, prompting the employers to look for differentiators. And, the differentiator that the employers are now trying to create is in terms of growth opportunity and an enhanced personal balance sheet.

It's the smaller companies that dominate among the 10 best performing when it comes to employee satisfaction. Having lesser employees perhaps makes it easier to satisfy. That however should not take away from the way these organizations have innovated to make their employees happy

Money Matters
While well-defined growth opportunities and a career path are gaining significance, it doesn't necessarily discount some of the basic satisfaction factors like salary, work culture and due recognition of efforts. As per the survey findings, 'being paid enough for the work being done' has come across as the parameter having the strongest bearing on satisfaction, followed by parameters like quality of training provided by the company and exciting growth opportunities having. Also, while salary is the # 1 reason for leaving, a good work environment is the top most reason for joining a company. Though this year a lesser proportion of employees have cited salary as the chief reason for leaving compared to last year. While the proportion leaving jobs due to lack of growth opportunities went up by 22.3% this year. But money does continue to be the top reason.

And the grouses remain the same: work timing, long working hours, repetitive nature of work, health issues, travel time, et al-keeping stress levels high. According to Thomas Sebastian, President at CareerNet Consulting, even though there has been a change in the people's perspective towards a BPO career, night shift is still a dampener for many.

Perhaps, the slowdown took its toll on hiring as the average employee growth among the surveyed companies plunged down to 26% from last year's 36%. While a go-slow or even a cap on on hiring during slowdown was understandable, more worrying was the fact that there was a workforce reduction in five of the companies. Does this herald the advent of the pink slip culture in Indian BPO?

The Disconnect
It's the small to medium BPOs that dominate the list of the top 5 companies when it comes to purely employee satisfaction. But, when one also takes into account the HR scores, which measure the company's growth, employee growth, tenure of the employees, etc, the scenario changes. Two of the big BPOs which fail to make it to the top 5 in terms of employee satisfaction, make it among the industry's top 5 BPO employers riding on their HR scores. IBM Daksh and Genpact, the top two rankers on the HR score, fail when it comes to meeting their employees' expectations. Their ranking on the employee score stands a distant #10 and #12 respectively. Pushed by their HR scores, both companies finally are able to make it to the #2 and #4 places, respectively, on the top BPO employers list.

The other big companies on the top BPO employers' list, ie EXL Service, HTMT and Aegis BPO take this anomaly further. For instance, EXL, which ranks at #6 on HR score falls down to #9 when it comes to employee satisfaction. HTMT, at #7 on HR, could manage only manage to be at #13 on employee score. The disconnect is highest in case of Aegis BPO, which is strong on its HR at #3, and just about makes it to the top 15 employee satisfaction list at #15.

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