BPOs come of age, hire 30-plus employees

BPOs come of age, hire 30-plus employees

Mumbai, Sep 19: The ITES industry is now looking to break the monopoly of youth and swashbuckling teenagers, with BPO/KPO firms open to providing an ideal opportunity to mid-career professionals. On an average, roughly 5-10% or in some cases, even 15% of the total workforce in these companies now consist of those who are between 30-45 years. BPO/KPO firms are seriously looking at hiring more candidates from this age group.

Says Malini Deekshit, vice-president-HR, HTMT Global Solutions, “We employ candidates in the age group of 30-45 years. However, at present, the percentage is not too high. But we are considering hiring more of these candidates as employing them will certainly help us control attrition. This set of employees will also bring in maturity and stability to the processes, in turn helping us build and nurture a team of experienced and mature leaders.”

Mumbai-based BPO major Firstsource Solutions Ltd, at present, has 20% of its total candidate within this age group. Similarly, Cross Tab, a KPO firm, has about 15% of its total employees in the age group of 30-40 years. Says Ashwin Mittal, director, “We are looking at hiring more middle-aged employees as the maturity, experience and long term perspective these candidates have, cannot be matched.”

According to industry players, a BPO or a call centre is not a fun place but serious business. Mumbai-based Effort BPO, at present, has 20-25% of employees within 30-45 years age bracket in its back office operations. However, it contributes to about 2-3% of the total employees at present. Effort BPO, which has about 1,500 seats, will add 6,000 seats by 2009 and is looking to employ more people above 30 years of age.

Declining to share any specifics, Manuel D’Souza, executive VP-HR, Intelenet Global Services, said that the company prefers older employees. Says he, “As far as all candidates are concerned, we look for a balance between skills and attitudes. For a service oriented industry like BPO, certain attitude like customer centricity is important along with the ability to work in shifts.”