Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee
| Life begins at 40 and above. BPO companies are hiring middle-aged people with the right skills and experience - and the pep for work. This helps keep attrition down while bringing maturity and commitment to the game. Some things get better with age. |
AT 50, M.K. Sharma's (name changed on request) life is quite unlike that of his friends or colleagues who opted for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme offered by the nationalised bank they had worked half their lives with.
He dabbled in business for a while but then gave it up to join a new organisation in 2004.
On a typical day, you would see him rushing to make it to office on time, like any other officegoer. But that is where the similarity ends.
Once inside the workplace, he walks to a workstation and after exchanging pleasantries with his colleagues, picks up his headset and prepares to take the first call across time zones as a BPO agent.
The initial discomfort of working in a bay where the majority of his colleagues belong to the next generation is long gone, giving way to a confidence that he has made a place for himself in an industry where the average age of the workers is about 24 years.
"The decision to leave my previous job in the bank was more to do with my reluctance to be transferred from Delhi after being promoted. It was initially difficult to adjust to the BPO work culture and there was a mild opposition from my family as well. But things have worked out fine now," says Sharma, who works with HeroITES in Gurgaon.
With the attrition rate in BPOs ranging anywhere between 30-120 per cent — based on companies, and nature of operations (voice, non-voice, shift and location) — players such as HeroITES are now proactively scouting for candidates in the 40-45 age group or above, as part of a strategy to establish a higher element of continuity for employees and the organisation.
"The inherent nature of the BPO industry, which tends to depend on large-scale employment of young, fresh graduates, leads to a situation where, in most cases, employees are still exploring career options even after joining a BPO organisation. This leads the young staff to switch career or opt for higher education alternatives; switch companies while being in the same career profile to avail quick, repetitive salary jumps; or at times leave an organisation in absence of learning or growth opportunities, especially in generic call centres where work may be repetitive and without any tangible value-add to an employee's career progression," says Vipul Doshi, Chief Executive Officer of InterGlobe Technologies.
What makes things worse is the fact that the attrition level in the BPO industry has been rising in the last couple of years. "This has been primarily because of the large number of new entrants into the BPO industry, and employees looking for new opportunities in other companies," addsPramod Bhasin, President and CEO of Genpact.
Given these hard ground realities, an organisation's ability to retain its people has become the key differentiator in a highly competitive BPO marketplace.
Agrees Padma Singh, Vice-President-Human Resource, HeroITES, who feels that the high attrition levels in the industry not only hamper the growth and performance of an organisation but have also emerged as a key client concern.
In contrast, the attrition rate amongst employees who are 40 years and above is negligible. "Besides offering stability to the workforce, these employees offer other advantages including a high level of dedication, readiness and potential to move to the next level," she says.
As a result, HeroITES has been issuing special advertisements in job portals and newspapers, calling housewives and retired candidates to become a part of the organisation, provided they have the required academic qualification and experience, and strong communication skills. Those who have applied come from a diverse background, including event managers, teachers, homemakers (with or without prior work experience), defence personnel, entrepreneurs, and, of course, banking professionals who have opted for VRS.
"Currently this is a much smaller pool, that is, just under 10 per cent of the total workforce, and we plan to increase it at a steady pace," says Padma Singh.
For Genpact, `hiring without discrimination' has been one of the ways of addressing the growing shortage of skilled manpower. In the past year, Genpact has hired 289 associates above the age of 40, and this accounted for 9 per cent of the total hires for the past year.
"This helps us build a representative and diverse workforce. Candidates over the age of 40 are hired through Genpact's normal hiring channels, which include print ads, consultants and employee referrals. We believe these older employees are a valuable resource pool at Genpact as they bring diverse experience and skill-sets cutting across domains," Genpact's Bhasin points out.
Like all prospective candidates, the older job aspirants too undergo the normal assessment process, plus an additional round with an Assistant Vice-President of HR to understand their aspirations and get sensitised about the work culture, the entire exercise aimed at enabling them to evaluate their cultural fit in the organisation. Once a part of the company, these employees are put on the regular grind, including night-shifts — just like their younger counterparts.
"Employees over the age of 40 are usually assigned to work wherever we have appropriate opportunities. They go through the same training and learning as any other employee. Our effort is to integrate them with the mainstream, and treat them like any other employee in terms of roles and responsibilities. We have observed that they do not require any additional training, and instead many such applicants bring additional skills, expertise and maturity to the job," he adds.
For instance, as a global travel technology company providing integrated IT solutions, BPO and consulting services to international airlines and travel industry corporations, InterGlobe Technologies looks for a diverse mix of skills, knowledge and aptitude that go far beyond the standard industry profile of a BPO or a call centre employee.
"In fact, IGT also draws upon the resource knowledge base of its Group companies, especially in travel-specific roles that address travel agency-related processes such as fares service, or specific airline functions such as revenue accounting, ticketing, back office queue processing as well as customer support. These functions require specific industry skills that people in the 40-45 year age group can well provide," Doshi of IGT adds.
Growth opportunity
In return, the companies are trying to define a clear growth path for their employees. An employee of InterGlobe Technologies, which is a part of a larger travel services organisation that has business interests in airline and cruise representation, GDS distribution, and Aviation and hospitality services, has the option to grow by seeking a transfer to a group company or to a separate division — after a minimum 18 months of service.
"He can, therefore, build a career as a travel industry consultant or in airline services in airport operations, city office operations or in training or even sales," Doshi says.
However, from a BPO perspective, keeping the average age group ratio in mind, acceptability and integration can prove to be difficult at times, opines Ranjit Narasimhan, President and CEO of HCL BPO, where older employees comprise about 1 per cent of the workforce.
According to Navanit, Chief Operating Officer of Epicenter Technologies, the real challenge lies in finding the right fit for the right profile as the talent pool available at this level is `yet to mature' from the point of view of the BPO industry.
"They need time to understand the process, and the work culture, and not feel out of place. But there will definitely be positive progress in this direction as other companies also become open to the idea of hiring from the older age group," he adds.
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