Satisfied, But Challenges Remain

Yet, stress levels continue to be high, especially with

regard to travel time and work timing. Ironically, there is very little that the

industry can change about the traffic jams on the road and working at night.

Employee satisfaction is a great leveler. There is little

correlation between factors such as how big you are or what kind of work you do,

and how happy your employees areat least not in the Indian BPO industry.

According to DQ-IDC BPO E-SAT Survey 2007, there is a good mix of large

companies, medium companies, and small companies. There is a balance of pure

customer services/call center companies and broad-based BPOs. That is not all.

There is a healthy mix of survey veterans and newcomers in the top 19 companies

list.

The ratio of bigger BPO companies vis--vis smaller ones, more

or less, remains the same. There are six big BPO companies (with over 5,000

employees) featured in this years list, which more or less corresponds to

last years figure.

It is the mid-sized (between 1,000 and 5,000 employees)

companies that take up the maximum ranks. Close to 50% places, as many as 10

mid-sized companies are featured on this years survey.

There are lesser small BPO companies this year. Last year, there

were 5 BPO companies (less than 1,000 employees), this year the number has

fallen to 3 (though, one of the last years small companies has moved up to

being a mid-sized outfit). Out of the 3, Equinox Global and Knoah Solutions are

making a debut on the list, while Motif India continues to retain its rank at

#17.

Movers and Shakers



Every year, there are shifts that happen on the list. Companies climb up a
few notches, and some fall a few. The biggest fall this year has been that of

24/7falling to #16 from last years #10. The reason behind which is not

hard to gauge, as the companys HR scores have fallen quite drastically due to

decrease in absolute employee strength, average salary hike, average tenure of

senior professionals, etc. Even its employee satisfaction has fallen, the areas

in which the 24/7 employees were found to be most dissatisfied are: overall

satisfaction and company culture.

The other big fall has been that of TCS BPO, falling by four

places to #13 this year. Ironically, while the companys HR rank has gone up

by five places due to huge improvement in employee size, average salary hike and

CTC as compared to the last year (HR rank has increased from 10 to 5), employee

dissatisfaction seems to be increasing. The drop on E-Sat Score has been more

dramatic than gains on the HR rank, falling eight places and standing at #15

this year versus #7 last year. The major area for employee dissatisfaction has

been salary and perks.

In terms of gainers, except for the big IBM Daksh debut at #3,

the biggest gainers are Brigade and EXL Service, both by two ranks. Both have

shown marked improvement in its HR rank, basically due to improvement in

employee size and average training days, in absolute terms. Brigades HR rank

has gone up from #19 to #15 and EXLs HR rank has risen from #7 to #6. Of the

companies that participated last year, 7 were missing this year, namely, Office

Tiger Database (now a subsidiary of RR Donnelly), ICICI First Source, Sutherland

Global Services, SlashSupport, AXA Business Solutions, Keane Worldzen, and

Integreon. Similarly, a lot of big companies were also missing, like

Infosys BPO, WNS, Intelenet, and others. Hopefully, next year these companies

would not shy away from sharing data about their employee satisfaction, which is

the best indicator of how good or bad they are doing.

Beyond the Big Picture



When large and small companies form a single big list, the list looks as if
there is little difference between the companies. But go to the next levelthat

is how they made it to the listand you know the difference.

Take the first level of differentiationthe HR score that

measures the companys growth, employee growth, tenure of employees, etc, and

the Employee Satisfaction score that is a weighted score of how employees have

rated their companies on seven parametersimage, work culture, job content,

training, salary, appraisal, and people by reacting to sixty statements that

measures satisfaction on sub-parameters under these parameters.

Look at the HR Rank, which gets a smaller weightage in a survey

like this. Large firms hold the first six places. The first medium-sized firm,

vCustomer, comes in at #7. On the contrary, in the Employee Satisfaction

ranking, the first five positions area taken by small/niche firms with IBM Daksh

coming in at #6.

Source: DQ-IDC BPO E-Sat Survey 2007

Busting the common myth that BPO employees join/change jobs based primarily on salary hikes, the survey finds that a good work environment and high growth opportunity are better attractions. This is in contrast to salary and compensation for IT employees

Individually, within the parameters of employee satisfaction,

large firms do comparatively better in work culture and image; expectedly, niche

companies do better in salary and job content, and there is a mix when it comes

to appraisal. When you go to the sub parameters, the large firms do better on

corporate governance, and honesty and integrity, while small companies do better

in the day-to-day working culture related parameters.

The Industry Fares Better



Rankings apart, what comes as good news for the entire industry, is that at
the industry level, the overall employee satisfaction score has gone up to 8.0

(on a scale of ten) from last years 7.8. This is in contrast to 2006, when

the score had actually gone down.

This is heartening, in the midst of controversies and criticism.

In fact, the satisfaction levels have gone up in five broad parametersjob

content (8.1 versus 7.8 in last year), work culture (8.4 versus 8.1 last year),

training (8.4 versus 8.1 last year), appraisal (7.2 versus 6.9), and people (8.4

versus 8.2). It has gone down in twocompany image (7.7 versus 8.2) and salary

(6.7 as compared to 6.8). Salary also happens to be the factor about which

employees are least satisfied.

Attrition Blues



Ask any BPO companys CEO or HR manager about his or her biggest
challenge, and attrition is what theyll say. The industrys biggest demon

is rampant attrition, with scores of BPO companies looking for talent, BPO

professionals are in hot demand; and often these fresh out of college graduates

hop from one job to another, till they can hop no more. With each jump, the

package goes up by as much as 20%.

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.

Stress Factors



BPO differs from IT in a significant way about how the employees are stressed.
While in the IT industryor for that matter, in any industrythere are

work-related stress, in BPO, many of the top stress factors are not

work-related.

Take for example the Stress Factor #1: Travel Time. With BPO

firms, employing huge number of employees, usually situated in the

outskirts/suburbs of city (ie, Gurgaon/Noida in NCR; Whitefield in Bangalore),

most employees who stay in the city have to travel a long time before they can

reach office for work and reach home after working. Since the jobs are usually

not in the normal work hours of India, and thanks to Indias state of public

transport, most companies provide door-to-door pick-up and drop services, often

managed by very sophisticated custom-built software tools. But for someone who

is picked up first, she will have to pick up a few colleagues before she can

head for the office. Sometimes that becomes two hours, if one adds to the

traffic in the Malad road in Mumbai or Delhi-Gurgaon road in Delhi. This is not

directly related to work. Yet, many companies spend a lot of their management

time and energy on this, realizing that this is a big stress factor. IBM Daksh,

for example, is starting a transportation Centre of Execelllence (CoE) to devise

solutions. That is the level of worry!

Source: DQ-IDC BPO E-Sat Survey 2007

Sleeping and digestive system disorders are common with night working and stress at job. But depression is also becoming a major issue

Similarly, work timing is something based on which this industry

exists. There is very little the industry can do to sort this out. Insufficient

holidays reflect more the type of people who work in the industrythe young

fresh college graduates. The real work related stressWork Loadcomes at #4.

Health issues, as a stress factorwhich comes at #6is

becoming a real issue. While the health ministers remark that started a big

controversy on thismay be exaggerated, twenty-something employees citing

health as a stress factor is, nevertheless, a reason to worry. The good part is

that the industry is sensitized to this, and large companies are taking real

measuressometimes to the extent of checking and controlling air quality;

testing food in labsto curb this.

Health Issues



While companies are taking good measures, we decided to check the health
issues that employees feel they are facing. The E-SAT Survey data reveal that

sleeping disorder, digestive system related disorder, eye sight problem, severe

stomach-related problem, and depression are the top five ailments afflicting BPO

employees.

Insomnia is the most common of the ailments and mostly affects

the agent or CRE-level employees, as manager and senior TLs mostly have flexible

timings or at the least take the weekends off. Digestive ailments figure

prominently on the list after sleeping-related ones. Not surprisingly, as most

of the employees are eating at odd hours and, eating not-wholesome food, from

medu vadas at 4 am to American chopsuey at 7 pm. Junk food has, more or less,

replaced wholesome meals for BPO employees.

According to one physician, BPO employees are increasingly

becoming obese and that would result in many more health hazards like Diabetes

(type 2), high blood pressure, and even heart-related ailments.

The other worrying ailments that have increased over the years

are psychological ones like depression and anxiety. Indeed, BPO employees are

well versed with panic or anxiety attacks, and often have friends or colleagues

who have been victims of the same. The survey has also, for the first time,

collected data on back pain. This year, close to 2.34% complained about

persistent and niggling back issues. Most of the BPO companies have a doctor

on-board, but he or she is usually in a reactive mode, ie, if you have an

ailment while at work, you could consult him or her.

A few companies seem to have woken up to the issues. Take the

case of e4e for instance, it keenly promotes flexible timing as a means of

lessening stress. It has also made it mandatory for managers to ensure that

their juniors are taking at least a week off annually, while a lot many have

tied up with local gymnasiums and health centers, offering heavy discounts to

employees.

The good thing is that health- and stress-related statistics has

more or less remained constant over the past few years, hence, there isnt

much to worry about. But a spike is not necessarily an indicator of a problem,

constancy itself is a big issue as well. When you are running a high

temperature, the big problem is if it does not come down, not whether it keeps

going up, isnt it?

The Endnote



It is probably apt to end the story with a clarification about the survey
itself that probably tells a story. Employee satisfaction is, no doubt, utmost

in both IT and BPO industries, as they both require satisfied employees to do

well.

Yet, when it comes to participation in a survey like this, the

reactions of two industries are diametrically opposite. IT industry is keen and

excited. So much so that our phones do not stop ringing two weeks before the

issue is released, enquiring about the rankings. In BPO, many of the large

companies did not participate, as you can well see from the list.

The explanationand that, we must clarify does not come from

the surveycould be that BPO employers have assumed that since many employees

are young and would want to leave for higher studies, there is no point trying

to take attrition head on. They would rather focus on creating more efficient

recruitment organizations than try to retain employees for a long time. A few

exceptions like Genpact and all specialized firms that can give a career to

their employees have a different approach. But, it seems, they are a minority.

As most BPO firms owned by IT firms integrate more tightly with

their parents (Nipuna changed its name recently to Satyam BPO and Euinox will

soon become i-flexBPO), hopefully this will change for the industry.

Shashwat DC





shashwatc@cybermedia.co.in



Graphix: Paras Jain