Turnover rates are high in the BPO sector. The figures are revealing: industry estimates that attrition rates hover around 40 per cent, with the top companies averaging 15 per cent. According to Nasscom, by 2012 the sector is likely to see a shortage of 250,000-plus professionals.
BPO is still a nascent industry, barring GE Capital most companies are less than five years old. But it is not a small one; the Top 15 BPO employers add up to 46,000. GE is almost as big as Infosys, and bigger than Wipro Technologies. Spectramind and the just over the two-years-old Convergys have more people than IBM, which has been in India for over a decade. The figures are booming still.
About 87 per cent of the workforce is below 30 years of age, consisting mostly of college graduates looking out for high-growth opportunities, super salaries and a great work environment.
Realisation creeps in at later stages that in actuality growth opportunities are not present for general souls; a small subgroup moves higher while others remain grounded. Being a young industry monetary growth is easy as someone is always willing to pay more. And environment doesn’t hold a constant charm if one is unsatisfied on other fronts.
Organisations spend heavily on training employees; individual turnover results in losing anywhere between many thousands and a few lakh of rupees. Still because of a shortage of skilled people, HR professionals cannot afford to be rigid about the stability factor.
However, companies are waking up to the fact that retaining employees is as important as hiring new talents. Most of the big BPOs are ready to sign, or in some cases have already signed, non-poaching agreements with competitors.
What it means is that soon the days of nomadic employees will be over. So, would the financial bargaining that a ‘quit’ notice usually draws from employers. The choice will be either to stabilise in one organisation or be jobless.
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