I had a very enjoyable chat yesterday with Vandana Saxena Poria, OBE, the CEO of GetThroughGuides.com (GTG) (you can listen to the podcast of this interview here). Vandana’s organisation recently conducted a study into the BPO space in association with the ACCA, looking at providers in Ireland, C/E Europe and India. We discussed the burden felt by BPO providers when recruiting from what often seems to be a relatively under-prepared and under-qualified talent pool – a burden then exacerbated by sky-high attrition rates. This is obviously a huge issue for even (especially?) the biggest players, and the findings of the GTG/ACCA study chimed with comments made to me earlier in the year by, among others, Genpact’s Pramod Bhasin and Amitabh Chaudhry of Infosys BPO, and Vandana was nothing if not forthright:
“It’s a major major problem, not just in India but around the world. Because attrition levels are so high; firms spend all this money training up these people in getting the right accents, giving them the right skills to deal with the IT or A/P or whatever function it is – and then within six months or a year that person’s left and gone on to the next center.”
There doesn’t seem to be any easy solution to this conundrum since even the most advanced state-sponsored education program wouldn’t pay immediate dividends, and the jobs in question themselves don’t exactly compete with those of Hollywood Star, Sporting Hero or Shared Services & Outsourcing Network Online Editor in the glamour stakes. However, in one of the few silver linings so far glinting out from the economic stormclouds, worries about the strength of the job market in India in particular are expected to put the brakes on the attrition rate as job-hoppers realise it might not be the most auspicious time to walk out on a job. Presumably the same will apply in Ireland, one of the other foci of the study, as that country’s economy enters what I’m pretty certain will be an Celtic economic Gotterdammerung. Or maybe Ragnarok. It’s hard to work out which it is when one’s so busy trying to dodge these tumbling heavens.
Less exciting and important an event than Vandana’s podcast it may be, but I suppose it’s worth pointing a weekend-y spotlight on the G20 summit about to take place in the US. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown (remember him? The man who abolished boom-and-bust?) spoke today in advance of the summit proper on the need to resist the temptation to assume protectionist policies: protectionism is apparently the “road to ruin” (although apparently there’s a shortcut involving alcoholism, gambling and infidelity which, let’s face it, sounds a lot more fun). This is all very well – but I’d love to be a fly on the wall for his next chat with President-elect Obama…
Brown: Protectionism is the road to ruin.
Obama: Who is this man? And what’s wrong with his jaw?
The BBC quoted Brown as saying “I think what we need is a route-map to bring the economy back, so that people feel more secure about their jobs, about their homes, about the prospects for the future” (prompting an immediate and passionate endorsement from the Committee for the Closing of the Stable Door after the Horse has Bolted). Forgive my temerity but what we actually need, Gordon, as well as a map, is a vehicle, some fuel and a navigator who wasn’t even a teensy-weensy bit responsible for getting us lost in the first place.
Have a good weekend people. It officially starts here.
Jamie
Tags: BPO, Outsourcing, Shared Services, SSON, Talent
