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An industry, which started with basic data entry tasks over a decade ago, is witnessing an
expansion in its scope of services. It now offers services such as knowledge process outsourcing
(KPO), legal process outsourcing (LPO), games process outsourcing (GPO) and design
outsourcing, among others. It continues to grow in scale and scope, with firms increasingly
adopting a vertical-focused approach. The industry has contributed significantly to the Indian
economic growth in terms of GDP, foreign exchange earnings and employment generation.
National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM)-the apex body for
software services in India-has recently released a publication - Strategic Review 2010 - the
ITBPO sector's revenue as a proportion of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) has
grown from 1.2 per cent in 1998-99 to an estimated 6.1 per cent in 2010-11. Further, NASSCOM
predicts that the Indian IT-BPO revenues may touch US$ 225 billion by 2020.

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The Indian BPO industry has been changing rapidly over the last few years and our clients no
more expect us to do only simple rule based work or give canned responses to the end customers.
The expectations now, are for us to make judgmental calls and decisions, execute end-to-end
processes, complete a sale process with a customer, ensure compliance to the regulations and
internal policies, ensure loyalty of the end customer, etc. The client now expects us to help them
with achieving their end goals of growth, profitability, brandbuilding, new market and product
entry, standardisation, certification, etc. This necessitates us to have a different type of workforce
as compared to what we had in the past. The challenges are to upskill the existing staff to meet
with the new expectations; to find staff with good understanding of an industry like banking,
healthcare, telecom, etc and to find staff who are willing to take this job as a part of their career
build-up as compared to a job just to make some money.
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The industry has grown quickly and continues to be on a strong growth trajectory; therefore,
manpower challenges continue to be at the heart of business challenges. Being prepared for 2011
and beyond will require robust resourcing and talent management strategies to ensure the right
people are attracted and retained.
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I think the major challenge is going to be the availability of quality manpower. For Tier 2-like
locations, I would even keep quantity/numbers as the major challenge. Employee retention will
be the key to minimise the manpower crunch in the ITeS industry.
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TheITeS industry is an early indicator of the health of the US/UK economy since they are the
industry's largest volume client base. There are indications that those economies may show some
signs of improvement. The challenge for the industry will be to make sure we are prepared to
grab the opportunity while it exists - this has to be in terms of infrastructure and human
resources.
 
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This is a prime agenda in all ITeS companies and Intelenet is no different. At Intelenet, we focus
on providing careers versus jobs. There is a huge focus on providing internal job opportunities to
employees and lateral and vertical movements are encouraged across business units, departments
and geographies. Forums like 'I CARE' and post orientation feedback, not to forget the annual
employee satisfaction survey, affords employees a chance to openly share their feedback on any
aspect and their involvement in action planning is also ensured to address any concerns.
Fun at the workplace through company wide and process specific events keep the young
professionals at Intelenet quite charged up. These include exhibition matches, talent hunts and
various other competitions. Involving employees in planning and running these events also lends
them a chance to build social skills. Work-life balance is provided through company transport,
24 X 7 cafeteria, concierge, gymnasium and other facilities. We also boast of a counselor and
nutritionist on site. $ c4Rigorous retention strategies are a permanent requirement for all
companies. However, it is not only important to look at your retention strategies, but also
attraction strategies. Making sure you have the right people in the right job is a great predictor of
job satisfaction. In addition, measuring and understanding employee engagement through
focused employee opinion surveys is a critical factor in the development of your retention
strategies. This will ensure that you are focused on the real issues that matter to your employees
and that you understand these issues before it is too late i.e. at the exit interview! cc
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4At EtechInc, we do a lot of unique activities that help us in retaining our workforce.
We have loads of financial and non-financial activities running every month. We do an 'Etech
Mart' where our employees use their 'Etech currency' deposits for three months to buy gifts, etc.
for their families. I always feel if employees are continuously developing their skills, they will
think twice before leaving. It is all about the value addition, which ITeS companies have to bring
now to retain their employees - it's just like winning new businesses. * 4Recently,
Infosys and a few other companies increased the notice period for separation to three months to
make it difficult for employees to leave. Motif has introduced an 'Earn and Learn' initiative
where the company sponsors an employees' higher education (a two or a four year
degree/diploma, MBA). In addition to a job, companies can focus on the overall development of
their workforce by involving them in event planning and participation, leadership training and
development, etc.

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The ITeS industry is growing at an alarming rate and the need for good talent is the key focus.
Simultaneously, while the industry is creating several job opportunities, the need to source the
best talent is inevitable. One can see that the war for talent is not just confined to the ITeS
industry but all over. The industry is largely dependant on the source of new talent - the several
educational institutions around the country, and if the academia is able to simultaneously supply
the right talent at the entry level, all will certainly get a fair share as India has an abundant supply
of talent. $ c4The war for talent always existed. It drives competition in the industry, which
promotes innovative thinking and new ways of doing things, which is really healthy for the
industry. However, collaboration and good practice sharing in the industry and closer alliances
with educational establishments will drive that innovation to the next level. cc
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4I strongly feel that each and every player in this segment has to come closer and act as
catalysts for each other's growth. Once manpower sees every player coming closer, they do feel
the heat of not having jobs in case they switch over too many times. I feel a better understanding
should be in place between all players to ensure everyone grows. This will keep non-serious
manpower away, thereby improving the bottom-line for organisations as their hiring and training
costs will reduce. * 4The war for good talent is a universal phenomenon in most
industries. For an industry, I am not sure if there is such a term as 'fair share'. We are a
capitalistic economy doing business with clients in similar economies, so I am not sure of the
term 'sharing' in this regard, sounds more like a socialistic approach and we've seen that has not
worked yet!
 
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The main challenge in a BPO industry is to attract, retain and engage employees and HR
managers need to do this well. The workforce and supervisory staff, being young and sometimes
limited by a silo approach, HR needs to ensure that policies are well articulated, understood and
followed uniformly, career paths & opportunities are well implemented, supervisors are being
groomed to guide their people with more maturity, employees are being listened to and
initiatives are designed to provide people ways to learn, bond and relax. One of the key
responsibilities of HR is to ensure that line managers start wearing an HR hat and become an
extended arm and ambassador for HR initiatives.
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In reality, the challenge is not restricted to HR professionals as the challenge of attracting and
retaining talent is a very real business issue that affects all departments and functions. For human
resource professionals, the key is to work very closely with the operations leaders, other
corporate functions and external networks to ensure innovative practices are developed and
effectively deployed at every level.
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Employee satisfaction and employee retention are going to be the major challenges for HR
managers in the days to come in the ITeS industry. I think HR has to become the epicenter of all
activities taking place in the organisation instead of just being a facilitator. They have to relate
more and much better with their people and have to have a very strong understanding of each
and every process in place. This will help them in bringing more cohesion between the
workforce and management. I always say that it is not monetary benefits, which retain most of
the people; instead it is the relationship between them and their leaders, which actually helps.
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The new generation workforce is demanding and quite high on their aspirations. They want a
workplace that offers a good environment, fair salary, an opportunity to grow and at the same
time, one that helps them maintain a work-life balance. Hence, all ITeS companies look at
various ways to address these aspects. The other way is by ensuring interface with students on
campus and through job fairs as these enable a lot of industry myths to be dispelled. Diversity is
managed by hiring experienced as well as freshers, men and women, graduates, undergraduates
as well as people with specific vertical experience across all parts of the border. There is also an
effort to have parttime workers versus fulltime professionals and some have also gone ahead and
created jobs for handicapped and the physically-disabled.
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Generation Y, as we now know it to be, are modern, casual, technology-savvy and lifestyle-
driven. Longterm careers and stability are less of a priority than personal growth and worklife
balance. Generation Y are looking for work environments that are less formal and promote
diversity. Organisations will need to adapt to the dynamics of Generation Y and foster
environments that promote those values. Ultimately, this will also ensure the workplace reflects
the community it operates in, which is naturally diverse.
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At Etech, we invest lot of resources and money in training our workforce - be it at a
representative level or leadership level. Managing the current workforce is a challenging task
especially when most of them fall into the age bracket of 18-25 years. This crowd always looks
for challenges and continuous learning. Challenges can be overcome by providing them new
opportunities and growth options within the organisation. This strategy keeps them going strong
thereby creating a loyal workforce for the organisation. We allow our leadership to differ and
share their differences with each other as that helps create a robust platform of having a diverse
workforce with greater ease.
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The new generation work-force is more connected than I can ever imagine. Any news about one
company gets transmitted to the entire industry fraternity in a matter of minutes. The news
papers cover it almost 12 to 15 hours later! So, this intelligent and aspiring workforce can only
be managed with complete transparency and openness. There has to be trust between the
ITeSorganisations and the new generation workforce. This can only happen with a high degree
of professionalism and valuedriven conduct. Values can't change in adversity and over time.
There has to be a correlation between action and talk. It all has to start from the leader though.
* 4HR managers need to do three primary things in my opinion. First and foremost, they
have to understand and align themselves to the company's vision and values. If those values
conflict with their personal values, it becomes a challenge. They have to be passionately driving
that message in their thought and action. Second, HR managers should develop an operational
focus. They need to understand the product they are supporting, the challenges they face, the
demands of their jobs - overtime hours, stringent productivity and quality targets, working in
shifts, etc. And of course, understand the joys of the job - a customer complement after a hard
day's work should be celebrated with the extended team; it energises the team - another joy is
interacting with customers worldwide, on the latest technologies and most importantly, how
customers worldwide share the same simple objectives - they want plain simple honest customer
service. Third, there is a complete paradigm shift in the way HR has to think and operate in this
emerging industry. Instead of command and control role as in a manufacturing set up where HR
is not allowed on the shop floor, in the ITeS industry, HR has to collaborate with employees with
a smile and interact with them continuously in-person and through different ways that include
social media channels as well.