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BPOs help staff cope with stress
Dated 17/1/2007 |
Blame the nature of the job, deadline pressure or customer expectations. BPO jobs undoubtedly involve high stress. Prashant Chawla, COO, Integreon, a Mumbai-based KPO, says that there are three types of stress an employee may experience — tight deadlines, repetitive nature of the job and late night shifts.
Aashu Calappa, VP-HR, ICICI OneSource, says, “Everything gets measured and this puts employees under pressure.” Companies are now making efforts to help their employees cope with stress because it is an occupational hazard. For example, night shifts are rotated on a regular basis. However, deadlines can’t be controlled.
Most of the BPOs arrange ‘feel good’ activities like an outdoor picnic or an official dinner once in three months. This helps employees talk to their senior management in an informal environment. Employees are also given recognition by being designated as ‘employee of the week’ and ‘employee of the month’. Vineet Mittal, president and MD, Stream, says that they conduct in-house workshops at frequent intervals in which employees play games and indulge in activities like dumb charades and scrabble. |
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Indians to train UK call centre executives
Dated 15/1/2007 |
Indian call centre experts are now training British workers on how to manage message-handling services. Britain’s first Indian-owned call centre has opened in Belfast, a total reversal of the trend of British firms opening call centres in the subcontinent to take the low cost advantage, according to a report in Britain’s Telegraph newspaper.
ICICI OneSource, which has 8,000 staff in India, aims to create 1,000 jobs in Northern Ireland over the next two years. The firm’s British clients come mainly from the financial and telecom industries. “This is not about moving work from India to the UK; it is about the growth and expansion of our business,” Matthew Vallance, the European MD of ICICI said.“People are very familiar with the Irish accent and we think it will work very well,” he added.
Under the professional guidance of Indian experts, the first batch of 60 employees in Belfast began a seven-week training course from Tuesday. Critics, however, say that the idea of Indians training the British call centre executives is unlikely to go well considering the past history.the past complained of long waits and difficulty in understanding accents. when dealing with companies relying on foreign call centres. |
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Nasscom test for BPO job seekers to start in Rajasthan
Dated 15/1/2007 |
Nasscom announced national rollout of Nasscom Assessment of Competence (NAC), a capability assessment programme for potential employees of the BPO industry, with Rajasthan slated to become the first state to administer the test.
“The test will be held in Jaipur and Ajmer on November 18, 2006. Statewise rollout will follow in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Chandigarh,” a Nasscom statement said.
NAC aims to address the issue of potential talent shortage by creating a robust pipeline of talent through a standard assessment and certification. NAC would provide insights into the training and development needs of talent and enable companies, governments and universities to develop customised talent development initiatives and programmes. It would help tap new talent pools in comparatively remote parts of the country, through a common assessment accessible to all.
About 2,000 candidates across various colleges are expected to take the test in Rajasthan.
Although the ITeS-BPO industry has been on a high-growth trajectory, clocking export revenues of $6.3 billion in 2005-06, a Nasscom-McKinsey report has cautioned that India may face a shortage of skilled workforce in the next decade unless corrective measures were put in place.
Currently, only about 25% of technical graduates and 10-15% of general college graduates are suitable for employment in the offshore IT and BPO industries, respectively.
Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said: “The rollout comes after a successful pilot completed in August 2005, through which 6,000 candidates were tested.We are hopeful that the NAC initiative will help provide skilled workforce through world-class testing and certification.” |
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