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VOLUME-I ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2011

EDITORIAL RETAINING
Retention
As the jobs market opens up, there are THE
many opportunities that can lure
employees away from their present
organisations. HR managers find retaining
employees a more difficult task than
TRAINED
scouting for new talent. India Inc is using
several measures to retain its employees.
Opportunities Galore
WORKFORCE
Candidates seeking jobs in the BPO
industry have no dearth of options. The
industry is mature and offers vacancies at
both, customer service level and support
functions. While, majority of the openings
are for tele-operators/callers, there is a
large number of job postings for support
functions as well. Some of these are for
technical/process training and operations.
Events Round-up For 60% of HR managers, retention is a bigger
With HR managers taking an active role in
building business capabilities, events such challenge than skills crunch
as the recently concluded Bangalore HR
summit 2010 helps in preparing the HR Hiring is on the rise but problems with available talent pool still
professionals. The Indus Business Academy continue. Skills are at a premium and extremely hard to find in
and Delhi Management Association almost every industry. Furthermore, retaining the current Is retention a
conducted a national conference focused employees is an uphill task for HR managers across industries. In
on opportunities and challenges related to a poll conducted by TJinsite, 60% of HR managers responded that bigger
women entrepreneurship. TJinsite brings
you the highlights of these major HR
for them, retention is a bigger challenge than skills crunch. challenge than
India Inc is taking several initiatives to provide growth
events concluded in December 2010.
opportunities to current employees - training being on top of the skills shortfall?
Poll Vault agenda. Problem arises when by the time an organisation trains an
Our polls have revealed that candidates, employee, he/she shifts jobs. Other than monetary investment,
when applying for middle-level positions, time and effort is also involved in training an employee. To arrest YES
consider skills as a more important asset attrition many organisations, especially IT companies, are moving
than level and relevancy of experience. A
higher proportion of the employee
toward contracts/bonds. 60%
Hiring itself is composed of many challenges – hiring new
population is willing to risk their secure
jobs for a career of their interest/choice. employees (considering that HR managers are struggling with
skills shortfall) and soaring expectations of the workforce being
Expert Opinion some of them. Offering a steep pay hike may ensure getting people NO
Our expert on the BPO industry shares his on board quickly, but does not guarantee a long stint with the
view on the attrition problem and
retention techniques prevalent in the
organisation. It is the non-monetary benefits that give an
organisation the extra edge over competition. According to
40%
industry. industry experts, while monetary measures do help in controlling
attrition, it is not a long-term sustainable measure, since an
organisation cannot continue paying above industry standards to
Inside Insite all employees.
n Jobs in BPO Page 2 A series of polls and surveys conducted by TJinsite revealed that
though attrition is a problem and companies are focusing energies
n Hiring Survey Page 3-4 on retention, they are largely hiring for business expansion. The
n Events Page 5 industry is initiating various measures to provide growth
opportunities to employees. Organisations are engaging employees
n Poll Vault Page 6
through regular in-house trainings, employee appreciation
n News Bytes Page 7 programs, and fun-at-work initiatives. Overall, employee
n Interview Page 8 engagement through training and recreation is the buzz word for
corporates, to deal with attrition.

Do you have an idea you want to voice or have an opinion about industry trends?
TJinsite would love to hear from you. Write in to feedback@timesjobs.com
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VOLUME-I ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2011

Jobs in demand
BPO is one of the industries where attrition rates are very high. In fact, the recently concluded ET-TimesJobs.com
Skills Dialogue, focusing on the BPO industry had CXOs from the industry voicing their struggle to retain employees.
The common perception that BPO is a ‘stop-gap’ opportunity leads to candidates shifting job and moving to other
industries. But the opportunities for growth are immense in the BPO industry - not only in customer service but in
other support functions as well. BPO is not just confined to telecalling, it is a service-focused industry with
departments and functionalities similar to other industries. TimesJobs.com, courtesy its robust database, brings you a
breakdown of the job postings by areas of specialisation during Nov-Dec 2010 in the BPO industry. Customer services
take the top spot with 58 per cent job postings. Other support functions in the BPO industry stand at 42 per cent with
maximum jobs in technical/process training (34%) and operations (20%).

4
7
42 34
58 Technical/Process Training
9 Operations
Telemarketing
Back-end/Transactions
Customer Service 9 Processing
(Voice + Web)
Sales
Support Functions
Front Office/Administration/
Maintenance
Recruitment

20 Figures in %

17

… You belong to us
Employee engagement through training-based programs and cultural initiatives is the mantra that India Inc is
banking on to retain its talent. The rate of attrition is highest at executive and manager levels. The expectations of
this group are very high - ranging from good salary packages to impressive job profiles/designations. Giving a salary
hike can be a short term means to hold an employee to an organisation. To offer employees a sustainable career,
providing opportunity for growth by way of trainings and recognition of employee achievements are considered as
more effective measures. A dynamic succession planning, strong engagement focus and building a sense of belonging
helps in controlling attrition to a greater extent.

INDUSTRY VOICES
“Attrition is highest at
fresher level as these
employees are easily lured
by even a small hike in
compensation. We try to
build a culture of
development, fun and
engagement as this cannot
be easily matched by a
competitor.”
Vinod Nair
Head - HR,
Mahindra & Mahindra
Financial Servies Ltd
“At Taurus we focus on
employee development
and career planning.
Having a successor in most
key jobs is of utmost
importance. Our focus is to
constantly build this talent
pipeline, ensuring the
organisation has a ready
talent pool.”
Deepali Dholepatil
Head- HR & Administration
Taurus Asset
Management Co Ltd
“To retain talent we try to
ensure that teams spread
across geographies meet at
least once a year to share
their experiences.
Constant performance
feedback and one-on-one
sessions with company HR
and immediate supervisors
are also effective.”
Praveen S Nair
DGM Human Resource,
Datamatics Staffing
Services Pvt Ltd
“To start with hiring the
right person for the job
makes things much easier.
We constantly track
employee’s achievements
and chart out their
growth plans. Managing
high performer’s growth,
aspirations and
recognition is significant
to retention.”
Nandni Bhatnagar
HR Manager,
Arrk Group

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VOLUME-I ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2011

ANALYTICS
The Business Needs It
Y
Corporates today are mainly hiring for businees expansion. Attrition is a D OL OG
HO
problem but hiring is for more productive reasons MET
New Business / Project Attrition

C
orporates today are
mainly hiring for
business expansion.
Attrition is a problem but
hiring is for more productive 28 21
reasons.
According to the survey
approximately 80% of all
organisations are hiring for 51 The insights and analysis
business expansion or new provided by TJinsite is based
business projects. Attrition is on the data collected from
a problem but companies are
Figures in % job seekers, employers and
initiating programs to attend Business Expansion industry experts through
to this issue. As corporates
personal interviews,
want to focus on positives, reasons. In the BPO sector, hiring due to attrition,
telephonic interviews,
they are hiring for productive almost 30% said that they were vis-à-vis 20% in other sectors.
mailers, online polls and
surveys.

Attrition Still Dogs the BPO Sector l The TJ research team

runs polls on TimesJobs.com
to capture information from
In BPOs hiring is maximum at fresher level; so is attrition. One reason is that this over 3 lakh unique job
set of workforce is easily lured by slight hike in compensations seekers visiting
TimesJobs.com daily. Data is
Cadidate with 2-5 Freshers – 0-2 years of also collected from 3.5 lakh

I
n the BPO industry hiring
is highest at the fresher
level and so is attrition.
One reason is that this set of
workforce is easily lured by
even a slight hike in salary.
The reason why this is so is
not far to seek. In the BPO and
Knowledge Outsourcing
industries, nearly 60% of the
companies are hiring freshers,
whereas this proportion is
about half in the other
industries. Freshmen as a
group are far more prone to
job hopping in an industry
where demand (given that
100% of them are hiring)
seems to be greater than
supply.
In all other sectors, the
demand is for people with at
years of experience
30
12
Cadidate with 5-10 years of experience
least 3-5 years of experience or
more. This is in line with the
finding that for nearly 80% of
the organisations, business
expansion or business projects
are the reasons for hiring.
Experience and familiarity
experience
58
Figures in %
with the business process is
critical in these areas and
recruiting and training
freshers to take on the mantle
of an executive level position
would not work for companies
in these industries.
HR professionals, registered
on TimesJobs.com, through
telephonic interviews and
online polls and surveys
l Results of polls and
interviews are corroborated
by analysing the vast data-
base that TimesJobs.com
maintains and updates
regularly
l A final round of data and
information check is
undertaken by surveying job
seekers across the
recruitment industry
l The data is also vetted by
industry experts who check
for aberrations and
discrepancies at the macro
level

Hiring on a high across industries. We hire to expand!

of the employers surveyed said
51% that they are hiring for business
expansion.

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VOLUME-I ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2011

SURVEY
The Competitive Edge: Internal or
ES
External Resources? NOT
Most organisations prefer to develop their in-house talent rather than opt for
resources from outside

C
learly, organisations Getting external Utilisation of internal
prefer to use their resources resources
internal resources to
give themselves a competitive
edge. 70% of the organisations
across industries prefer to use 30 70
internal resources over hiring
outside help in the form of
consultants or others. While
hiring is on the rise, the
problems with the talent pool
available still continue. To
work out the problem of skills
shortage, corporates are
Figures in %
resorting to training as a
means of providing growth
opportunities to employees Many organisations have succession plans to utilise the
and to retain them. evolved career progression/ internal resources optimally.

Sources of Hiring
Online recruitment portals are the most preferred source of hiring across
industries
Recruitment Social/ Professional
Networking Sites

O
n an average, Portals
recruitment portals
Print
seem to be the most
popular source for hiring of
6 7
resources, followed by both
recruitment agencies and
36
word-of-mouth. However, this
changes drastically when 4
analysed by industry type. 24 23
Print is the most popular
source among the IT Job
Fairs
companies, 63% of them said
that they rely on print media.
Recruitment
Among the other industries,
Figures in % Agencies
the BFSI favours word-of- Reference/ Word of mouth
mouth and the CRMs/Call
Centres/BPOs favour
recruitment agencies. recruitment portals come of the respondents stating that
Among all sectors, second, with between 30-40% they use these portals.

Thumbs up for recruitment portals

of the employers voted recruitment
36% portals as the preferred hiring
channel

4
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VOLUME-I ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2011

EVENTS
Bangalore HR Summit 2010 DAR
EN
December 10 & 11, 2010 at Bangalore
CAL
Organised by Institute of Human Resources Development (IHRD)

Dynamics, USA,
highlighted that the
decision-making
styles of most
successful
executives differ Upcoming Events
dramatically from Talent Acquisition,
the decision-
Engagement &
making styles of
the least successful Retention Conclave
executives. 21 January 2011,
There were six West End Hotel, Mumbai
technical sessions. Organised by NHRDN in
Dr Winston Jacob, Association with GDGWI
Vice President,
University of Retail Leadership
The HR Summit had over 250 delegates Lifelong learning, Papua New Guinea, in his Summit 2011
representing several countries including India, presidential address emphasised that India has
Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa and
20 - 21 January 2011
to be a participatory country in the world power
Middle East. The summit deliberated on the and not just an on-looker. The HR summit Jamshed Bhabha Theatre,
theme “Building Business Capability through concluded with participants unanimously NCPA, Mumbai
HR.” Delivering the keynote address adopting a declaration to promote the role of Organised by RAI
Dr Kenneth R Brousseau, CEO, Decision HR in building business capabilities.
ERA 2011: Kolkata
National Conference
National Conference on Women 'Empowering The
Entrepreneurship Educated Unemployed'
14 January 2011
December 16, 2010 at New Delhi Hotel Hindustan
International,
Organised by The Indus Business Academy (IBA) in partnership with Delhi
Organised by ERA
Management Association (DMA)

The first session on “Women Entrepreneurship -

The National Conference captured the essence of this positive
trend and paved the way forward for women entrepreneurs in
India. The conference had four sessions focusing on various
dimensions of women entrepreneurship.
Importance and Imperatives” raised many
questions about women’s role in society, “Why is it
that inspite of 500 million women, only 5% of
them appear in the board of directors of
companies and only 10% hold top positions?”
The second session “Challenges and Opportunities
Women Entrepreneurship: A Road Map to Start”
was chaired by Dr Anup Kalra, CEO, Ayurvet
Research. It highlighted some of the common
challenges faced by women, “Women are
constantly faced by challenges such as limited
mobility, lack of seed finance, commitments to
home and family as well as prejudices at work.”
The third session on “Functional Issues in
Entrepreneurship: Perspective of Finance, HR and
Marketing” discussed the technical issues related
to women entrepreneurship.
The final session highlighted some of the success stories of
well-known women entrepreneurs, who illustrated their
journey enthusiastically.

5
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VOLUME-I ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2011

Poll Vault Current Poll

Salary revisions are based on?
g Years of experience
g Performance reviews
g Recommendations
g
Professional certifications

To take the poll log on to http://hire.timesjobs.com

What is the most important factor while hiring for

mid-level positions?
TJinsite, the knowledge centre of
TimesJobs.com, conducted a poll to
comprehend what the job seekers
consider their most important asset
while applying for middle level positions.
Skills emerged as the most important
asset, while level and relevancy of
experience came at a distant second. It
was also found that job seekers consider
brand name of previous employers a
minimal advantage.
Previous polls and surveys conducted by
TJinsite focusing on HR managers’
perspective tell a similar story. HR
managers across industries give
maximum value to relevant skills while
recruiting for middle level managers.
Though candidates did not give much
weight to educational qualifications, HR
managers think of it as a key criterion
while recruiting for mid level positions.

Relevant Skills 44%

Industry Experience 22%
Years of Experience 21%
Educational Qualifications 9%
Previous Employer
4%

Will you risk your secure job for a career of your

interest/choice?
Fresh out of a recession, employees have
mixed feelings about opting for a career
of interest at the expense of leaving a
secure job. A recent study conducted by
TJinsite, the knowledge centre of
TimesJobs.com, revealed that although
60 per cent of the employees are willing
to risk their secure jobs to follow a career
of their choice, rest are still
apprehensive.
The results also reflect that employees
are now confident of the economy and
are ready to take bold steps. However, a
large part of the employee population is
still anxious. This section of population
is ready to compromise on their dream
job and look for opportunities to grow
within their current organisations
rather than switch jobs. These employees
are thus emphasising on trainings for
career growth.

Yes 60%
No 40%

6
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VOLUME-I ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2011
N E W S
The war for talent is back
IT’s a known fact that the economy is once again on a growth
trajectory. But amidst all the optimism that is dominating India
Inc currently, the war for talent is gaining momentum warn
experts. In terms of hiring, India Inc seems to have come back
to where it was two years ago. In the new economy, competition
has gone global, capital is abundant, ideas are developed
quickly and people are willing to change jobs more frequently.
Another high point is the dearth of employable talent. So, on
one hand, there are more jobs in the market and people are
changing jobs more often and on the other, organisations are
facing a shortage of employable talent.
n The Times of India, Nov 2010
Tech hiring to hit record highs
WITH campus recruitments by technology companies only
weeks away, early indicators suggest that this year
recruitments may touch a historic high. Top Indian technology
majors including TCS, Infosys and Wipro will alone recruit
close to one lakh engineers, if not more. Back-of-the-envelope
analysis, coupled with stated recruitment plans of the IT
biggies, show that December-January will be action-packed at
engineering college campuses, not to mention the impact that
MNC biggies like Accenture and IBM will have.
n The Times of India, Nov 2010
Big pay days are back for chief executives in India
CEOs are now moving from one sector to another more
frequently, say headhunters, and are negotiating more than just
salary. Stock options, performance-linked incentives, cash
incentives and long-term payouts are now discussed more than
just basic salary. Sign-on bonus amounts are also on the rise.
One candidate apparently negotiated –and got – a sign-on bonus
of Rs 40 lakh apart from annual compensation of Rs 65 lakh.
n The Times of India, Nov 2010
7
B Y T E S
Google, HP raising compensation to retain
employees
SOME of the leading technology companies such as Google, are
raising the compensation for its employees, which also reflects
the entities’ improving business performance. A newspaper
reported that some of the world’s largest technology firms are
lifting pay rates apart from taking other measures to retain
employees. This also reflects improved performance in the
companies’ businesses and heightened competition for workers
with the right experience, the report added.
n The Economic Times, Dec 2010
Job figure rises by 13 lakh in one year, IT/
BPO top list
THE overall employment figure in the country rose by 12.96
lakh during the last one year with the IT/BPO sector creating
maximum jobs. The figures were compiled from quarterly
surveys conducted by the Labour Bureau (under the Labour
and Employment Ministry) between September 2009 and
September 2010. According to the survey, the IT/BPO sector
created 8.54 lakh jobs. The textiles sector was next with 1.52
lakh new jobs during this period. This was followed by the
metals sector and automobile sector.
n The Economic Times, Dec 2010
Talent Energy
WITH India set to house the world’s largest working population
by 2030, the question of demographic dividend is at the centre
of the discourse in India’s growth story. If more Indians turn
skilled in future, they would be employable which in turn
would create savings, investments and ultimately growth. But
if India’s population continues to rise and the government fails
to create a skilled talent pool, it would lead to a dangerous
cocktail.
n The Economic Times, Dec 2010
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VOLUME-I ISSUE 3, JANUARY 2011

SANJAY GUPTA,
Global Head, HR,

HOLD THEM TIGHT EXL Service

RV IEW
Realising that the BPO industry is one of the worst hit by attrition, TJinsite spoke to INTE
Mr Sanjay Gupta, Global Head – Human Resource, EXL Service to understand the
mantras that the company follows to retain its top talent.

As Global Head of Human Resources, Sanjay Gupta is responsible for developing and implementing EXL's
human resources strategy to support the company's business objectives. Prior to assuming this role, Sanjay
was the Senior Vice President and Head of Human Resources for the Outsourcing Business at EXL.
Sanjay joined EXL in 2000 and since then, has held several senior leadership roles in human resources and
client operations. Sanjay has 24 years of experience in the areas of operations management, finance and
human resource functions.
Before EXL, Sanjay was with American Express at their Financial Center in India. He has also worked with
India Today and Indian Oil Corporation in their accounting and corporate finance functions. Sanjay is a
qualified Chartered Accountant.

Is employee attrition a problem for
your company? If yes, then which
level is most affected?
Attrition is a very big concern for
everyone. Across the industry, the voice
segment faces maximum attrition.
Customer service, claims processing or
collections are services that continue to
be highly prone to attrition. Within the
voice segment, attrition is acute at the
entry level.
What is the primary reason for high
attrition at the entry level?
There are two main reasons - firstly,
many new joinees in the voice segment
continue to look at their employment as
a ‘commodity’ and consider the BPO job
as a stop-gap opportunity.
Also, since most of the BPO services
require language skills, many job-
seekers in this industry are from high
class schools and belong to the middle or
upper-middle strata of the society. These
young executives do not consider their
BPO job very seriously and are agnostic
to the company. They are willing to
switch companies as soon as they find a
slightly better paying job.
Secondly, with the economy growing
rapidly, employability factor linked to
industry has declined . Earlier, people
would join an industry and serve it till
retirement. But the new generation does
not give high value to loyalty.
The perception of BPO as a stop-gap
career arrangement is one of the
reasons leading to high attrition
rates. What is being done to arrest
this problem?
Companies across industries, including
EXL Service, are taking several
initiatives such as developing a career
progression path to improving employee
perspective. NASSCOM has also initiated
knowledge and training programs for
the BPO industry. These programs help
to promote the industry to the job-
seekers and current employees.
What are some of the specific
initiatives taken by EXL Service to
retain employees and ensure a long-
term career?
EXL Service takes training very
seriously. We invest heavily in training
and focus not only on customer service
but also help our employees become
industry experts. For instance, an
employee engaged in the insurance
vertical is not only trained on customer
service, but is also trained on insurance
industry by certified institutes. This
helps in creating industry experts and
building a strong career for the
employees.
Apart from trainings, we frequently hold
leadership talks and regularly share
success stories of employees who stayed
with the company and went on to take-up
high positions. We also strongly believe
in job rotation for overall development.
Every employee is rotated after they
have completed three years in a
particular profile. This helps in breaking
the monotony of a job and enriching a
career.
Apart from developing a career path,
does providing monetary incentive
help in retaining employees?
Monetary incentives can never be an
effective tool in retaining an employee.
Monetary incentives are the easiest to
match. An employer can pay double the
industry standard but it can be matched
in three months by any competitor. EXL
Service does have a retention bonus but
it is a super specialty program. EXL
Service has a “Hypo-identification”
program to identify high potential
people. We do not want retention to be
tenure based. We would like to retain
highly skilled talent. Programs are thus
skewed towards high performers. These
employees are provided with benefits of
the next level, so an assistant manager
who is expected to become a manager
soon, is already offered benefits
applicable to the manager grade.
Finally as an advice to young
recruiters what would you say is the
best possible way to retain talent in a
BPO?
I would give a million dollars if
somebody could answer this question.
My personal opinion is that at the end of
the day an employee goes where his
heart tells him to go. You have to pull the
heart strings. You have to get people
emotionally bonded to the company. It is
similar to patriotism, nobody is given an
incentive to be patriotic but we all are
born patriotic. Companies need to create
a similar institute in a company, where
people share common feelings and a
sense of belonging. Companies should
keep their employees completely
engaged in the organisation. We should
let the employees know that their
contribution is significant to the
organisation and that the company
wants the employees to be with them.

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