A fairytale with a ...not so happy ending?

BANGALORE: Call centers in India, have come as a boon for job-hunters. Ambitious young Indian graduates have done well pretending to be Americans or British and have landed roughly a lakh call center jobs. Most call centers offer decent money and a great work environment but does the call center executive have a "real" growth path to speak of?

Only one in hundred will make it to line/practice managers in a call center, says the BPO Employee Satisfaction survey 2003, Dataquest. "On an average, the growth rate is at about 5%. 5 out of every 100 employees make it to the next rung", says a job consultant.

A number of people join with the hope that six months down the line they will have moved up the career ladder. "I only saw this job as a stop-gap measure, before I found a better one. But this job and the grueling night shifts leave me with no time to pursue higher education or improve my technical skills", says an engineering graduate, working for Dell. A call center employee cannot take a tea-break at will — a luxury that is taken for granted in other industries.

There are serious burnout issues and dissatisfaction about career growth opportunities. Sleep disorders, depression and problems due to wearing earphones for long hours are the "accepted evils" of this industry.

Even if a candidate has the resilience to put up with the challenges, is it worth the trouble? "I plan to leave soon. I would have put up with the high stress-levels and the repetitive work if I had a promising growth path ahead, but I don’t see that", says an employee of 24/7 Customer.

"I don’t know why people don’t realize it, but call centers are the intellectual equivalent of strip-mining of India’s brightest youth. You are taking potentially productive young people not letting them skill themselves and burning them out in call centers. You are going to kill off the very people who would have made the next Indian revolution happen", said Paul Saffo, technology forecaster and futurist, in an earlier report on CIOL.

"Young, aspiring graduates between 21-28 can apply", scream full-page advertisements in National dailies. This "age bar" is turning to a dead end for some. "I joined when I was 26 and I have been here for a year. No promotions in sight for me, and I will soon run out of options if I don’t move to another industry altogether", says an employee of Dell.

Much of the attrition problems that plague the BPO industry is also being attributed to companies’ "hire only below 28" policy. "The expectations of this age group is often unrealistic. More so with engineering graduates, who just join a call center in the hope of joining the software arm of the same company. When this does not happen, they are disappointed", says another job consultant.

Things, however, are just beginning to change. Several call centers have introduced higher-education programs. "We have launched Higher Education Scholarship Policy, which is an assistance program by way of a scholarship from ICICI OneSource to enable employees to pursue a higher education. All confirmed employees, who have completed 12 months in the organization, can avail of the policy", says Mr Aashu Calapa, VP HR, ICICI OneSource. Converygys promises to reimburse tuition fees for higher education courses availed at accredited institutions.

Some attempts at removing the age bar have been made. A couple of companies such as Msource and EXL service have announced that they will also recruit people above 35. Intelenet Global Services has announced that 5 percent of the workforce would be physically challenged people. "Some call centers also offer opportunities for part-time workers and housewives", says Sheena, HR consultant at Next.

Despite these claims of thrust on higher education and job rotation programs, the high attrition rates prove that the career aspirations of the call center executives are not being met. The booming BPO sector, which has done wonders for the Indian economy, needs to find answers to the problems and growing dissatisfaction among its young workforce.

CIOL Bureau