At Tech Mahindra, you can work and study too

Pankaj Maru

MUMBAI, INDIA: At a time when companies are vying for best brains, Tech Mahindra believes in creating the best brains by strenghtening their work skills.

Its unique education program helps undergraduate BPO staff to pursue graduation degrees to enhance their careers.

Tech Mahindra's Graduate Scholarship Program launched in 2010 is basically designed for undergraduate staff working in domestic BPO and it allows them to enroll in graduate degree courses in any accredited universities and colleges across India.

According to Rajeev Narang, Tech Mahindra's vice president — Human Resources for Business Services Group, the Graduate Scholarship Program has close links with company's BPO business.

“We actually started this program on August 15, 2010. The basic premise of this program was our BPO operations which we had started in 2006. We started with some business of British Telecom (BT) and also had got some business on the domestic BPO side,” Narang said.

“Due to our growing presence in the domestic BPO, we were hiring lots of staffs in 2008. Towards the end of 2008, while we were getting more and more of international domestic business, there was also this need to ensure that we strengthen our people in doing their jobs,” Narang added.

While Tech Mahindra was hiring undergraduate staffs during those years, Narang pointed out, the company felt the way industry was growing and the way undergraduate staff were being employed, probably there was a need to guide staffs and show them a career path for better future opportunities.

“Some of the staffs were coming from families which had financial, family or other issues and that led them to take up jobs and discontinue studies. So we thought of motivating them through an educational program and help them enhance their careers,” he added.

As per the program, the staffs have to undertake a three-year graduation course with any of accredited government colleges or universities in their locations. On completion of each year, the staff is required to submit mark sheet and subsequently, the company will reimburse course fees of Rs.5000.

However, there are no conditions imposed on the staffs to continue working with Tech Mahindra after the program ends. “That's the beauty of our program as there are no frills on the staffs enrolling for the program and hence it has got positive response and acceptance,” Narang said.

More so, after course completion, the staffs also get opportunities to move to higher level such as team leaders and take up higher responsibilities. The company has initiated internal communications to encourage more staffs to enroll for this program.

Since its initiation in 2010, around 1500 staffs have enrolled for it and it has helped company in addressing the attrition issue. According to Narang, the program has lowered the attrition rate. For instance, among the group enrolled for program the attrition is less than one-fourth of the overall attrition rate.

In the second quarter, Tech Mahindra has in all 13,000 staffs working in BPO, among which 9,000 staffs are working in the domestic and the rest are in international.