Exploring Current Openings in Domestic BPOs
Fluency in languages is the primary requirement for a BPO job. By fluency in languages, we most often mean English and maybe some foreign languages. While it is true that English and foreign languages get you the best BPO jobs and the highest pay-packages, regional languages can get you a good position too. Not all BPOs cater to international customers and also among those who do, there are requirements for the domestic sector.
BPOs know that all customers won’t be comfortable with English when it comes to communicating within India. In order to enhance customer services, BPOs have a team which caters to customers unwilling to speak in English. To handle the domestic sphere, a team of customer service executives are hired who communicate in regional languages. For such a profile, it is desirable to be fluent in more than one regional language including Hindi.
The demand is quite big and rewards offered are exciting. To check out a few openings, click here.
Introduce English but don’t Impose It
Andhra University has recently decided that students will no longer be allowed to write their exams in Telugu and have to use English. This decision has been troubling a significant section of the students and they are resorting to protests. However, the V.C, B. Satyanarayana is adamant on the issue of students using English. He reasons that the lack of English skills is the reason many students are falling behind in the competition and therefore, students should necessarily take to English.
While it is true that one of the primary reasons behind the failure of a lot of students to secure a good job is their inability to communicate efficiently in English, an University cannot take such a strong decision without implementing proper training and facilities for the students. A lot of students coming from a vernacular medium of education find it difficult to suddenly switch to English for higher studies. It is vital that the Universities recognize this problem and introduce courses or set up coaching classes and training centres so that stuents can enroll and work on mastering a new language.
While many people might term this move as progressive/revolutionary, we need to see whether the institution is offering proper encouragement and support to the students wanting to learn English. If that is not being done then it becomes just a forceful imposition and fails to serve any purpose.
Attrition Rates: Nightmares of the Industry.
If we are to talk about some of the problems ailing the industry in India, one of the first things that come to mind is attrition. Though its presence is felt in every area, the BPO industry is seen to be suffering the most. High attrition rates have become common in BPOs and HRs need to come up with effective solutions to tackle this problem.
When freshers join a BPO, the company has to spend a considerable amount of time and money in training the new recruits. To enable the employees to communicate well with foreign customers, they are provided voice training, accent training and other tips and tricks of communicating over phone. The candidates need to know a lot about the company and its products as well. So after all the training, if employees leave for other opportunities, it’s back to square one for the companies with another bunch of new employees. Thus bringing the attrition rate down is a priority for most players in the industry.
Some effective strategies to tackle this could be to give employees a sense of job-security, offer them attractive rewards for good performance and make the environment of the offices fun. Work can get stressful at times and various recreational activities can be arranged so that the employees can look forward to a lot more other than routine work.
The attrition rates have lessened over the last year (25-28% on an average) compared to earlier years (55-60%) but that’s largely due to recession. The sooner the companies take effective remedial measures, the better.