HRM / Organizational behaviour Case Study

Indian Call Centers (A): Rising Employee Attrition

OR

Abstract:
This is the first of a two-case series (204-132-1 and 304-389-1). In 2004, call centres were the fastest growing segment of the Indian Information Technology enabled services (ITES)-BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) sector with historic growth rates of 112% in revenues and about 75% in employees. The competitive advantage that India enjoyed was the combination of a huge pool of technically qualified English speaking graduates who were willing to work for lower pay than their counterparts in the US or the UK. However, the Indian companies now faced the problem of increasing attrition among its workforce – 30-35% in 2003, from 20-25% in 2002 and 10% in 2001. This problem, if left unchecked could seriously affect India's competitive advantage of high quality, low cost service offering.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• To discuss the challenges being faced by Indian call centres with the emergence of attrition problems and whether or not this would affect India's current competitive advantage
• To discuss the issues related to compensational and non-compensational factors of attrition and which of these needs greater attention in retention strategies
• To discuss if the inherent nature of the job is causing attrition in call centres, then what should be done by the companies to reduce attrition.

Keywords : Information Technology enabled services in India, India BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) sector, Call centres in India, Employment in Indian call centres, Employee attrition in Indian call centres, Reasons for attrition in Indian call centres, HRM Case Study, The growth of call centres in India, Functions of a call centre, Categorisation of Indian call centres, Stress in Indian call centres, Work-related disorders in Indian call centres

Contents:

• Introduction
• Call center basics
• Problem of attrition
• Future outlook