impact of management practices in reducing attrition in indian call centre industry
TRANSCRIPT
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Impact of Management Practices in Reducing
Attrition in Indian Call Centre Industry
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Table of ContentsExecutive Summary ................................................................................................................................... 4
1. Introduction & Aims and Objectives .................................................................................................... 5
1.1 Definitions ......................................................................................................................................... 6
1.2 Aim of the study ............................................................................................................................... 7
1.3 Problem Statement.......................................................................................................................... 7
1.4 Significance of the study................................................................................................................. 8
1.5 Objectives of the study ................................................................................................................... 8
2. Literature Review ................................................................................................................................. 10
2.1 Call Centres in India ...................................................................................................................... 10
2.2 Growth in Indian BPO industry .................................................................................................... 12
2.3 Motivation........................................................................................................................................ 14
2.3.1 Maslow Hierarchy of Needs ................................................................................................. 14
2.3.2 Herzbergs Two Factor Model .............................................................................................. 16
2.4 Management Practices ................................................................................................................. 16
2.4.1 Recruitment and Retention ................................................................................................... 18
2.4.2Communication ........................................................................................................................ 19
2.4.3 Performance Management ................................................................................................... 21
2.4.4 Training and Retention .......................................................................................................... 22
2.4.5 Structure and retention .......................................................................................................... 23
2.5 Summary......................................................................................................................................... 24
3. Research Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 25
3.1 Research Methods ........................................................................................................................ 26
3.2 Research Strategy......................................................................................................................... 26
3.3 Data collection techniques & methods ....................................................................................... 28
3.4 Sampling method & Frame .......................................................................................................... 28
3.5 Data Integrity .................................................................................................................................. 29
3.6 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 29
3.7 Respondent Profiles ...................................................................................................................... 30
3.8 Research Limitations..................................................................................................................... 30
4. Data Analysis........................................................................................................................................ 31
5. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................ 37
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6. Implications of Study .............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
7. Recommendations............................................................................................................................... 42
References ................................................................................................................................................ 47
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Executive Summary
The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in India has flourished and
matured over last decade or so and has been a real overall success story as far as
global outsourcing markets are concerned. A major part of the BPO business is done
by the call centres that primarily focus on voice based business handling calls from
clients in a pressure environment.
It has often been said that the call centre industry in India is plagued with the agent
attrition issues and a lot of efforts are continuously made by the companies operating
in the industry to reduce attrition and improve staff retention. A major component to
the phenomenon of attrition in Indian call centre industry is how the management
handles its key functions that impact an agent in the organisation both directly and
indirectly. In several call centres across the country, key areas of management
practices such as recruitment and selection, training and development, employee
motivation through communication and performance management play a key role in
determining their handling of the issue of attrition. An important area that is
sometimes ignored by the organisations is the structure, particularly the way the
management and agents share a formal and rigid relationship structure.
As the global outsourcing industry get more competitive, it is important for Indian call
centres to curb the attrition issues and keep situation under control always to
maintain value with their clients. While the obvious areas of management practices
are often analysed and most firms, especially the ones with lesser resources tend to
ignore an in-depth understanding within the practices being followed. Amongst
factors dependent on individual staff, stress factor is often attributed to be a major
contributor towards attrition however not much has yet been done in most
organisations in the industry to provide assistance in this area.
Further, it is extremely important to consider the fact that attrition is not always the
problem but sometimes it is the retention that becomes the key issue. Often a minor
attrition might lead to exodus in call centres for reasons not justified enough. For the
call centres in India to meet long term business objectives, it is a must that they put
significant efforts to manage the situation post attrition as much as while attemptingto formulate policies that look to curb the attrition at the outset.
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1. Introduction & Aims and Objectives
Employee retention refers to the numerous policies and practices that help the
organization to retain the best talent for a longer duration. Its a complete loss to an
organization when an employee leaves the company once being entirely trained.
From past few decades, BPO sector in India has been relishing the biggest share of
the worlds outsourcing market. It has been noticed that the employees working in
the BPO sector earns almost double the wages of the same age group working in
other sectors of the country. However, the employees in the BPO sector are
unsatisfied as they work under tremendous pressure as compared to the other
industry because of target oriented workload with tight deadlines, odd working hoursand strict working policies & procedures, all this enforced by electronic monitoring.
This kind of working environment leads to higher than the normal stress level
amongst the employees at work. Therefore, the work in BPO sector are said to be
more stressful, while the back office jobs are more qualitative with less stress such
as accounting.
The BPO sector plays a critical role in the Indian economy with worth of $11 million
industry and employing more than 2 million people. However, if the industry is to
achieve the projected $30 billion by 2013, the sector will have to resolve the issue of
employee turnover at the present. Managers in the BPO sector have been struggling
with the attrition issue and retention strategies since a while now. Some of the
organizations have been successful in managing the issue of employee turnover in
this sector. According to CIPD report (2008), the UK had an attrition rate of 17.3%,
based on the survey of 779 organizations. In BPO special sector survey (2008), the
employee turnover rate in BPO is 23.8% in India, followed by Retail at 18% and
Communication at 22%. The study has also shown that an average BPO employee
in India works not more than 11 months whereas in the UK they complete 3 years of
tenure with an organization. Despite potential for remarkable growth, BPO industry
continues to suffer from high level of employee turnover because of the several
factors such as high stressful working environment.
Attrition and retention strategies are major concern and a challenge for BPO
(Business Process Outsourcing) industry as it disrupts the day to day operations,
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increases the cost to the company considerably by recruiting and training new
employees and also affects the overall business in terms of productivity and loss of
clients due to inefficiency. Due to unplanned exits, the organization struggles
significantly. It is extremely important to restraint attrition not only for individual
organization but also for an industry as a whole.
However, this report only covers the call or contact centre sector of the BPO industry
in India. The call centres are primarily voice based and do not covers the back end
process or functions unlike non-voice processes.
1.1 Definitions
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
BPO is a subcategory of outsourcing that comprises the contracting of
responsibilities and operations of specific business processes to the third party
service provider. Originally, it was related with manufacturing firms, such as Coca
Cola that outsourced large section of its supply chain.
BPO is normally classified into back office outsourcing that consists of internal
business processes such as finance, human resources, accounting and front office
which involves services related to the customers such as contact centres or callcentres. Often, the business functions outsourced to the numerous nations like India
and Philippines are known as ITES BPO (Information Technology Enabled
Services), LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing) and KPO (Knowledge Process
Outsourcing). The following are the five major countries which are considered as
hotspots for outsourcing businesses:
1. India Engineering & Technical
2. China Manufacturing & Technical
3. Mexico Manufacturing
4. United States Analysis & Creative
5. Philippines Administrative
In 2010, the Philippines have surpassed India in front office business outsourcing i.e.
contact centres as the leading business process outsourcing industry in the world.
Attrition
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Attrition refers to the reduction in the number of staff in the organization through
resignation, retirement or death.
Retention
Employee retention is a practice in which the employees are encouraged to stay with
the company for the longer period of time or until the project is completed.
1.2 Aim of the study
This research is aimed at gaining the insights of management practices being
followed by managers in various call centres. It will allow us to evaluate the
perspective of both the employees and the managers pertaining to the five
fundamental management practices in any organization i.e. organizational structure,recruitment and selection, training & development, performance management and
communication. How do these factors influence the organization? This will provide a
profound understanding to the Indian call centres and will assist the mangers and the
organization in controlling the attrition by reducing unnecessary churn.Indian call centre industry needs to focus on the problems of high attrition and weak
retention strategies as it can be detrimental for call centre industry as a whole.
According to Cappelli (2000), the aim of improving the retention should not be
restricted to only minimizing the attrition but should also have an influence on the
agents intention to leave the company.
Subsequently, literature review will be conducted in respect to the attrition and
retention in the call or contact centre industry. It will explore the five key
management practices that majorly influence the attrition and retention strategies.
The aim to conduct a literature review is to highlight the views on the management
practices through various famous sources and its influence on the retention of
employees.
1.3 Problem Statement
There are numerous problems of employee retention that has been discussed in
past by many researchers. The common set of variables in management practices
that impact the employee retention are recruitment and selection, compensation,
work culture, performance management, training and development and effectivecommunication that act as a motivation or de-motivation factor for an employee.
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It has been perceived that there is a lack of communication of process from
organizational front to enhance the ability and willingness of managers to take on
responsibility in the HR practices. The responsibility of HRM does not rest only with
the HR but also requires the participation of functional managers to make the whole
process more effective and efficient. (Buford, 2006).
Attrition may be reduced if the other motivational factors associated with the
employee satisfaction can be taken care of. Though, that does not indicate that it will
help the organization in retaining the employees. Thus, the negative characteristics
of job also need the attention respectively. Looking at the big picture of
comprehended potential in BPO sector in India, it is clear that the issue of employee
turnover cannot be ignored. Consequently, there is an extreme need of curbing theattrition rate of employees in the BPO sector in India.
1.4 Significance of the study
Apparently the study has become significant to many researchers because of the
remarkable growth of BPO industry in recent years. Where industry is growing
rapidly with leaps and bounds on one hand, the attrition rate has also been
alarmingly high on the other hand in past few years. Thus, the issue of high
employee turnover is costing a lot to an organization. In BPOs, the employees at
middle and lower level are victims of dearth of job satisfaction and motivation. The
study is an effort to evaluate the patterns of attrition in the BPO and analyze the
relationship among the job satisfaction, employee retention and motivation so as to
formulate the concrete recommendations for the industry to improve the retention
strategies and curb the attrition. Thus, it is not only substantial for academicians but
also for the professionals who can exploit it to restraint the employee turnover.
1.5 Objectives of the study
From the above study, it is evident that the attrition has been adversely impacting not
only an organizational effectiveness but the BPO industry as a whole. It is important
for the industry to come up with some concrete solutions to curb the attrition issue
and improve the retention strategies. This research is conducted to overview broadly
the reasons of high employee turnover and ineffective retention strategies in BPO
and seek to narrow down it to the specific concerns surrounding management
practices. The key objectives of this study are as follows:
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1. To review and assess the fundamental theoretical factors affecting the
retention of employees in BPO industry based on literature review.
2. To classify and rank the factors influencing the employee turnover in BPOs
based on the secondary data and literature.
3. To identify and analyze the level of employee motivation with regard to the
management practices.
4. To make recommendations in order to improve employee retention in BPOs
and curb the ever-increasing attrition rate.
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2. Literature Review
2.1 Call Centres in India
According to Gans et al., (2003), call centres are defined as a set of resources that
are an essential part of many organizations, typically computers, personnel and
telecommunications equipment that enables the delivery of services via telephone.
The various functions performed by the call centres are customer service, help desk
and emergency response services, order taking and telemarketing.
The call centres are basically of two types i.e. inbound and outbound. Inbound call
centres are where incoming calls are handled by the agents or employees that
originates from outside callers calling into a centre. This kind of centres provides the
services such as help-desk, customer support, reservation and sales support, and
claims processing and order-taking functions. Whereas, Outbound call centres are
where calls originate from within the call centre and these outgoing call traffics are
handled by the agents. These kinds of centres are typically associated with business
surveys and telemarketing.
In an immense populated country, India is estimated to have a contact or call centre
industry of approximately 50000 organised seats with an additional half milliondisorganized seats. The terminology of organized and disorganized are used by
Indians themselves to differentiated between the legitimate and fly-by-night call
centres and BPOs that are formed and pull apart shortly thereafter. The main cities
for call or contact centre industry in India are Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad
and Chennai. As per the size comparison of call or contact centre industry in other
countries, Korea has over 300,000 seats, China- 230,000, Australia-200,000,
Philippines has over 140,000, Malaysia has 35,000, Thailand 30,000, New Zealand
has more than 27,000 and Singapore has 20,000 seats. Thus, India is the leading
and the largest call or contact centre market amongst the other countries in the
region. The growth of Asia Pacific call or contact centre industry at a regional level
is of about 22% annually in terms of seat size. In comparison with other countries,
Philippines seat growth rate is of about 33% per annum whereas Indias growth rate
is noticed to be 16% annually in terms of seat size that is proportionately lower than
Philippines and has been reducing every year.
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In India, approximately one third of the call or contact centre industry is based on the
international market where 22% of contact or call centres service the USA, 18% to
the UK, 7% to Australia, 3%-Singapore, 2%-global customer base, 1%-Hong Kong,
1% to New Zealand and 1 % to Japan. And almost three quarter of Indian call or
contact centre industry is based on domestic market and service the domestic
economy.
The requirement of about one quarter of call centres in India from the agent is to
speak in a language other than their national language. The eight in ten call centres
in India require their agent to speak in English to the customers. The other
languages required in Indian call or contact centres are Kannada, Spanish, Tamil,
Telugu, Malay, French, Italian and German.
In Indian call centre industry, six out of ten operate 7 days a week and one third 24*7
a week. (Wallace, C.M., & Organ, J.M., 2007a).Work of call centres in India involves
agents to provide mainly voice to voice service to the clients primarily in the North
America. Employee in Indian call centres learns American accent, work at night that
is typically called as graveyard shifts to cater to time zones of the United States.
They are expected to be fluent while speaking in English language and also be
aware about the day to day issues in America to some extent so as to converse with
the customers in a casual manner (Mirchandani, 2004; Shome, 2006). Although, the
clientele has spread across the globe such as the United Kingdom and Australia but
the focus of Indian call centres are largely on U.S. as the major big companies that
Indian call centres are associated with are Dell computers, AT & T, America Online,
General Electric, GE Capital, American Express and Goldman Sachs etc.
(Mirchandani, 2004; Shome,2006).
Indian call centres have emerged as most productive and cost effective for various
organizations across the global. The employees in Indian call centres provides
services to the clients by making telemarketing to cater to customers on credit cards,
network connections, insurance claims, computer hardware, financial plans and
banking. The services that Indian call centres provides to their client has been
phenomenal and thus the industry grew by 59% to $2.3 billion between 2002 and
2003 (Sharma, 2003), and it also showed the increase in the number of foreign
companies outsourcing to India from 60 in 2000 to 800 by the end of 2003 i.e. more
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than 1200% increment (Mirchandani, 2004). Dell alone has more than 30 sites in
India in four different cities with over 15,000 employees (Ribeiro, 2006).
In Indias global leadership, the call or contact centre industry is well positioned with
its growth in business process outsourcing and offshore information technology
industries at a rate of more than 25% annually and creating export revenues of over
$60 billion (NASSCOM, National Association of Software and Service Companies,
2005).
In a varied literature on Indian contact or call centres, some of them have discussed
the issues related to HRM practices (e.g. Kuruvilla and Raganathan, 2008; Budhwar
et al., 2010), and trade unionism and employee relations (e.g. DCruz and Noronha,
2006; Taylor et al., 2009). Some of them explored the concerns of work organization
(e.g. Batt et al, 2005; Noronha and DCruz, 2009; Thite and Russell, 2008). The
major attention is dedicated to the cultural contradictions implicated in transnational
agent-customer interaction (e.g. ElSawad and Cohen, 2007) that also leads to
attrition.
2.2 Growth in Indian BPO industry
Generally, for outsourcing call centres in English language India has been seen asthe first option by the companies. Having said that, in the last 10 years we can see
boom in BPO industry in Philippines which has shaken India's BPO business and
clients are shifting due to the benefits of Philippines-situated call centers.BPO
industry has seen extreme growth of 25-30 percent where as India shown 10-15
percent growth, according to Dani, research director at the Everest Group. Moreover,
the country employs 400,000 people in this industry in comparison to India's 350,000
employees.
According to today's statistics Philippines BPO business made itself from US$350
million in 2001 to more than US$11 billion today. This kind of growth happened due
to three causes:
Firstly, Cultural and language barrier has been overpowered due to the cultural
exchange history between Philippines and United States. Filipinos start learning
English language at an early age than Indians and large amount of population start
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discovering habit of American culture. These things help American consumers, as
many of them complained now and then of not understanding Indian call centre
people and their accent. At an entry level stage Filipinos earn US$ 300 per month
which is US$ 50 more than Indian call centre people, but they have been taken
positively by the American users.
Secondly, infrastructure is the biggest advantage of Philippines which helps them to
be forward always from India. Outsourcing hubs in India like Gurgaon and Bangalore
has to use generators and diesel to get an uninterrupted power of supply. However,
problems like power supply and all are not really an issue which gives them good
infrastructure and helps them to avoid extra overheads.
Thirdly, there is a great support of Philippines Government for the growth of this
industry in their country. Provision of tax incentives and subsidies are the kind of
help by government. Govt. simplified the administrative procedure of setting up call
centres by companies. It also organizes company special visits to India to get the
know-how of this industry, provides the benefits to single buildings to come under
special economic zones and provided training to 40,000 students in communication
and English.
The success of these policies can be measured by the availability of dominant
American companies like AT&T, Expedia, Proctor and Gamble, JPMorgan Chase,
IBM, Shell and the Hershey Company. But still, India has a convincing edge in all
over BPO. Regardless of Philippines' growth in BPO, India's know-how in other fields
is the added support over the new bee cultural and linguistic benefits. India has
shown 14.8 percent
of growth last year in BPO sector and it is expected to jump US$100 billion line this
year.
India's added advantage is their tremendous knowledge in "non-voice" products
where it has huge amount of experience from years which is almost 90 percent of
worldwide outsourcing sector worth. There are lot of complex and difficult work other
than "voice" which consists of medical and legal sectors, banking process, research
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and analytics in many departments which needs high knowledge and expertise and
Philippines in this regard are still behind from us with only one-fifth of earned
revenues with one-third of workers employed working in these departments.
Nation like India which produces 4 million college graduates every year is never
short of manpower. On the contrary, Philippines face the problem of meeting the
manpower needs to continue their growth. There is increasing demand of 20 percent
in this sector every year where as the number of university graduates passing each
year is only increasing by 3 percent and as per the government data only 5-8 percent
among them are get hired.
However, the overall position of this sector in Philippines is very favourable. In the
Government latest plans more positive policies are coming in line for the outsourcing
sector to cross the revenue of US$25 billion, or at least 10 percent of GDP, till 2016.
Although, country is inexperience in difficult and complex areas of "non-voice" areas
of BPO industry, the growth prospects are still very positive in call centres as now
Indian companies are moving their processes eastward.
2.3 Motivation
2.3.1 Maslow Hierarchy of Needs
The most renowned description of needs is the one that articulated by Maslow (1954
as cited in Armstrong Handbook). According to Maslow, there are five key
categories of need that apply to individuals in general such as basic physiological
needs that is lowest need in the hierarchy, subsequent to safety & security needs,
social needs, esteem needs and the highest need of all in the end is self-fulfilment. It
is a typical human tendency that the next highest need becomes dominant when the
lower one is satisfied and the attention of an individual gets entirely shifted to satisfy
the next highest need. The only need that is impossible to satisfy for an individual is
self fulfilment as it can never be satisfied. People are wanting animal; and only an
unfulfilled need can motivate an individuals behaviour that is dominant need which is
utmost motivator of behaviour. When people move upwards in the hierarchy of
needs than the psychological development of an individual takes place but that is not
an essentially straightforward development. However, the lower need always exist
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and it becomes dormant as motivator but as and when required an individual
regularly return to his previously satisfied needs.
Maslows hierarchy of needs has an intrinsic appeal and has been very famous. But
the study showed that Maslows needs hierarchy hasnt been verified by experiential
done by Bridwell and Wahba (1979). It has also received criticism for its apparent
rigorousness (every person has different priorities and it is quite unacceptable that
needs move steadily upwards in the hierarchy) and for the misleading conceptual
language of Maslow. In fact, the doubt was raised by Maslow himself about the
validity of strict hierarchy need order.
MaslowNeed Satisfaction
Self Actualisation
Esteem Status
Social Affection
Safety, Security, Order
Physiological Needs
Behaviour/
Action
GoalsNeeds
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2.3.2 Herzbergs Two Factor Model
Herzberg et al. as cited in Armstrongs handbook, developed the two factor model
i.e. satisfiers and dissatisfiers. The needs of employees were divided into two groups
by him. The first group revolves around the wants to develop in ones job as a basis
of individual growth such as recognition, achievement, responsibility, advancement
and the work itself. Whereas the other group operates as an important base to the
previous and is also allied with unbiased treatment in supervision, compensation,
administrative practices and working conditions. In medical terms, the second group
formulae a hygiene factor, meaning environmental and preventive. Herzberg has
pointed out in his theory that the financial incentives work as a motivator for short
term but its effect wears off quickly.
It has been highlighted by many companies on various occasions that there has
been dissatisfaction amongst the employees with the wages, leaving to pursue
higher education, illness and physical strain. In Indian call centre industry most of the
employees are young people and thus the motivation level is low as their needs are
higher and keeps on accumulating over the period of time whether in regards to
physiological needs or psychological needs.2.4 Management Practices
Many practices have shown that managers behaviour towards their employees
helps in increasing their motivation and retaining them in the company (Buckingham,
1999; Thompson et al., 1999). But those studies did not say anything about the
specific action and behaviour to increase the retention.
There has not been really specific set of HRM practices which is agreed by everyone
but generally the most common practices are: job security, job previews, orientation
programming, compensation systems, performance appraisals, career advancement,
training and development, and effective communication (Delery & Doty, 1996).
Many authors (Huselid, 1995; Hemdi & Nasurdin, 2007) pointed that HRM practices
has a positive impact in the hotel industry in building trust in an organization which
helps in keeping the employees retention level. Performance measures, training and
development and career advancement are the HRM practices used in this study.
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Pfeffer (1994) and Telfer (2008) both said that application of 16 management
practices will lead to increasing productivity and profitability among the
organizations. These practices consists of information sharing, participation and
empowerment, selectivity in recruiting, incentive pay, self-managed teams,
measurement of practices, skills development and training. Teffer (2008) also states
Deloitte Best Company to work for (BCTWF) consist training and development,
performance management and communication.
Call centre agent decision to stay or to leave depends upon 11 complex factors
which have been suggested by Mashatola (2003). These factors that employee
expect are growth opportunities; and the organizations size and external image;
stimulation and challenging role; work schedules that fit with lifestyle needs (day timejob); behaviours of co-workers; perception of general treatment of employees
(fairness, transparent, trust and freedom of expression); the organizations interest
in the individuals non-work interest; managements competence in managing work
and guiding agents; accessibility of workstation; excellent facilities and technology;
working conditions with minimum stress.
HR practices like selection, employee retention, job and work design, training and
pay performance measures have been practiced by Holman et al. (2005). These
practices are controlled by the management. Call centre agents are the better people
who can throw light upon the "intention to leave" factor. Organizational system is
formed in the manner which constitutes and backs the management principles,
performance and communication in any organization. Both agents and managers
impressions are going to be studied with the help of this research and it will be
concluded on the basis of five management principles and analyze which holds
retention the most.
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2.4.1 Recruitment and Retention
Call centre has the potential to provide high turnover rate to recruitment system.
High turnover rate is the major problem in the call centres and this problem takes
birth from recruitment system where capable employees are not given the right job
and they have been put at the wrong areas (Doshi, 2002).
Many of the new employees join the call centre and most of them in few days of time
generally feels that the working environment is not suitable for them which leads totake call centres turnover high (Moss et. al., 2008). These studies point out that
selection procedure and putting right people at right area are the major departments
that need to be work upon. In UK as well, 9% of call centres use Psychometric and
aptitude tests in the selection system (Moss et. al., 2008).
Studies (CIPD, 2008) found that highest turnover rate is in retail, call centres,
catering and hotels. If candidates are shown environment and organization with the
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help of job previewing tool, early resignations can be prevented as this will keep the
expectations of employee and employer and post-employment will go smooth.
Increased turnover rates are due to the weak recruitment process and poor selection
choice which can be blamed on both employee and employer (CIPD, 2008). Analoui
(2007) brought the new system i.e. flexible recruitment practices which have great
impact and it teaches organization to be flexible in this constantly changing working
culture. A new flexible method of recruitment and code of conduct for departments of
work force is required to select the best candidates who suited best for the job
requirements. Analoui (2007) further explained that putting right people at right area
is work of HR planning.
Jassim et. al. (1998) explained that managers use different selection models as they
have different eligibility criteria to recruit people and that is why they use different
models so that they can employ right person for the job.
2.4.2 Communication
Grobler and Warnich (2005) said that communication binds various elements,
coordinating activities, allow people to work together and produce results. According
to them, communication itself is the action to convey information.
In 2006, Yates described on communication ROI study of Watson Wyatt where
substantial evidence was found that bringing improvement in employee engagement
is the result of high internal communication practice. Engagement of employees is
like satisfaction towards job, which also influences productivity and retention of
employee. Yates (2006) describes how effective communication increases ROI.
(Figure)
The Watson Wyatt (2006) defines eight effective communication areas i.e. making
employees learn about the institute and values, guiding employees to understand the
industry, merging employees actions and customers needs, to provide employees
with information on the value of the rewards programs and policies, integration of
new workforces into the institute, and executing strong headship by applying the
organizational change.
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Figure: Communication Flow (Watson Wyatt, 2006)
As stated by CIPD (2008), communication plays a very progressive role in
relationship building. An effective communication system creates media for
employees to use their voice within the pre-defined framework of studies,
assessments, grievance systems and training within organisations. A lack of this will
result in dis-satisfied employees with many different mechanisms to manage their
problems before they resign or form the intention of resigning. The teams based and
top down communication areas have now been obsolete where management is in
need of working on a very effective informal relationship for retaining employees.
(Borstorff et. al. 2007)
Poor communication results in disinterest of employees to work which raisesunnecessary stress levels at work place(Atkinson, 2006), and hence influencing job
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satisfaction. So, good communication is always a necessity to work effectively.
(Jassim et al., 1998)
Luss and Nyce (2004) provided further elaboration on the Watson Wyatt
communication ROI survey (2003), which explains that the organizations have a
50% better chance to reduce turnover rates if they do effective interaction and
communication with their employees. Murlis and Schubert in 2001 claimed six main
elements in the employee performance model expressed by the Hay Group (2001).
These six elements are consisting of practices like performance management,
training and development and communication. The Watson Wyatt survey (2003)
described that good communication is more likely to report a rate of turnover less
that other industry peers, by a consequent variance of 18% less revenue.
The Communication across levels can be amended by communicating less formally
(Pfeffer (1995); managers and employees are more likely to know what is actually
going on and able to communicate ideas more directly.
2.4.3 Performance Management
The word performance management has been taken from the two management tool
of managing and increasing performance which has been the result of actions takenby Total Quality Management in 1980s (Grobler et al., 2005). Grobler et al. (2005)
agreed on Renton's (2000) work that there are 20 key things require for the active
performance management which includes in increasing retention of employees.
There were three general tactics that have been used by Holman et al., (2005) for
his study; electronic performance monitoring, performance appraisal and call quality
monitoring. These tactics help in building base and finding development
requirements and individual training. Homan's found out that 10% monitoring
systems of call centers had negative effects on agent's health.
Performance management helps in gaining job satisfaction, employee involvement
provide workers a 'voice' which has been generated from coaching and recognitions
which made a bridge of relationship and communication medium. This system
helped in finding and honouring brilliant performance while it provides coaching,
training and counselling to poor performers. Performance appraisal in form of
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salaries is another factor which influences performance management (Petrescu et
al., 2008).
Performance management is an important tool of management which measures
individual's performance, their capabilities, improvement needs and their future
prospects. Employees are becoming more mature every year which also explains
that employees retention is not only depend on high pay checks. Employees would
prefer the working culture where they are recognized and rewarded, training and
coaching is provided to develop insufficient skills which is not possible without
performance management. It helps in measuring, evaluate, compare, be fair and get
the most out of the performance goals. Employee satisfaction is the factor which is
somehow connected in employee retention (Nettleton, 2008).
2.4.4 Training and Retention
Voluntary turnover is also generated due to insufficient training programmes and
growth prospects founded by CIPD. Many employers agreed on the fact that training
helps in improving retention as it boosts motivation and increase morale. Good
training provision at entry level staff in Marriott Hotel helped in retaining them for the
longer period (Umiker, 2004).
Employee development has the major role in retaining employees which has been
found by Cappelli (2008) one of the precious element in organizations. He further
explained that companies should allow employees to move internally rather than
losing them to other firms. This helps in employees career advancement and lead to
decrease labour turnover.
Organizations where individuals can find their personal professional growth,
necessary career planning and where they are appreciated of taking risks and
managed them tend to have higher employee retention (Gaffney, 2005).
Generally call centre people get 15 days of training in the first year and seven days
training in second year and 70% of their training depend on their performance basis
(Holman et al., 2005).
Witty (2009) from Vault.com agree on the study done by World at work. Training and
growth opportunities are the most important factors of retention ranked by the study.These further explained that if employers show true interests in the company and
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their employees than employees feel honoured and their loyalty increases towards
the company. Staff dissatisfaction is the major cause in high turnover rates after six
months which happens due to bad ongoing job experience, insufficient training,
inappropriate management decisions and salaries.
Improvements in staff retention have been seen due to the focus on training to
employees which also added an advantage to the organizations. Employees feel
more worthy working in the organization, work enjoyment increases and they find
satisfaction with their work-life balance (Atkinson, 2006) where as bad training
increases employee desire to leave the organization (Atkinson, 2006). Ray added
that training is an important part of target employee retention strategy which will also
help in achieving higher level of customer service excellence. Training gives thescope to develop the require skills to the staff and that is why it is a retention tool
which is also a component of employee psychological contract of employment
(Vowler, 2005).
2.4.5 Structure and retention
The structure of organization includes allocation of tasks, reporting duties,
coordination and interaction pattern mechanism. (Robbins, 1990) Robbins identified
three different components of structure which includes complexity, formalization and
centralization. Structure of three components was then broadened into six.
As described by Robbins et al, organizational structure is a formal delegation and
coordination of tasks. (Robbins et. al, 2007) Managers in the organization need to
address six elements of structure that includes departmentalization, specialization,
decentralization, formalization. Span of control, and, chain of command. Robbins et.
al (2007) also argued that structure of organization brings impacts on attitude and
behaviours.(Robbins et. al, 2007)
Depending on the objectives, there are various ways to structure the organizations,
and hence making processes and functions being different. Inappropriate structures
will affect the efficiency of managers and their performances. The span of control is
the ratio employees reporting to managers (Robbins et al, 2007).
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Seven structural variables were included by Price (2001) and Huselid (1995) in
casual model, i.e. job stress, justice, social support, remuneration, repetitiveness of
work, promotional chances (Price, 2001; Huselid, 1995).
Difference between tall and flat organizational structures were reported by Carzo and
Yanouzas (1969); Where Tall organizational structure takes longer to process
decisions but they are superior while rated on profit, performance and rate of return
on revenue. Whereas in flat organizational structures, it take much longer time to
resolve the conflicts and coordinating the efforts.
Tall structures give better performance than flat structures. So, performance
management is able to contribute positively to reduce turnover. While comparing
tight and loose organizational structures, loose structured groups are more time
effective in making decisions and hence reach employees satisfactions (Carzo,
1963).
2.5 Summary
It is evident that an effective retention management is very challenging in the call
centre industry, therefore five key management practices have been chosen for the
research.
Organization structure establishes the environment for an effective communication
that strengthens the right relationships. An effective recruitment process helps the
organization in selecting the right people as per the job specifications. Performance
management measures benchmark standards, the improvements, highlights
limitations in training process and improves productivity.
Training and development act as a strong pillar to support growth in any business
and helps in creating sustainability. This literature review has been prepared to
create a background for the research in order to achieve the objective that is to
improve the retention strategies and curb attrition in call centres in India.
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3. Key Questions
Based on the above literature review it is evident that for attrition to be improved in
the call centre industry in India there are several key questions concerning the
variables that are central towards management practices. Some of the particular
question the paper will further intend to answer can be outlined as below -
A. Recruitment & Selection The most vital question that needs to be answered in
this area is if both the managers and the agents perceive this variable to be an
important factor to reduce attrition?
B. Communication A key question that emerges in this area is if both the managersand the agents perceive the levels of communication followed in their organisations
in the same manner and if communication is an important factor to reduce attrition?
C. Performance Management Another question from the performance
management area is how the managers and agents think about efficiency of the
process and also how much importance they feel the variable has to the retention
levels?
D. Training & Development Under the training and development area, the key
question for further discussion is how satisfied the agents and managers are with the
programmes being followed and how do they perceive the importance of the factor in
staff retention?
E. Call Centre structure The question that needs to be explored further in this area
is if the managers and agents are both satisfied with the structure of their
organisations and how important do they think a structure is to control attrition?
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4. Research Methodology
To help in achieving the objectives, it is important that an appropriate research
methodology is adopted. In this chapter a detailed explanation of the research
methodology followed for the study will be discussed. It is important in context of a
well organised and planned research that the methodology helps in achieving overall
aims and objectives of the research based on the literature reviewed that essentially
forms the theoretical basis of the research.
The following specific aspects of methodology are important to be discussed in
details to further understand how the research was conducted and how the
information gathered formed a basis for the analysis -
4.1 Research Methods
It is important that different research methods are understood to allow identification
of the most appropriate method to follow during the research. As have been
highlighted by Zikmund (2003), there are three types of research methods
a. Exploratory research that is undertaken to address ambiguous problem.
b. Descriptive research that describes the used to describe the features of a
population or a phenomenon.
c. Causal research which is undertaken to establish relationship between the events
that have taken place and their cause or reason.
Since the research was concerned with investigating how different management
practices that are being followed in call centre industry in India impact the employee
retention, it was clearly identified that the most appropriate research method in the
scenario was descriptive research.
4.2 Research Strategy
There are two types of approaches that can be followed in a research viz. inductive
and deductive. Again, an important step was to understand the main difference
between the two strategies to decide on the appropriate one.
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Collis and Hussey (2003) highlighted that deductive approach is the dominant
strategy that is followed in natural sciences. The deductive approach is based on
laws offering the basis of explanation which in turn help anticipate phenomena. The
strategy therefore naturally leads to prediction of occurrence of specific phenomena
which can thus be controlled. The other research strategy is based upon inductive
approach which primarily concerns with utilising the research and analysis
conducted to formulate a theory or helping in concluding a research.
It was identified that the most effective approach for the research strategy was to
follow a deductive approach. There was also a limited use of the inductive approach
to help in comparison and conclusion of the research findings based upon existing
theories and acknowledged research work. Further since the descriptive researchmethod is used when an existing body of knowledge is applied to ascertain the
validity of research questions, the research was conducted by using mixed-methods
research incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data. The data was collected
through survey questionnaires that were aimed at two different groups, call centre
agents and managers. The research was conducted on a confidential basis and no
companies and respondents were required to provide with their personal details if
they did not desire to do so.
The questionnaires were voluntary and the data was kept confidential throughout the
process. There was complete discretion followed in throughout the data collection
process. The questionnaires that were used were targeted towards two different
types of respondents one focussed on call centre managers and another focussed
on call centre agents. The survey questions were grouped under five different
variables with different questions covering different aspects that were important to
provide answers to the research question. Based on the literature review above it
can be understood that motivation and management practices are closely related
when it comes to agent attrition in a call centre environment. This further leads to key
questions revolving around the five main variables already discussed in the previous
chapter - recruitment, training, organisational structure, communication and
performance management.
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4.3 Data collection techniques & methods
A careful consideration to both the qualitative and quantitative data collection
techniques was given. To conduct a comprehensive study, it was important to follow
mixed-methods research including both quantitative and qualitative data collection.
A qualitative technique is the one which helps in collection of data that is not easy to
be quantified. The research was conducted under different variables identified during
the literature review above; the data collection revolved around those key variables
itself. The qualitative research process was designed to help the researchers to
understand people, social and cultural contexts (Myers, 1997). Since the subject
area of employee attrition is more concerned with human resources, some of the
areas such as beliefs, emotions and value attitudes of the researched people couldnot be quantified it was important to follow this data collection technique too. There
was some use of quantitative data collection technique applied during the research
as well. Based on different variables and a potential debate around those variables
were important to the findings or not, a set of research questions were established
accordingly.
The overall study was based both on primary as well as secondary data research.
The primary data collection formed major basis for the study but it was also applied
to some of the key theories and findings of other relevant research in form of
secondary research. Further while most data was collected through survey
questionnaires, the analysis was also expressed in terms of numbers to present an
easy understanding.
4.4 Sampling method & Frame
The initial proposal was sent to 15 call centres to conduct a research on managers
and agents from which 10 call centres participated in the study. Saunders et. al
(2009) suggest that it is vital to limit the focus of study to the target population only.
Therefore the study was focussed only towards call centres involved into voice
based business outsourcing services located in India. Further only relevant
respondents such as managers who were direct providers to the agents were
considered as the target respondents for one category of survey.
The research adopted a non-probability sampling method since the sample sizeselected was based on convenience and personal judgment of the researcher. Also,
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convenience sampling was used for respondent selection. The survey intended to
conduct the surveys in at least 10 call centres covering responses from 10 managers
and 200 agents. The sampling method was non- stratified and a standard base of
questions was asked from the respondents.
Since the surveys were not carried out on a personal basis, the response rate was
expected to be on the lower levels. It was however decided that a confidence level
above 40% would be good enough to generate useful data for the study.
4.5 Data Integrity
It is important for the data to be both valid and reliable to ensure that an effective
relationship between different variable and the findings can be established. Since the
data generated came from researchers primary work and also based on published
and acknowledged secondary work, the data integrity could be well assured.
It is also quite important that the data sensitivity is given due attention in
questionnaires that are based on agree / disagree responses. This is because of
the fact that sometimes very subtle attitude changes could mean a different
response and the true feeling of the respondent might not be expressed. During the
research the sensitivity issue was taken care of by putting the neutral response,strongly agree and strongly disagree options as well to provide greater scope for
authenticity and sensitivity of the data.
4.6 Data Analysis
Kvale (1996) suggested 'the process of analysing qualitative data is likely to begin at
the same time as you collect these data as well as continue afterwards. The data
analysis was therefore an important area which formed the basis of result
interpretation and reporting the outcome of the overall study.
Since there were two types of data that were used for the research primary and
secondary, different approaches were used to analyse the data thus collected and
researched. The primary data was generated in the form of numbers and
percentages to understand the importance of different variables to the main issue of
attrition in the call centres. Further, the primary data was used to analyse the
relationships of the different variables with theories and past relevant studies that
formed secondary research.
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4.7 Respondent Profiles
The managers and employees researched during the study were not profiled against
age, religion, gender or any other differentiating factor. The only two major aspects
that were considered were that the company was an active voice based call centre
and the managers and agents were involved into the same activity.
Below is the breakup of company size and number of agents and managers
interviewed amongst the total ten companies that were involved in the survey
A. Large & Mid-Sized Two call centers with total staff of more than 250 participated
and the researcher surveyed two manager and 50 agents each at both the call
centers.
B. SMEs There were further two types of SMEs amongst the respondents where
three companies between staff size of 50 to 250 agents participated with one
manager each and 20 agents very surveyed. Also, from the firms having staff size
between 20 to 50 agents, another 5 companies were surveyed with one manager
and 8 agents responding from each of the companies.
4.8 Research Limitations
As like any other research there are several potential research limitations that the
researcher faced and must be considered accordingly
a. It is worth considering that the respondents might not always provide accurate
information considering influence of the managers in case of agents and the
organisational influence in the case of managers.
b. While the research aims to represent the call centre industry in India, it must be
observed that most responses in the research conducted were from the northern part
of the country especially Delhi and National Capital region.
c. It is also worth noting that while the researcher has attempted to cover broader
variables responsible for agent attrition, there are several other reasons which could
lead to intention to leave. This could not be all covered due to limits of time and
scope of the report.
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5. Data Findings & Analysis
This section of the report discusses the results of the surveys being conducted in the
call centres so as to deliver the answers to the purpose as defined for this study. It is
aimed at gaining the perception of managers and agents in the call centres with
respect to the five key management practices.
A proposition is a statement concerned with the relationship among concepts, and
an assertion of a universal connection between events that have certain properties
(Zikmund, 2003). In this section the results are separately presented for each
management practices. The question is grouped into each factor as below:
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5.1 Data collected
An analysis of primary data has been conducted in the form of survey to gather the
perception of both the managers and agents separately on five key management
practices i.e. communication, structure, performance management, recruitment and
training. The questionnaire of survey format to collect the data can be found in
appendix 1.
To conduct a survey, 15 call centres were approached out of which only 10 approved
the request and allowed the survey questionnaire to be distributed in their
companies. The smaller call centres are chosen as a source of primary research
which is also known as because to its major evident impact unorganized seats in
Indian call centre industry and that hardly gets published anywhere also. Thus, togather the information through secondary data on smaller call centres is very
challenging. For the purpose of easy understanding of the survey results, the
collected data is presented in the form of percentage and it shows only figures of
disagree and strongly disagree collectively as disagree and same for agree and
strongly agree as agree in the spate tables of different management practices.
5.1.1 Recruitment and Selection
The difference in opinion of both the managers and the agents are almost nothing
with respect to the recruitment and selection process in the call centre industry. The
percentage of 37.25% from agents viewpoint and 39.25% from managers
perspective clearly shows a very low level of confidence in the recruitment and
selection process. The managers have slightly higher expectation than the agents
from the process of recruitment and selection in the call centres so as to fill in the
right jobs with the right candidates. The figure below also indicates that the agents
are unsatisfied with the ineffective recruitment and selection process that tend to
make them feel that call centre jobs are easy before joining.
Thus, it leads to high turnover in the call centres and makes the recruitment and
selection an alarming factor for the industry and needs immediate attention to control
it.
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5.1.2 Communication
The below table indicates the similarities in the perception of managers and the
agents in respect to the communication process in the call centre industry. There is
no significant difference has been found through the survey in the view point of both
the managers and the agents. However, there are disagreements also but is not
majorly demonstrating the poor communication process in the call centres.
With respect to the communication process, the mangers perception shows the
agreement of 69.4% to the statements as mentioned in the table below and agents
54.8%. Thus, most of the call centres are following an effective communication
process and there is no gap as such between the managers and the agents.
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5.1.3 Performance Management
In table 3, the survey has shown the results that indicates the dissimilarities betweenthe managers and the agents perspective. The managers in the call centre industry
are more tend to perceive that there has been an effective performance
management practices are followed whereas the percentage of agents perception is
just 41% that is 25% lower than what managers think.
A major difference has been noticed between the managers and the agents from the
perceptive of goal settings. The agents have more disagreement about the goals that
are set by their managers are not clear and is not SMART which reflects in the form
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of building pressure on the agents in the call centres to achieve the targets in a
shorter span of time even after not having it specific and attainable. The figures also
specifies that the goals that an agent is expected to achieve is discussed by the
managers inappropriately.
The performance management practices in the call centres are alarming and thus,
needs an attention so as to retain the best talent and curb the attrition or else can
have major impact on the organizations in the longer run.
5.1.4 Training & Development
The results of survey on training and development process in the call centres from
managers and the agents perspective are found to be identical and positive. An
aggregate percentage of agreement from agents viewpoint is 58.6% and 68.2%
from managers viewpoint. The managers and the agents both admit the facts that
the training and development process in the call centres is effective and appropriate.
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The percentage below shows the minimum disagreement on various statements.
However, the expectations of managers are slightly higher than the agents that build
the pressure a little in terms of outcome expected.
5.1.5 Call centre structure
The call centre structure plays a very important role in any industry in achieving the
organizational goals effectively and efficiently. In the table 2 below, there have been
similarities found in the perception of the managers and the agents. It shows the
percentage of agreement of 51.5% from managers point of view and 61% fromagents perspective.
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On the other hand, the collective disagreement on the statements is 25.25% from the
agents side and 35% from the managers viewpoint. However, the managers to
some extent have more expectations than the agents in regard to the structure of the
call centres but it doesnt indicate their high confidence level.
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6. Discussion
From the above data analysis conducted on key variables of management practices,
it can clearly be seen that the primary research suggests that while most agents and
managers considered recruitment and selection along with performance
management systems in particular being largely responsible to high attrition rates in
the call centre industry in India.
While the surveys suggested that communication and training and development
were not major issues that concerned call centre industry in India, it is also worth
noticing how the industry analysts have expressed their position regarding the
issues.
Budhwar et.al (2009) suggested that employee attrition issues were related to
several other factors which were somehow or the other impacted by management
practices. For example, high turnover of employees could be attributed to their
psychological situations which were dependent on the amount of stress a typical call
centre agent would have to undergo. It was observed that a very less percent of time
was spent within the training and development areas in terms of stress management
sessions. Further, it was found that communication within the organisations on
important issues such as this was lacking overall more so in smaller call centres.
Their research analysed that one of the biggest problems related to attrition was
growing stress that agents faced in a typical call centre environment. While there is
not much that can be done in terms of the environment or the nature of business
itself, what was advised was that the structure of organizations was worth
considering as well. As has also been found in the primary research conducted
during this paper, the managers seem to have more expectations from the agents
than they deem necessary and it can also be implied that a generally process
oriented work flow could lead to the environment becoming very bureaucratic and
formal. It could therefore be important to consider the ways of improving internal
communication, work on the organizational structures and performance management
systems in a call centre.
While the above does not mean that other aspects of management practices can be
ignored as it is extremely important for the agents to feel motivated and engaged in
their work and achieve the common goals with the organisation. While based on
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Maslows and Herzbergs theories that have been discussed above, it can be
understood further that practically it might not be easy to find a way where the
employees aspirations can be met without compromising on the work standards.
A key theme that can therefore be drawn from the research is that there is a
significant scope for continuous improvement in management practices being
followed in the Indian call centre industry with respect to the recruitment and
selection, organizational restructuring, performance management and training and
development amongst other key areas.
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7. Conclusion
Based on the above discussion, it can be seen that the research has effectively
questioned the application and importance of the key aspects of management
practices in Indian call centre industry. The literature review attempted to consider
the existing knowledge that can be effectively applied to the attrition and retention of
manpower in the industry.
The importance of proper recruitments and selection practices, training and
development, communication strategies, performance management of the staff and
an organisations structure has always been considered important for any industry. It
has been found based on the above research that the same variables hold
significant importance when it comes to the call centre industry in India where
average attrition rates are very high and businesses must work across multiple areas
to ensure sustainability.
It can finally be concluded that based on the discussion they have a better
perspective in terms of understanding the factors that can impact a call centres staff
attrition or retention levels. The organisations and managers taking decisions arenow in a better position relatively to define and re-align strategies that can help them
create a better environment for their organisations to potentially curb the attrition
levels to manageable levels and thereby contribute to achievement of long term
goals of their organisations as well as the industry on the whole.
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8. Recommendations
The study has shown that attrition rate and its consequences are alarming and thus,
it is important for the Indian call centres to take individual and collective actions to
tackle the issues. Also, it is essentially required to take comprehensive look at what
can be done in the long and short run.
The issue of attrition can be addressed or curbed in two significant ways:
Actions to control attrition
Actions to manage the impact of attrition
8.1 Actions to control attrition
In India, the call centres are of different sizes with diverse clientele and therefore, the
actions to curb attrion should be taken as an industry and independantly. Actions to
control attrition are as below:
8.1.1 Short Term Actions
Pay for Complexity
The current practice to pay to associates is very basic and mainly based on shift
timings, part-time & full-time basis with incentives (based on performace). The
call centre industry in India treats most of the work at par to determine the
compensation i.e. all the profiles of the associate are of the same level. To curb
the attrition, an effective measure is required to institute in order to control the
issues of compensation and work related stress i.e. pay for complexity. One way
to integrate this structure is through complex grading process that will include
factors like stringent service levels, shift timings, complexicity learning curve and
other similar factors to fulfill the compensation gaps that will help in preventing
demotivation. Such a system based on complexity will provide etra allowance for
work with more stress and complex in nature. This will help the call centres in two
ways:
- By ensuring that the employees in the more complex profile with more stress
get extra allowance than the employees in the normal working profile.
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- By allowing employees to take decision if they want to stay in the same profile
with more complex work or would like to transfer in a role which is less
challenging.
Career Opportunities
Call or contact centres should provide career paths for their employees and must
maintain the standard procedures for promotions and growth. To establish career
paths for the employees, internal job postings should be incorporated so as to
provide them the opportunities of job rotation and promotions within the company
that will help also help the call centres to retain the best talent.
Training & Development
Call centres should introduce the training and development programs with
respect to the call centre industry so that potential aspirants can be benifitted.
Theattendance at such training programs must be linked to the performance
management system. Further, call centres should provide opportunities for
advance education (free or subsidized) for the employees aspiring for further
education without loosing their employment.
Communication
Call or contact centres have learned the significance of strong and effective
communication system. It is of vital importance to establish an effective
communication from the top management with the employees and should
communicate on the current state of business, promotion policies, future
business plans and fun in workplace programs. Various practices have proven
that there is no harm in over-communicating and face-to-face interactions or
meetings with employees work extremely well to ensure that the employees feel
connected to their company. It helps in retaining employees, curbing attrition and
building loyalty.
Employee Satisfaction
Call centres must conduct periodic employee feedback surveys and the
feedbacks from these surveys must be taken very seriously. An immediate action
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on the received feedbacks will demonstrate the commitment of the employers
towards their employees and the initiatives must be tracked for improvements till
the completion.
Mental & Health Conselling
As has been discussed above, it is important that firms lay more emphasis on
mental and health related aspects to ensure that stress burnout issues are kept
to minimum levels. There must be a concerted effort within call centres to put a
system in place where maximum support and counselling is provided to those in
need and unable to cope with the pressures.
Internal process (Hire to Fire)
The major responsibility of HRM in any call or contact centres is to improve the
recruitment and deployment process by not only hiring the right skills as per the
specific job description but also the available resources must be deployed in
training the employees appropriately with the help of the line managers.
8.1.2 Long Terms Actions
Enhancement of Talent Pool
Call or contact centres must work together at the industry level towards the
enhancement of relevent and quality education that is aligned with the industry.
Some of the well-known companies in the call centre industry have already taken
the initiatives in the same regard in India.
Use of intermediaries to make the talent pool
The role of intermediaries could be significant for the industry by providing the
polished diamonds to call centres aspiring to recruite potential employees. It can
be a great business for the companies in deals the training domain specifically
such skills training. They can help in reducing complexity in the recruitment
process by providing specific skill training to the job aspirants seeking jobs in the
call centres. These intermediaries could also work closely with the call centres to
make sure that the training provided by them is relevent and qualitative for end
users.
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Strengthen the talent Pipeline
To strenthen the hiring process in call centres, it is important to incorporate the
recruitment system based on the anticipated demand and expected attrition rate
that will help in maintaining a strong pipeline of applicants. This will also help the
call centres to manage the impact of attrition.
Succession Planning
The call centres who position themselves for enduring success sould realize that
sometimes it is difficult to manage the unexpected unavailability of the key
employee even when the company is larger than the individuals. Thus, the call
centres must ensure that they always have a succesor as a back up when key
personnel leaves the company suddenly in order to take charge of the critical
role.
8.2 Actions of call centres to man