This month we report on what steps corporate-sourcing managers can take to improve a chronic problem in outsourcing — high attrition rates in BPO call centers. The Hay Group, an HR consultancy, projects that as many as 30%– 60% of BPO call-center workers will change jobs this year.
Imagine the productivity crash that would ensue if half of your team left for greener pastures in 2006. Your department bonus would march out of the door with them. Frustratingly, you would waste valuable time hiring and training replacements. That’s no big deal if your team is flipping burgers, but what if the process is B2B-related customer service — where agent scenarios are more complicated than yes-or-no responses? How will your department’s customer-satisfaction scores look with a bevy of inexperienced replacement workers?
The downstream impact of this global game of musical chairs isn’t a lack of seats — it’s untold millions of dollars in higher outsourcing costs. Guess who gets burned? The customer is left to pay ‘pass through’ rates for higher salaries and training, which buys them lower productivity and reduced customer satisfaction. The Hay Group contends that 27 cents of every dollar of operational expense is tied to attrition.
What can customers do about this? Some customers threaten to switch service providers or pound their fists on conference tables, while others devise carrot-and-stick clauses in master service agreements. But one thing is clear — even savvy service providers aren’t able to “ solve” this problem without customer involvement. In her report, New Delhi-based Juhi Bhambal, our Executive Editor-Print, compiled a list of more than 10 best practices that involve customers partnering with service providers to help stem high attrition rates.
Contrary to popular belief, the problem isn’t simply one of supply and demand — a switched-off workforce is also to blame. HR consultancy Towers Perrin, in its recent study of 85,000 workers in 16 countries, defines worker engagement as “the measure of people’s willingness and ability to give discretionary effort at work.”
Towers didn’t target BPO workers, but the study identified some universal truths. For instance, highly engaged workers feel they positively impact corporate performance. They also said in the study that they had learned useful skills in the past year. That kind of thinking is no secret to leading global service providers — firms which stress continuous improvement, and offer a variety of training programs and growth opportunities.
Anyone concerned about managing high attrition rates should consider this Towers study data point: worldwide, 59% of highly engaged workers intend to stay with their current employer, compared to just 24% of the disengaged group. This suggests that it’s highly important to know exactly how your service provider aims to “engage” and invest in its workforce.
Unfortunately, in India, just seven percent of the workforce is highly engaged, says Towers Perrin. Only 37% of Indian workers consider themselves moderately engaged. In China, only eight percent of workers are highly engaged, but on the bright side another 67% consider themselves moderately engaged. In the U.S.A. the numbers look a little better with 21% highly engaged and 63% moderately engaged.
Yet, the numbers are even more illuminating turned upside down. Fifty-six percent of the Indian workforce is disengaged — the runner up in this category is Japan at 41%, but globally the number is at 24%. Something is wrong and the study results suggest that the problems transcend IT outsourcing and BPO companies.
Service providers have tried lots of tricks — including throwing your company’s money at the problem. Now it’s time for customers to step up and play a leading role in devising innovative solutions. n
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