Make a career in the BPO sector: Post your queries!

AN agent seated in a colourful cubicle, ears sandwiched between a large pair of headphones, all set to tackle the queries of customers based out of the US – this is the most popular image associated with the BPO.

For a sector that has been around in its current avatar for over a decade in India, a BPO is still synonymous for many, with two words – call centre. So, do all BPO employees answer phone calls?

@ the Call Centre

“First of all we don’t use the term call centre anymore, and refer to them as contact centres because there are different programmes - the most common being the incoming call by a customer using the phone,” Tim Huiting, Vice President-Human Resources, Convergys gives us an update, along with a snapshot of what agents do, besides verbally answering customer queries.

“They respond to customers through e-mail or chat, a growing area right now. You are not speaking but it’s a live programme. Some programmes are a blend – a call back to a query, an online intervention, plus someone does research and will then call the customer back…”

In other words voice is only a component of the industry, albeit a substantially large component. With over 300 big companies, and presence in almost all cities, the sector employs more than a million individuals, with a large posse of frontline staff (known as agents) along with a team of managerial staff. Click here to understand the structure of a BPO, entry-level job profiles in operations and indicative salaries.  Also, get savvy with your BPO lingo! 

Who is your client?
A chunk of international clients are based in the US, UK and Australia and include companies in banking and financial services, insurance, health care, energy and utilities, manufacturing, communication service providers, retail services and transportation, to name a few. Typically, agents work in eight-hour shifts, a majority of whom clock in the night shift, due to the time lag, though some in the back office functions also work during the day. For instance, Priya Jayant, Senior Customer Care Officer at Convergys, Gurgaon, tackles e-mails sent by customers in the US, relating to their credit cards.

She works in a day shift. “In the Philippines, the concept of the night shift is much more embraced. For instance, some commercial establishments offer Happy Hours in the morning, because a huge group of people get off work at 5 a.m. Lots of things in the Philippines are built around the BPO industry,” says Tim. Though the night shift has been a bone of contention, it is an inevitable part of the Indian BPO scenario, and is here to stay it seems.

India's top BPOs + methodology
View the Careers360 ranking (table to the left). We ranked the top 25 BPO firms by consolidating the rankings of industry body NASSCOM and leading IT magazine DATAQUEST that were spread over the last five years (2005 to 2009). We accorded even weights to these two rankings. While NASSCOM ranks 15 firms every year, DATAQUEST lists the best 20 BPOs (DQ listed top 25 and top 40 BPOs in 2006 and 2005, respectively). The firms that figured two times or less in the last five years were ignored as were the firms which appeared only in one publication. Also, scroll down to view our comprehensive listing of BPOs,  along with information on location, services offered and more. 

The walk-in interview!
The recruitment process for a BPO job, as discovered by Careers360 correspondent Shiphony Pavithran, is no cakewalk! We sent Shiphony on a mission – to attend a walk-in interview at one of India’s top BPOs and though she came back with an offer letter, the process lasted eight hours! Read her walk-in interview experience . We also  outline five common interview  mistakes, ranging from using slang to talking to too fast . 

Getting hired
We give you specific details about the hiring process right from eligibility, to what is expected in the verbal and written rounds, documents you must carry, salary talk and more. Stringent background checks to verify if all information submitted is authentic, is part of the territory since the information handled by agents is sensitive and must be kept confidential.

“We work with NASSCOM-accredited agencies to do background checks on all new recruits. Sometimes recruits lie about companies they have worked with in the past or even try to hide criminal activity,” Raghavendra Krishnamurthy, VP & Head HR, Infosys BPO informs us. Typically the results come in between 30 and 60 days of joining. So, keep it real. 

Interestingly, the BPO sector encourages talent from all quarters. Bangalore BPO e-VindhyaInfo’s staff comprises 95% differently-abled men and women in the age group of 24-30 .

Read about Madhu, a Learning & Development Facilitator at IBM Daksh, who is 100% visually impaired , and Amit Jaitley, who despite being afflicted with polio, manages the entire operations of an IBM Daksh centre in Chandigarh (view box). And with the establishing of rural BPOs in villages, rural youth also get on the BPO bandwagon .

Training for the job!
If you aspire to join the BPO sector, get used to the idea of rigourous training and assessment, at every juncture – sometimes before you join, after your join and when you get promoted! Typically, fresh recruits undergo three to six weeks of intense training to improve their communication skills and understand the process they will be working in.
 
Read our in depth piece on training to understand what it feels like to be back in a classroom!  Be prepared for a highly interaction sessions, animated instructors and constant feedback.

Moving up the ladder
Ankit Sharma (name changed) started out as a voice agent two years back, now works as a Subject Matter Expert (SME). “I joined a team where agents who know different languages help customers through chat and e-mails. Today I’m training the 28th batch,” says Ankit. Typically, an SME’s role includes training agents in the process, process reengineering projects, managing people (partly), SLA Compliance, customer interaction and knowledge management. Team Leadership within operations, is the next step, if you have leadership qualities and good process understanding. Read about Ankit's night shift experience 
 
Typically, a Team Leader at Infosys’ BPO manages between 5 to 20 people, and one can reach this position in four year’s time. “You need maturity of leadership and domain knowledge. From here on you can move into Operations Management. Initially when the industry started, we focused on voice and low end data processing as the focus was on cost and labour arbitrage. But today it has shifted to value-adds by offering end-to-end solutions. Hence, your job profile could have you directly dealing with clients, looking at solutions for the client and even people management. For instance, you could even become Client Operations Head or Solutions Design Head,” says Raghavendra.

Self-learning tools
Several top BPOs provide additional tools for learning. For instance, IBM Daksh and Convergys have extensive online self-learning programmes with courses on domain areas such as finance or telecom, as well as self-improvement modules such as team management and assertiveness.

Shikha Tyagi, Recruitment Officer (Team Leader level), Convergys A Dehradun girl,  I joined Convergys five years back as a Customer Care Officer, but always wanted to be in the HR field. But I heard that Convergys did not hire HR Executives from outside and promotes their own people. So, after working as a CCO for one-and-a-half years, I got to know of an Internal Job Posting (IJP) for the post of Recruitment Executive. The IJP team sends out an internal communication on new postings to all. Anyone who is interested can apply. So, I applied, went through a Group Discussion and interview round, and got through. In this position, I did frontline bulk hiring of agents. But now I have moved into Recruitment Operations at a Team Leader level. A TL in recruitment does not have a team unlike the TL in operations. I take care of auditing and compliance for pan India. We take care of the recruitment database and analysis, and share reports with the leadership, make PPTs if required. For instance, I also interface with our vendors such as placement consultants. The learning has been phenomenal. The next level would be that of Assistant Manager position, then Manager. I currently work in the 12 a.m. to 9 p.m. shift, and sometimes hang on till about 11 p.m. to wrap up work.

Moving beyond operations
An agent can also move into other key departments such as Recruitment, Training and Quality. “Training and Quality are part of the same umbrella. However, a quality evaluator is someone who will listen into calls. Every agent’s calls are reviewed each week in terms of compliance, following the proper protocol, voice etc, and they received feedback,” says Tim. Agents with a flair for training can at some point embrace the role of a trainer (also referred to as facilitators). Some trainers find takers outside the industry. 

For instance, NIIT Uniqua, which conducts BPO training has several trainers who started their careers in a BPO. Lateral movement is common in many BPOs through Internal Job Postings (IJP). “At Convergys, people have moved back and forth between departments. The transitions are fluid, functions are closely knit and tenures at the company are getting longer,” says Ashutosh Sinha, Director, India Recruitment, Convergys.

The KPO landscape
Postgraduates and those with professional qualifications find opportunities in KPOs, which are essentially BPOs that offer high-end services, which in turn demand specific skills. For instance, Infosys BPO hires those with a Master’s in Statistics and a Master’s in Economics to do ‘Statistical Modeling and Analytics’ for clients. “We also hire CAs, CFAs, MCom degree-holders, lawyers and MBAs for HR, Solution Design and pre-sales,” Raghavendra shares. KPOs in India offer a variety of services, but the largest chunk comprise Legal Process Outsourcing (LPOs). Vivek Menon Director HR, Integron  sheds light on what LPOs do. Also, read our interview with Dr Alok Aggarwal to understand the career scope in a KPO.

Getting ahead!
And it does not stop at KPO. As Raman Roy, Father of BPO industry says says elsewhere in the story we have just scratched the surface. The domestic market is yet  to be tapped in a big way. Opportunties for efficient service delivery for domestic customers abounds and the exisitence of more than 30 companies in the last few years  vouches for the untapped potential. Another important area is the non voice rural BPOs. And between them these two new segments might grow at a much faster clip than conventional BPOs.

“We are always looking for people who will take the initiative to go out and learn,” says Tim who has also mentored and several trained several agents in the course of his BPO stint. He adds with enthusiasm, “And if you want to get ahead and don’t know where to look I would be very happy to have that conversation with you!”   

 CLICK HERE to view a comprehensive listing of top BPOs at a glance!

The Careers360 team and Pankaj Agnihotri from NIIT Uniqua, a BPO training company will answer your BPO queries. Post your BPO query, today!