A RECENT study by Hill and Associates, security and risk management consultants, on the attrition rate in the BPO sector, threw up some interesting insight.The study was conducted on targeted respondents that included the young population employed in the outsourcing business and with undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate education and who had changed their job at least once in the past three years. Key findings The survey revealed that most people join a BPO to gain exposure to an international level work environment and the infrastructure that BPOs provided. Not for `quick money', a `luxurious lifestyle' at a young age and a `career' that requires no particular educational background. Exits from BPO happen because of reasons like lack of growth avenues, expectation mismatch, dissatisfaction with organisational policies, and the quest for a better job profile. Not night shifts, monotony of work and lack of salary hikes. Where the HR department took steps to deter exits such as giving salary hikes, promotions, shift changes and other incentives, it did not succeed completely.

The survey revealed that respondents were overwhelmingly in favour of better career growth opportunities and improved company policies. The survey indicated that more than 60 per cent of the employees join a BPO after seeing job advertisements in newspapers or through manpower consultant references. The study found that the communication pattern of advertisements positioned the BPO job at a level much higher than its real delivery. An overwhelming 75 per cent of the respondents were financially independent of their families. Yet, a sizeable section among them turned to their families for support if they felt the need to quit their jobs. This cushion provided by the social support system often drove the respondents to quit their jobs at the first hint of any inconvenience on the job. The study says that the steps to manage attrition are not yielding the desired results because of the mismatch between the aspirations/expectations of the employees and the very nature of a BPO job. It concludes that there is need for a higher degree of due diligence at the hiring stage. At the hiring stage itself, companies need to make the prospective employee aware of what the job exactly entails and make an assessment of the potential response of the candidate in such job settings.