ITeS industry: Age no bar

Sudipta Dev / Mumbai

The ITeS industry is generally perceived to be the preserve of 22-year-olds in a campus-like environment. It is partly true, but the situation is fast changing. While most in the industry do happen to be freshers who work at the agent level, there is now active recruitment of people in their 30s, 40s and sometimes even 50s. These people can range from mid-career professionals with domain expertise to retired people and housewives. Most call centres and BPO outfits see many advantages in hiring mature people. Indeed, today, for those interested in making a well-paid career in the sunrise sector, age certainly is no bar.

Mid-career professionals can seek careers in wide-ranging functions in the ITeS industry—sales and marketing, operations, transition, finance, legal, administration, HR, quality control, etc. For an industry which is growing at the rate of 70-80 percent, strong middle management capabilities have become critical, says S Nagarajan, founder and COO of 24/7 Customer. “As a young industry that is in a high-growth phase, career opportunities exist for mid-career professionals across all areas of the business—from core operations and operations support to business development and business support.”

There is no dearth of roles and responsibilities for mid-career professionals in the industry; their rich experience gives them the edge over the vast majority of youngsters joining the sector. Zia Shiekh, CEO of Infowavz International explains: “First and foremost, ITeS is a people- and process-intensive industry. Among the most important characteristics required for any manager operating in this industry is the ability to effectively manage, motivate, reward, recognise and retain the best talent. Obviously, this is an ideal role for mid-career professionals who have experience in people management and problem-solving. As such, they are able to provide good leadership and guidance to the younger members of the workforce. Their maturity and experience also helps them bring stability to an ITeS environment, along with best-practices from other industries where they might have worked previously.”

Manuel D’Souza, head of HR at Intelenet Global Services, informs that those focused on Quality and Six Sigma processes and process improvement can enter the corporate quality team. People with an IT background get into the project management team. Many opportunities exist in the training department—process related, domain-specific training, voice and accent training, etc.

Challenges

The main challenge in employing the 30-plus professionals (particularly in the call centre industry) is their reluctance to work on night shifts. Shiekh points out that typically a mid-career professional is married with a young family. Working night-shifts consequently becomes a problem for them, particularly those who are family-oriented. There is a lot of pressure from their family to take up a ‘normal’ day-time job.

Infowavz has found a partial solution—shift rotation, which gives an opportunity to people to work during the day whenever possible. “Further, we actively work with the families of our professionals to convince them about the long-term benefits and growth prospects that the professional will have as part of this industry. Often, if one of the family members is already working in the industry, it becomes easier for other family members to also shift to the industry since their working hours then become harmonious,” points out Shiekh.

It is no longer difficult to attract people as a result of the kind of compensation and growth opportunities that the industry is able to offer. It is however important to inform them of the unique traits of the industry at the time of hiring.

“We take them to the operations floor to give them the flavour of the job,” says D’Souza. This has controlled the attrition rate at Intelenet by 25 percent. While earlier for every four new recruits one would drop out later, now all four continue to work.

Age group

The age group being targeted for mid-managerial positions are people in their thirties, with at least seven to twelve years of relevant experience in the services industry.

However Gautam Chainani, director of human resources with WNS Global Services, points out that the industry has demonstrated that people can be given and can successfully handle high degrees of responsibilities and complex portfolios at an early age (25+). Most of the new opportunities in terms of the number of people required are for freshers (less than 25). “We have defined and implemented a competency-based programme to identify talent with managerial potential, and put the people with strong competence in managerial positions. Those who display trainable potential are put on a talent allowance and development plan to take up managerial positions within a year. For those who needed significant improvement, we are putting in a customised competency development programme. This is done for two reasons—to meet our growth plans and to provide growth opportunities to our people and retain them.”

The demand-supply gap between in-house talent and actual requirements leads to crises in the industry which necessitate recruiting professionals from other sectors to bridge the gap.

Varied backgrounds

The ITeS industry offers many opportunities for people with a services background. Those with certifications or sizeable years of experience in the following industries are sought after—hospitality, travel, financial services, retail, media and communications.

“The scope of work in the industry both at the managerial and associate level is very broad-based; it spans most sectors of the economy, and offers considerable growth. The career options for mid-career professionals in this space are consequently numerous and present across verticals,” says Atul Kunwar, managing director, global outsourcing, eFunds.

As a career option, a back office or contact centre professional with specialised industry experience could take up a managerial role where the scope of growth is immense. “In a typical outsourcing solutions/operations

role, this professional could look at significant vertical and lateral growth. The other option is that of taking up part-time work as a consultant in processes where high levels of domain expertise are required,” informs Kunwar. eFunds focuses on three verticals: financial services, telecom and the retail space. While recruiting, the company therefore looks for expertise in any field related to winning, servicing and retaining customers in these verticals, spanning processes which are voice and backoffice-based.

Recruitment strategy

All organisations have their own recruitment strategies. eFunds has a mid-career professional programme which runs parallel to the entry-level recruitment programme. Intelenet is hiring retired professionals (who have taken VRS) and housewives at agent level, while 24/7 is looking at tapping experience from the allied services industries. “Our recruitment strategy for this segment revolves around making sure that the people we attract understand our industry and have the requisite skill-sets to effectively deliver the goods. We make significant investments of time, effort and money to train people from other industries so that they are able to perform effectively at Infowavz. As such, it is a major commitment for us and we ensure that our professionals demonstrate a long-term commitment to Infowavz and to the ITeS industry,” asserts Shiekh.

Advantages

There are many advantages of hiring mature professionals. Apart from bringing in knowledge and experience, they have greater staying power. For an industry severely afflicted by a high attrition rate, this commitment to their organisation is a stabilising factor.

“Mid-career professionals with domain/ functional experience help reinforce the middle layer of the organisation. They bring with them functional knowledge and best practices that a young and growing organisation can leverage on,” adds Nagarajan. Chainani agrees that with experience behind them, such professionals are more stable and capable of handling portfolios than their younger counterparts. They incorporate systems to facilitate more efficient working of their departments. Further, being matured individuals, they adapt well to repetitive functions that require patience.

D’Souza concedes that hiring matured individuals in an emotionally-stressful job environment has a positive impact: “They are good at negotiating skills, conflict management and sales calls even when people are harsh with them.” Their long-term perspective further enhances their productivity and some of them are at par with the best of the agents among the younger lot.

Intelenet is also hiring part-timers (in the 40-plus group) who do not want a daily job, but are interested in working just four to five hours everyday. “They are doing well and have a high productivity score,” points out D’Souza. He adds that based on this successful experiment, the company will shortly hire more such professionals.

Disadvantages

While the advantages of hiring experienced professionals far outweigh the disadvantages, there are a few disabling factors. These are mainly the reluctance to work in night-shifts and a rigid stance.

Says Shiekh, “Mid-career professionals have often got used to a certain way of working, and are sometimes rigid about changing their behaviour to suit this industry. This is not a challenge with the younger workforce, which tends to be more malleable and willing to change, if required.”

It is also important to treat them differently from entry-level professionals. “The managers need to be sensitised to give due weightage to their experience. We also need to provide them with an environment conducive to growth,” says Kunwar, adding that this industry is a mine of opportunity for professionals looking for a career in the service sector. “All industry estimates indicate huge potential—whether we look at direct or indirect employment generation, creating ancillary industries, or the ultimate value creation for the Indian economy. For any professional, this is a good time to start playing a part in this process of value creation.”

sudipta@expresscomputeronline.com