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 Knoah
Solutions, an inbound technical support call centre and BPO company
believes in total transparency in its HR practices to ensure continuous
business growth. The company claims that it is this factor that
has limited its attrition rate in an industry notorious for its
high employee turnover. Established three years ago today the call
centre has as many as 750 employees and is into voice, e-mail, live
chat, and BPO services. The company, which claims to be the largest
call centre in Hyderabad involved in the third party environment,
provides backend operations to its customers. The 500-seater call
centre is taking another 500 seats facility this year. The headcount
will reach the 1,000 mark by the end of this year with plans for
further expansion.
“We are catering to backend operations
for our customers, including an Internet Service Provider (ISP)
and two wireless software services companies,” says Flt Lt
Bipin Chandra, VP (India operations), Knoah Solutions. He points
out that as the company grows, employees will also get increasing
benefits.
Training focus
The company has a strong focus on manpower training
according to their requirements. The internal training department
aims at improving the skill sets relevant to the work profile of
employees. This includes improving communication skills, e-mail
programming and operation systems. The employees attend calls (inbound)
from customers of its clients from ISP and other wireless software
services companies. They also provide services to clients through
online chat or e-mail. As the company is involved in sales order
processing work, it also does transaction processing.
“We have a very healthy promotion system,
which keeps pace with the growth of the company. Whenever a new
position is created at a higher position, the first priority goes
to an internal employee. If the slot is not filled by an employee
because of non-availability of a particular skill set, then only
we opt for outside recruitment,” says Bipin Chandra.
Recruitment pattern
For entry-level recruitment, the company prefers
newspaper advertisement. It conducts written examination followed
by a test in technical skills (operating systems, e-mail programming
and networking concepts) and communication skills with a focus on
logical reasoning. Those who cross the 60 percent cut-off mark appear
for a group discussion. This group discussion is aimed at testing
a candidate’s speaking abilities and other personality aspects.
The technical interview is conducted to absorb successful candidates.
For inbound operations, the operations manager conducts a voice-screening
test.
The company has a unique practice of briefing
the new recruits about the pros and cons of the call centre industry.
Before absorbing the selected candidates, HR managers conduct personal
interviews to know more about their family backgrounds and appraise
them of the typical work culture in the call centre industry.
“The testimony of our HR practices and
work environment is our low attrition rate. Moreover, our employees
who left the organisation went for software development jobs and
not to any other call centre. Usually, MCAs and engineers prefer
software development profession to call centre jobs. I personally
meet each selected candidate before the company absorbs him or her.
I advise them to have a word with their family and well-wishers
to take the decision on choosing a job at a call centre. About 50
percent of our recruitment is referral-based and this shows that
our existing employees are satisfied and happy with our good management
practices. Otherwise they would not have recommended their friends,”
he explains.
Career growth
Knoah offers rapid career growth when compared
with other call centres and software development companies, points
out Bipin Chandra. He elaborates, “It will take more than
10 years to become a manager in the manufacturing industry. IT industry
is known for its faster career growth, however after three-four
years one may become a team manager and thereafter a team leader.
The average period is seven-eight years to become a project manager.
In the call centre industry, the average time-scale to become a
project operations manager is five-six years and three years to
be a team leader. At Knoah, employees are benefited with faster
career growth and other training facilities. As the industry has
a growth rate of 50-60 percent, naturally it passes on the same
benefits to the employees also.”
Doing away with hierarchy
There has been a conscious effort to disband
the hierarchy system. Just anybody can approach anybody—from
the junior-most staff to the senior management. The latter are always
willing and available to solve people problems.
Considering the personal needs of employees,
Knoah practices a flexible shift system that facilitates employees
to work in different shifts. The staff is provided with free food
and transportation facilities, which are common practices in the
industry. All employees are covered under the group insurance scheme.
With an increasing number of organisations in
the US, UK, Canada, EU and Australia preferring business process
outsourcing from low-cost countries like India, the company foresees
a good potential in this segment. It is proud of the fact that it
gets repeat orders from its employees.
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