Techies find new haven in BPO, call centres

Prachi Verma in New Delhi

With most IT companies showing the exit to existing staff and no fresh recruitments in sight, business process outsourcing (BPO) and contact centres have proven to be the new havens for IT professionals.

National Association of Software Services Companies (Nasscom) estimates that about 15 per cent of new recruits taken in by call centers are software professionals. It expects this percentage to rise further in the next two years.

“Our estimation is based on recruitment advertisements and the percentage of software professionals are only expected to rise, to settle down at 25 per cent by 2004,” a senior Nasscom official said.

Companies like Transworks, Daksh eServices, IT&T, Parsec Technologies, ATS Services Pvt Ltd, Sapphire Callnet and Spectramind have all witnessed a rise in the movement of professionals from software as well as other sectors to contact centres. This is different from about a year ago, when only fresh graduates were lining up for jobs as a agents.

For IT&T, fresh graduate intake, which formed 70 per cent of the total call centre agent numbers, has shrunk to 40 per cent, with software professionals increasing their share from 5 to 35 per cent, in the last eight months.

“The mix right now has seen the entry of more software professionals and MBA or other professional degree holders, the reason being the slower growth in the IT sector and the general slowdown in the whole industry per se,” IT&T CEO Hemant Kohli said.

While for Transworks, about eight months ago a bulk of call centre agents (80 per cent) were fresh graduates, with at least six months of formal computer experience, now fresh graduates constitute only 50 per cent of the agent force. Here again, there has been a rise in MBAs and engineers applying to the company to become agents.

“The profile of applicants has changed in the last quarter—we not only have engineers/MBAs applying, but also people who have worked in the IT sector,” Transworks CEO Jagdish Moorjani said.

Increase in high-end services demanding vertical expertise by the customers, is another factor triggering the BPOs and contact centres to hire professionals with the required skill sets.

Spectramind, with over 1,300 call centre agents, has witnessed an increase of 25 per cent in people with technical and software backgrounds.

“Depending on the customers’ requirements, the demand for technical and skilled agents will only rise in future, with customer support taking a back seat,” Spectramind vice-president (HR) Varadarajan S said.

For EXLService India Pvt Ltd director (HR) Vikas Verma, the movement of professionals from other sectors to contact centres is “a move from recession hit industries to sunrise industry”.

The company has about 800 agents each in insurance and customer services and is currently recruiting doctors for its new set of clients.