Enhancing Employee Engagement in BPO Sector: Addressing Night Shift Challenges

Dear All,

I am working for a BPO. We operate at night. Could any of you please suggest some activities related to ERM - Employee Relationship Management? Additionally, please note that most of our employees are in the age group of 20 to 28 years.

I am looking forward to some really cool and creative ideas.

Regards,
Tazeen Samani :)

Hi,

This phase in India is temporary. You really cannot have a situation calling for youngsters to work only at night throughout their career.

All of a sudden, we see lots of money, and we are compromising. These people would not have gotten jobs in large numbers.

Well, if you look at the history of industrialization, you will read a lot about the ill effects of night shifts! I am not in agreement with all, but working only at night is really tough.

I suggest that as a responsible employer, one should look at certain issues:

1. What is their career span, and how will you reward them at the end of the career span?

2. There is a nice system followed for mill workers in Coimbatore. They take large female employees for work, provide them shelters, and sign a contract for say 5 to 7 years. At the end of this, they give them a lump sum, say 50,000 rupees, which is a great sum for them for their marriage. Some call centers and BPOs must look at such options.

3. Have counseling sessions. Spend a little more money on training on personal values.

4. Have sessions on financial planning and family values.

5. Youngsters, no doubt, want more and more play and fun and pleasure activities. Many organizations provide these. Give these activities combined with some serious development activities.

6. Encourage them to study further. You can study what happened at Titan. They took people at the age of 14 or 15 and encouraged them to study.

Many girls and boys have qualifications, and some have gotten very good jobs. Some got promotions within. Some have moved out for good jobs. Some have settled down with VRS.

You need to plan such activities.

Siva

Hi, I'm Elias. I'm also working with the International BPO as an HR executive, focusing on employee relation management. What I think is, employees need more attention. I mean to say, engage in good activities, go on the floor to meet with the employees, show them you care and the company cares for them. Also, prepare a reward plan and organize outings. There are many activities that can be implemented, for example:
1) Traditional day
2) Dum Charades
3) Festival of Colors (teams dressed in colorful attire)
4) Cap day
5) Black and white day

In a BPO, it's crucial to understand that employees can get bored with constant calls and lack of entertainment. Therefore, we need to counsel them and assess their needs. Try out these activities and let me know if they are effective.

I appreciate your response. You have actually made me think beyond the routine days and events that we plan for employees. Your ideas can help us to give our employees a career, growth, or simply a way of life! Thanks a ton!

Well, like everyone is saying and it is assumed that in the BPO sector, retaining employees for a long time is seriously a big challenge. The biggest issue being the night shift and the stress level increasing because of that. I think that no matter what employee engagement programs these companies come up with, they are not able to bring down the attrition. So, I think they should seriously need to do something with the timing being allotted to each employee. Instead of working 10 hours a day or night, one should cut it down to say 7 hours a day for the ones who are taking up night shifts. What do you say... new innovative policy... and also keeping other employee engagement programs to build a new perception about the BPO companies - like having growth in the sector for the person, etc., etc. :-)