Hi All,
I am a newcomer to this site and indeed greatly delighted to be a member of this site too. I have read the queries posted in the site and really appreciate the way they have been responded to. Great job! Let me introduce myself. I am an HR professional for a medium-sized KPO company in Trichy. I am new to this field and have limited knowledge of HR aspects. I have been tasked with implementing new HR policies here. As I do not have a senior person to guide me in my company, I would like to request the readers to help me out with their valuable suggestions. Kindly let me know the general roles of HR in companies like BPO and KPO.
Regards,
Ranjani.S
From India, Coimbatore
Acknowledge(0)
Amend(0)
I am a newcomer to this site and indeed greatly delighted to be a member of this site too. I have read the queries posted in the site and really appreciate the way they have been responded to. Great job! Let me introduce myself. I am an HR professional for a medium-sized KPO company in Trichy. I am new to this field and have limited knowledge of HR aspects. I have been tasked with implementing new HR policies here. As I do not have a senior person to guide me in my company, I would like to request the readers to help me out with their valuable suggestions. Kindly let me know the general roles of HR in companies like BPO and KPO.
Regards,
Ranjani.S
From India, Coimbatore
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Greetings,
Appreciate your kind words. HR for ITES domain is different in its implementation and the way talents need to be managed. You would find similar guidelines for IT, but KPO/ITES domain experience a higher degree of volatility. Let us take a fine view of this sector.
Talent
The talent remains highly susceptible to market factors such as better pay or more benefits. Creating 'employability' holds the key. The employee life cycle is timed differently. They can be categorized in the following ways:
- Stop-gap arrangements: There will always be some talent who join this sector as a stop-gap arrangement. They are primarily students who work in this vertical as their first few jobs. Thereafter, they graduate into other sectors such as Banking, IT, and MBA education.
- Convenience: For a few, it's convenience that brings and keeps them in this sector. Talents such as working Moms, people who have been working in the marketing field for a long time and now can no longer work in the field, lowly paid yet highly skilled talent such as Teachers, market researchers, and others.
- Home runner: Finally, it's the talent who sees a future in this vertical. They may have worked in other service sectors such as marketing, teaching, media, hotel, defense, and retail. They are trained to an extent. This vertical suits their behavioral and professional pattern. Hence, they work efficiently in the operations and quality before they shift into training or other business development areas.
Policies for Talent Management
When you design a policy and draw your Employee handbook, please do keep this talent base in view. Primarily, policies differ in terms of cost implications. The cost-per-employee is lower compared to IT. Hence benefits are offered differently. The talent market remains volatile, so absconding cases increase business risks. This impacts how you manage your employees internally so that your talent pool allows you to leverage the billability. Suppose in IT you will have a project valuation and hire resources based on that. Whereas in ITES, you will have the process valuation and a minimum number of agents mentioned. But in practice, you will hire more employees exceeding the minimum number. Suppose your process valuation is $400 per agent. You would leverage and hire two trainees for Rs. 10,000 each, including incentives. This means your monthly pay would be around Rs. 7,000 for each. This covers your business risk. Even when one employee absconds, there is another one to run the process until you hire a new employee within the remaining cost.
In IT, this would not work this way. Every developer would be billed on the total project cost. Hence, when you manage your employee, you make them sign bonds/Training Agreement, which would cover your project cycles. The benefits and retirements are all planned as per the gross budget. The leaves are as per the state and central government guidelines but aligned to the client's calendar. An IT Firm will not work on Independence Day. But a BPO would. They would rather have a holiday on American Bank Holiday or Thanksgiving.
HR's Role
Here, your fundamental duty is to provide continuity to the business. You would have challenges from the talent base with a high rate of attrition, sudden absenteeism during high work volume, non-adherence to policies related to information sharing, etc. You need to focus on employee engagement not just by arranging events for the employees but creating meaningful employment for them. Make sure there are enough trainings that can ensure their employability once they move out of the company. The HR policies need to be followed with zero tolerance for any deviations. Keep a clear view of the employee life cycle and flag the early warning signs for attrition as efficiently as possible. You cannot stop people from leaving your company. You can only ensure that when they leave, there is a minimum impact on the business. Keep your talent pool ready. Hiring and training need to be super-efficient to ensure the fastest billability for every new hire. Background verification is another area you need to focus on, but it can be outsourced until you have the bandwidth to deliver it.
You would find every HR-related document in the CiteHR New Member's group. There are formats, forms, policies, agreements, budget plans, calendars, etc. There would be changes that you would be required to make depending upon your requirement. Blog about the bottlenecks that you face while designing them and allow us to contribute.
Regards, (Cite Contribution)
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
1872Appreciate your kind words. HR for ITES domain is different in its implementation and the way talents need to be managed. You would find similar guidelines for IT, but KPO/ITES domain experience a higher degree of volatility. Let us take a fine view of this sector.
Talent
The talent remains highly susceptible to market factors such as better pay or more benefits. Creating 'employability' holds the key. The employee life cycle is timed differently. They can be categorized in the following ways:
- Stop-gap arrangements: There will always be some talent who join this sector as a stop-gap arrangement. They are primarily students who work in this vertical as their first few jobs. Thereafter, they graduate into other sectors such as Banking, IT, and MBA education.
- Convenience: For a few, it's convenience that brings and keeps them in this sector. Talents such as working Moms, people who have been working in the marketing field for a long time and now can no longer work in the field, lowly paid yet highly skilled talent such as Teachers, market researchers, and others.
- Home runner: Finally, it's the talent who sees a future in this vertical. They may have worked in other service sectors such as marketing, teaching, media, hotel, defense, and retail. They are trained to an extent. This vertical suits their behavioral and professional pattern. Hence, they work efficiently in the operations and quality before they shift into training or other business development areas.
Policies for Talent Management
When you design a policy and draw your Employee handbook, please do keep this talent base in view. Primarily, policies differ in terms of cost implications. The cost-per-employee is lower compared to IT. Hence benefits are offered differently. The talent market remains volatile, so absconding cases increase business risks. This impacts how you manage your employees internally so that your talent pool allows you to leverage the billability. Suppose in IT you will have a project valuation and hire resources based on that. Whereas in ITES, you will have the process valuation and a minimum number of agents mentioned. But in practice, you will hire more employees exceeding the minimum number. Suppose your process valuation is $400 per agent. You would leverage and hire two trainees for Rs. 10,000 each, including incentives. This means your monthly pay would be around Rs. 7,000 for each. This covers your business risk. Even when one employee absconds, there is another one to run the process until you hire a new employee within the remaining cost.
In IT, this would not work this way. Every developer would be billed on the total project cost. Hence, when you manage your employee, you make them sign bonds/Training Agreement, which would cover your project cycles. The benefits and retirements are all planned as per the gross budget. The leaves are as per the state and central government guidelines but aligned to the client's calendar. An IT Firm will not work on Independence Day. But a BPO would. They would rather have a holiday on American Bank Holiday or Thanksgiving.
HR's Role
Here, your fundamental duty is to provide continuity to the business. You would have challenges from the talent base with a high rate of attrition, sudden absenteeism during high work volume, non-adherence to policies related to information sharing, etc. You need to focus on employee engagement not just by arranging events for the employees but creating meaningful employment for them. Make sure there are enough trainings that can ensure their employability once they move out of the company. The HR policies need to be followed with zero tolerance for any deviations. Keep a clear view of the employee life cycle and flag the early warning signs for attrition as efficiently as possible. You cannot stop people from leaving your company. You can only ensure that when they leave, there is a minimum impact on the business. Keep your talent pool ready. Hiring and training need to be super-efficient to ensure the fastest billability for every new hire. Background verification is another area you need to focus on, but it can be outsourced until you have the bandwidth to deliver it.
You would find every HR-related document in the CiteHR New Member's group. There are formats, forms, policies, agreements, budget plans, calendars, etc. There would be changes that you would be required to make depending upon your requirement. Blog about the bottlenecks that you face while designing them and allow us to contribute.
Regards, (Cite Contribution)
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Thank you so much, (Cite Contribution). It really gives a great sense of recognition. Can you please let me know the other general functions of HR?
Many times, I find myself very nervous to conduct meetings or discussions. Most of the things that I am asked to communicate to the staff are done through instant messenger. I am comfortable having one-to-one communication. However, I am unable to build good rapport with my employees. Many of the staff in my company are seniors to me and I am scared that I will be mocked if I go somewhere wrong while communicating with them. I feel very restless and as though I am being noticed by someone. Kindly help me to get rid of my nervousness. I truly understand that this quality will not let me grow into a successful HR professional. Kindly, someone help me with this problem of mine.
Regards,
Ranjani.S
From India, Coimbatore
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Many times, I find myself very nervous to conduct meetings or discussions. Most of the things that I am asked to communicate to the staff are done through instant messenger. I am comfortable having one-to-one communication. However, I am unable to build good rapport with my employees. Many of the staff in my company are seniors to me and I am scared that I will be mocked if I go somewhere wrong while communicating with them. I feel very restless and as though I am being noticed by someone. Kindly help me to get rid of my nervousness. I truly understand that this quality will not let me grow into a successful HR professional. Kindly, someone help me with this problem of mine.
Regards,
Ranjani.S
From India, Coimbatore
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Greetings,
Your fear becomes a non-negative attribute when you couple your understanding with knowledge and experience.
Please consider my following advice:
- The fact that the leaders and your peers at your office know more stems from the point that they have joined before you. They might have been working in this industry. But this is no reason for your fear.
- Keep learning about your vertical, especially the talent behavior and business models. Your effort will eventually earn respect when you make level-headed decisions based on your domain knowledge.
- Absorb every amount of information that you can get from them. No matter how many business magazines you read, the best learning will come from your live environment. Try and attend the team hurdles or meetings as they call it, with the leaders' permission. No matter how foreign it sounds to you, follow every word that is being discussed. Sooner or later, you will get a hang of what is happening at the office. In case they don't allow you to attend any operational meeting, try and mix with the employees and allow them to speak about their work. Mostly they would vent, but still, you will have a view of what it is.
- Find a network of HR outside your organization. You would get to learn a lot as you mix with different people from different organizations. Listen to how they manage and resolve them.
- Try and see the point of contact in a group. The reason being, when you address many people together, you build in a consensus. Meeting someone in private is a great strategy but should not be done in isolation. Make sure what you speak remains uniform and no one can misquote you.
- Each time you prepare for a town hall, remember the core message and the reason why you are talking to them. The fear that you have will die as you do it more and more.
I will explain the HR functions in detail. Please allow me to revert on that.
Regards,
(Cite Contribution)
Thank you so much (Cite Contribution). It really gives a great sense of recognition. Can you please let me know the other general functions of HR? Many times, I find myself very nervous to conduct meetings or discussions. Most of the things that I am asked to communicate to the staff are done through instant messenger. I am comfortable having one-to-one communication. I am unable to build good rapport with my employees. Many of the staff in my company are seniors to me, and I am scared I will be mocked if I go somewhere wrong when communicating with them. I feel very restless and feel as though I am being noticed by someone. Kindly help me get rid of my nervousness. I truly understand that this quality will not let me grow into a successful HR professional. Kindly, someone help me with this problem of mine.
Regards,
Ranjani.S
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Your fear becomes a non-negative attribute when you couple your understanding with knowledge and experience.
Please consider my following advice:
- The fact that the leaders and your peers at your office know more stems from the point that they have joined before you. They might have been working in this industry. But this is no reason for your fear.
- Keep learning about your vertical, especially the talent behavior and business models. Your effort will eventually earn respect when you make level-headed decisions based on your domain knowledge.
- Absorb every amount of information that you can get from them. No matter how many business magazines you read, the best learning will come from your live environment. Try and attend the team hurdles or meetings as they call it, with the leaders' permission. No matter how foreign it sounds to you, follow every word that is being discussed. Sooner or later, you will get a hang of what is happening at the office. In case they don't allow you to attend any operational meeting, try and mix with the employees and allow them to speak about their work. Mostly they would vent, but still, you will have a view of what it is.
- Find a network of HR outside your organization. You would get to learn a lot as you mix with different people from different organizations. Listen to how they manage and resolve them.
- Try and see the point of contact in a group. The reason being, when you address many people together, you build in a consensus. Meeting someone in private is a great strategy but should not be done in isolation. Make sure what you speak remains uniform and no one can misquote you.
- Each time you prepare for a town hall, remember the core message and the reason why you are talking to them. The fear that you have will die as you do it more and more.
I will explain the HR functions in detail. Please allow me to revert on that.
Regards,
(Cite Contribution)
Thank you so much (Cite Contribution). It really gives a great sense of recognition. Can you please let me know the other general functions of HR? Many times, I find myself very nervous to conduct meetings or discussions. Most of the things that I am asked to communicate to the staff are done through instant messenger. I am comfortable having one-to-one communication. I am unable to build good rapport with my employees. Many of the staff in my company are seniors to me, and I am scared I will be mocked if I go somewhere wrong when communicating with them. I feel very restless and feel as though I am being noticed by someone. Kindly help me get rid of my nervousness. I truly understand that this quality will not let me grow into a successful HR professional. Kindly, someone help me with this problem of mine.
Regards,
Ranjani.S
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)CiteHR is an AI-augmented HR knowledge and collaboration platform, enabling HR professionals to solve real-world challenges, validate decisions, and stay ahead through collective intelligence and machine-enhanced guidance. Join Our Platform.
Talent Management Emerges as Top European HR Challenge.doc
TALENT MANAGEMENT IN HR - STRATEGY ppt.pdf