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Despite rumours, BPOs say they're not hit hard

Oct 19th 2008

Airline, hotel employees apply for BPO jobs; experts say financial BPOs more affected than telecom

 
With the global market scenario hitting a new low, BPOs are expected to get a beating and rumours are already doing the rounds. Sunday MiDDAY spoke to industry experts who said that third party BPOs are more comfortable than captive BPOs. Within captive BPOs, the ones related to telecom are more secure than those connected to the financial industry.
Deanne Rodrigues, HOD, branding and marketing communications at Hutchison 3 Global Services said, "There has been a meltdown in the financial sector, whereas the telecom field is relatively safe. Financial companies such Merrill Lynch and Lehman closed down and other financial companies are facing problems. Companies like ours in the telecom field are not really affected by the global recession. Subscriptions are on an international high. Continuous service variants (technology) are being introduced."
Rodrigues said that the company was looking at expanding its customer base. "There is no attrition. In the CRM industry, lay-offs are handled more carefully. With employees from the airlines and hotel industry feeling insecure, they are considering joining the BPO industry in customer care, training and HR," added Rodrigues.


Rumours circulating

Even though some BPO head honchos claim that their companies are secure, there is a sense of insecurity amongst employees. Rumours are crippling the trust that employees have in their companies. "Job insecurity has always been there in the BPO sector. However, the availability of jobs and the number of new BPOs cropping up don't put us under as much pressure as the aviation or hospitality industry," said a BPO employee working on an aviation process.
Vishal Verma, operations manager at a BPO, said, "With the US condition, more jobs are being outsourced to India. Third party companies are safe, as when one client pulls out, there are others you can depend on. It is the captive companies like the US companies here in India, which are facing the pressure."
Another employee said, "Now most of us are staying away from financial processes. Processes involving sales and marketing are always safer."
Kaman Vaswani (name changed), employee relation manager of a BPO said, "There isn't a very big difference in the overall BPO scenario. Lay-offs only happen when a particular process closes down and not because of the markets."