Don't just blame odd hours for BPO attrition

10 Jun, 2008, 1407 hrs IST, Jayashree Bhosale, ET Bureau

PUNE: Anand (name changed) is a Senior Executive in a big BPO company. After going through a stressful life, now in a rocky third marriage, he finally decided to seek help. "There was an overlap between my personal and professional life. I had challenges in my personal life regarding relationships outside my marriage. I faced problems at the workplace too.

Today’s capitalist culture tries to push people beyond a point," said Anand. Anand is just one example of the booming outsourcing industry which has been facing the challenge of a high attrition rate which is close to 60%. Studies have attributed this to factors like a stressful job environment in the BPO industry, including odd working hours. However, a study conducted at a BPO by psycho-therapist Dimple Shah, who heads Revival Life, revealed that a majority of the problems of these employees are not work-related . They are more related to personal life and family.

"Work-related stress in BPOs is hugely hyped. The measures that the companies take to reduce stress are also hyped. Measures like out-ofcountry vacations, good canteens, etc do not go to the root of the problem, which originates from their personal lives and requires counselling, either individually or in a group," she said.

The Revival Life study covered the period from December 2006 to June 2007, covering nearly 100 people at one Mumbai BPO. Ms Shah said the stress levels at this BPO were low since they did not handle inbound calls. "We found that 50% employees were normal , 40% had anxiety, 27% had depression and only 10 % had stress. The proportion of those suffering simultaneously from all, that is stress, anxiety and depression was 20 %," Ms Shah remarked , adding, "These 20% people need therapeutic solutions, which takes a longer time."

With the high attrition rates, the human resource (HR) department is busy fire fighting, occupied in recruitment and training, with not much time to spare for counselling activity. "The HR department tends to use motivational and communication programmes for solving employees problems of the employees. However, such measures are useful for only about 20% of the workforce. The real solution lies somewhere else," said Ms Shah.