BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Greying of India’s call centres
This is one of the more interesting (and non-hysterical) articles on India’s exploding economic development.
Basic premise – the increasing competition for staff results in turnover rates of 50%, as employees are enticed by competing firms offering higher salaries.
First response – hire older people. This is a tactic I saw when I worked in a callcentre and recruited people many moons ago. To be honest, we didn’t set any criteria, but the experience, attitude and ‘get on and do it’ attitude always meant anyone older got a job.
There’s an interesting experience curve that should be accelerated – although the boos quoted in the article says “…people in that age group are not easy to train and mould though they provide some stability to the company…” – what a crappy attitude to education – ‘train & mold’ – oh dear.
Which probably leads to the other reason for high employee attrition – lack of development and training. It’s the key reason for career-minded, younger employees to jump ship to better-paid, but also better prospect jobs:
“Companies are looking at options such as providing online courses to provide youngsters with the option of securing better educational qualifications.”
Interesting issues for a burgeoning sector. Also, this is an incredible growing market, that’s growing rapidly richer – a real opportunity for a global company if ever I saw one.