BPO business is one of the fastest growing service industries in India. It is one largest employer of young graduates. However, of late many of these companies are resorting to temporary employment practice. What other processes would you suggest them to get over the problem that has been bothering them lately?
The outsourcing wave seems to be getting bigger with domestic IT companies now outsourcing their workforce needs to temporary staffing companies. While captive BPO units like Wipro BPO, Accenture and IBM-Daksh have already begun employing temporary employees, third party units have also started negotiating with human resource companies.
The opportunity is much higher in the voice-based business due to the seasonal and short-term nature of the work, even in the financial services segment the employment is much higher during the financial closing of January-March quarter. The temporary workers (temps) are made available by the employee leasing firms like TeamLease.
Such companies provide a wide range of temporary staffing solutions including temporary-to-permanent services where in the company hires an employee for trial basis and absorbs him within the company on the basis on his performance; and long-term contracts where temps are hired for a longer period of time which may last up to two years.
The non-core functions like sales, front office, customer support, finance, back end operations and administration demand more temps. The reason seems to be quite obvious companies focus on their core functions to sustain the cut throat competition, while they outsource their non-core functions.
Hiring temporary workers comes with a packet of benefits for the organizations as well as for the employees. Organizations enjoy the benefit of workforce flexibility and ease of recruitments and quick replacements. Temping also saves training costs as leasing companies direct skilled and experienced workers to the companies. Moreover, non-productive employees can be chucked out without many complications. By outsourcing non- core functions, the company deeply focuses on its core functions only.
The companies also get more work done from temporary workers and also escape for paying those perks and Harleen Singh October, 2012 Page 1 incentives. From employee’s point of view, temping helps an employee to acquire different skills and upgrade basic skills by working in different setups. Employees acquire multiple skills to remain employable is competitive job markets. The temporary workers hardly get any perks and incentives like the permanent employees. The chances of becoming permanent with the client company are also less so possibility of achieving a stable career lacks.
The underperformers are always at risk as they can be sacked anytime and that too without a notice. Moreover, too much hopping act as red flags in one’s resumes. Though job security is still essential for many in India, an increasing number of young people are opting for temporary jobs. The market for such jobs will grow exponentially in coming years. Almost every sector, be it capital intensive or labour intensive, is showing keen interest in temps. Moreover, those candidates who have a hunger for multiple skills are increasingly taking up these jobs.
