India needs to focus on manpower development for BPO growth

The only pitfall to India's seemingly fairy-tale like growth in the BPO segment could be the sustained availability of quality manpower for the sector. While companies have been able to manage the manpower requirements till now, industry captains have rung the alarm bells that the resource pool may soon dry up. Ironically, availability of cheap and quality manpower has been touted as India's main advantage over many other BPO destinations.

Speaking at a panel discussion, organized by GTL Ltd in association with CNBC, about the issues plaguing the BPO industry, Vivek Kulkarni, Secretary to the Govt of Karnataka for IT and biotech, set the mood for the discussion that the industry may soon be faced with a manpower crunch. Therefore, the Karnataka government has initiated an exercise called B-SAT or BPO Skill Assessment Test, which would certify skill levels of individuals for the BPO industry. Accordingly, individuals aspiring to join the industry can take up adequate training to qualify for the sector. 

However, industry veterans like Raman Roy, Chairman and MD, Wipro-Spectramind, said that the issue needs to be addressed at a more fundamental level. The Indian education system should gear up to provide vocational training to students in skills like US GAAP accounting processes. Citing numbers, Roy said, "If the Indian ITES industry should grow to $ 21-$ 24 billion by 2008, at least $ 5 billion would be outsourced work from US, a sizable part of which would comprise work related to US
GAAP." 

Another issue pointed out by Rakesh Kumar, President and Country Head, Global Vantedge is that for low-end jobs, we need to train that category of population, which is willing to take that job profile. He said that it is true that there is a huge English speaking population, but there are just not enough people to work for the low-end voice based outbound kind of services. The level of English competency requirement is quite high, since the interaction is voice-based. 

Besides, the agent also has to be familiar with the cultural contexts. Therefore, the need to train people in English language should be extended to those people who are expected to take up such lower end jobs.

Manoj Tirodkar, CMD and CEO, GTL Ltd and Arjun Vaznaik, COO, TracMail, pointed out that the need to train agents has had a telling effect on the finances of the company and that the government should step in and improve the education system. Kulkarni raised a dissenting voice to this discussion on the ground that the individual training needs of the companies would have to borne by them. 

Although he did acknowledge that there was a need, to change the educational structure to meet the changing requirements of the industry. Another issue that was debated, was the need to build the India brand in the overseas market. While some brands are already well known, there is a lot that needs to be done for smaller companies. As such there is need to promote the Indian brand as a destination for outsourced services.

Cyber News Service