DEBATE: "Lack of good middle-level managers at the operational level is the biggest challenge for the BPO industry"

Yes. Handling telephone calls and managing teams of people are not one and
the same thing



I sincerely believe that there is no teacher like life. No job, no
organization, no training program can teach you what life's experiences can.
And this is especially true when managing people. 

India has, today, become the hub of global outsourcing, primarily because of
its people strengths. Not only a large English-speaking population, but they are
also better in terms of quality and sincerity than people elsewhere. It is no
surprise that India has consistently delivered better QoS, even when the
industry was not so mature.

Similarly, Indians have succeeded globally as great managers and have spent
years in the global businesses, more so in specific industry sectors such as
technology, banking and finance, and telecom industries. So, while the quantity
and quality of manpower was a great factor that started the phenomenon of
offshoring to India, it is these top managers who acted as catalysts for its
fast growth, and become so mature in so short a span of time. These were top
managers-typically CXOs handling operations, HR, finance, business
development, solutions design (consulting)-who had years or even decades of
experience in the US and UK as well as in India. They are the pool from which
the Indian BPO industry has drawn its top managers. Needless to say, they are
second to none.

Similarly, for functions like marketing, finance, HR, and technology, we have
a talented set of youngsters passing out from the IITs, IIMs, and other good
institutions, who are entering this fast growing industry.

However, when it comes to operations-and that too operations in an industry
like this, where you have to handle large numbers of people-the picture is not
so rosy. Typically, the workforce in the industry is: young (aged19 to 23
years); fresh from college; enthusiastic, ambitious, intelligent, and computer
savvy; sees a lot of opportunities in a growing sector; not too sure of their
career plan; and lack structured training in language and communication skills.

Managing a large number of young professionals with above-mentioned traits
requires a high level of maturity in those who manage them. Typically, in
international companies, these leaders come from amongst the associates
themselves who have spent considerable period on the shop floor, are mature
enough to judge people and their performance, and have the ability to provide
some mentoring if required. These come only from experience. Typically, a call
center agent in the US would have spent 7—8 years on the floor and would be at
least in the mid 30s.

However, this luxury is not available to the Indian BPO companies. To find
managers for their workforce, they have to choose people with an experience of a
year or two only. Usually, these are agents who would have performed well. But
it is still a risky option.

Immature personnel are thrown into positions they are ill equipped to handle.
Professional managers, who can manage a large workforce, gain their knowledge
through experience. Promoting a good CSR as a team leader may provide respite in
the short run but can create problems in operations in the long run if the team
leader does not possess skills necessary for the job. They are young, mostly 25—28
years, lack formal training in people-management skills, are not aware or
sensitive to agent's aspirations, lack the ability to judge true performers,
and lack understanding in human behavior.

Allowing a team of CSRs to be managed by an inexperienced middle management
team may result in frustration leading to high attrition amongst CSRs;
favoritism/groupism leading to inefficiency; politics on the operations floor
etc. Issues may spin out of control.

Thus identifying middle management personnel/floor leaders with the required
people-management skills is one of the main challenges of the BPO industry.
Eventually, such people will rise in the BPO industry, but during the period of
growth, identifying such personnel in such large numbers will be a true
management challenge.

While no immediate solution is at hand, a few steps can be taken to tackle
the challenge.

• Train young managers in people management skills.
• Look for people management skills before assigning a supervisory role.
• Try going the other way-take trained managers and teach them the
  operations by posting them on the shop floor.
• Plan a long-term management-training program for a supply of these
  managers on an industry-wide basis. n

No. Grooming managers from among the operations staff is better in the
long run as they fit better

Things change rapidly these days. What constituted best practices a year or
even a month ago, might no longer be yielding the optimal returns on the
investment. The best way to ensure that our call center practices are really the
best is to constantly reassess our systems, procedures, and practices to make
sure they are in line with the real-time business goals and requirements.

Moreover, the present growth trend and contributions from the call center-BPO
space in India leaves us with no choice but to come up with fast and effective
solutions to manage the perennial challenge of 'quality vs. scalability.'
Each and every function within the industry is now facing this challenge. To add
to the complexity, there's a 'newness' trait-new industry, new
workforce, new leaders, new managers, new management, new culture, new pace, new
situations, and new challenges everyday. The need of the hour is to develop a
large and better-prepared managerial pool to handle scalability more
effectively. In such a high attrition industry scenario, the reasons for this
are fairly straightforward. Now, the alternatives available to scale-up the
managerial pool are either to hire from outside or to groom the right talent
from within the organization. Let's look at these options more closely.

When we hire people from outside: we have the opportunity to rely on data to
verify their track record; it requires much lesser lead time, compared to
developing a manager from scratch; these managers bring in new perspectives to
business and are also useful in managing inorganic growth in the short term.

The drawbacks on the other hand are: higher cost, risk of projecting past
success to a new field, cultural blending issues, and addition of more
complexity to an already volatile model. In a high attrition environment, these
are definitely huge concerns.

Similarly, when we look at the other alternative-grooming managers from
within, we see the following benefits.

Supply Pipe: Trend analysis and growth opportunity allows us to plan
and forecast the managerial requirements for the future.

Higher Retention: A clear career path for employees helps manage
retention to a great extent.

Better Cultural Fit: Each BPO-call center, due to the generation of
employees, builds a culture of its own. A manager from within always comes with
a better cultural fit as compared to someone hired from outside.

Better Emotional Fit: In this industry, there's enough evidence to
prove that employees are 'first emotional and then logical.' In-house
managers' association and orientation with colleagues, peers, supervisors, and
staff helps achieve a better emotional fit.

Knowledge Transfer: In an industry with huge learning opportunities at
all levels and in the absence of any formal knowledge management model, in-house
managers and their experiences are a knowledge bank.

Proven Track Record: The hard facts about their performance are
available within the organization. This includes quantitative performance data
as well as qualitative feedback from peers and managers.

Lower Cost in the Long Run: Effective in-house managers are always
less expensive in the long run as the cost of their making mistakes reduces as
they grow.

There are, however, areas of opportunity as well, e.g., longer preparation
time, subordinate perspective instead of managerial perspective, and cost of
attrition at this level.

Between the two options we, as an organization, are strongly committed to
developing managers from within. This may look challenging, is but undoubtedly
more rewarding in the long run. To drive this, we need to view
manager-development programs as an investment rather than an expense.

The challenge of grooming in-house managers will look less threatening,
provided we handle the following key areas better: Who to select and groom for
managerial roles; what to train these future managers for; how to effectively
develop their managerial skills and not just their knowledge; and what's the
best retention strategy to deploy

At TransWorks, we have tried this model out with great success and we are
continuously developing the model to keep pace with the changing environment.
For these programs, the eligibility criteria are very clearly defined and the
selection process is extremely stringent. Thus it is clear that if an
organization is focused, finding mid-level managerial talent can be effectively
managed.