Employment relations in the BPO industry

According to Rouse and Corbitt, 2004), BPO can be defined as the “delegation of an IT-intensive business process to an external provider who owns, administers and manages it, according to a defined set of metrics.” Expanding the scope of this definition further, Feeney et al (2003) states that many back office processes such as human resources, finance and accounting, and insurance services can also be outsourced. Peter, Pervan and Wreford (2009) define BPO as “as the outsourcing of any knowledge-intensive business process.” Regions where there is a large population of skilled and qualified professionals available at relatively lower costs are ideal places to set up BPO operations (Levina and Vaast, 2008).

I am employed at a leading BPO company in Sri Lanka, and attached to a department that works for a European legal firm. Our job requires us to be well versed in the British Highway Code, the money claims court procedure and the insurance industry of that country. Such BPO operations, where people with specialised skills and knowledge are expected to perform relatively unscripted work are classified as “Knowledge Services”, according to Bhargava (2006).

Arora and Dhole (2019) point out that more than 50% of the employees employed at BPOs in South Asia belong to Gen Y, and therefore, the managers need to be mindful of this population when devising appropriate strategies. CIPD (2021) points out that employment relations in the modern context offer a voice to the employees at an individual level. Echoing the same, Nayar (2013) states that in massive organizations that rely heavily on frontline client experience, one cannot expect each decision to be made by veteran executives. Instead the younger members of the workforce should be empowered to initiate and implement innovative ideas. Johnson Controls, Haworth and iDEA report (2010) suggest that these employees expect flexible working hours, communal sharing experiences. They even prefer having meetings at breakout areas over actual meeting rooms. Arora and (2019) further state that opportunity for learning, quality of life and the type of work colleagues also plays a key role in an employee’s decision to stay with or choose such a firm. Assurances about upward mobility and growth are also very important in the BPO industry (Santoshi and Santosh, 2013).

References

Bhargava, N. (2006), “Redefining BPO”, available at: www.wnsgs.com (accessed : 26 December 2021).

Feeny, D., Lacity, M. And Willcocks, L. (2003), “Business process outsourcing: The promise of the ‘enterprise partnership’ model”, available at: www.templeton.ox.ac.uk/oxiim/bpo.htm (accessed 26 December 2021).

Johnson Controls, Haworth and iDEA Report (2010), “Global workplace innovation”, available at: www.Johnsoncontrols.in/content/dam/WWW/jci/be/global_workplace_innovation/oxygenz/Ox ygenz_Report_-_2010.pdf (accessed 26 December 2021).

Kevan Penter Graham Pervan John Wreford, (2009),”Offshore BPO at large captive operations in India”, Information Technology & People, Vol. 22 Iss 3 pp. 201 – 222

Levina, N. And Vaast, E. (2008), “Innovating or doing as told? Status differences and overlapping boundaries in offshore collaboration”, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 32 No. 2, pp. 307-32.

Nayar, V. (2013), Handing the Keys to Gen Y, HBR, May, available at: https://hbr.org/2013/05/handingthe-keys-to-gen-y [Accessed on: 26 December 2021].

Nidhi Arora, Vijay Dhole, (2019) “Generation Y: Perspective, engagement, expectations, preferences and satisfactions from workplace; a study conducted in Indian context”, Benchmarking: An International Journal.

Rouse, A. And Corbitt, B. (2007), “Business Process Outsourcing (BPO): the hysteresis effect and other lessons”, Information Systems Outsourcing, Enduring Themes, New Perspectives and Global Challenges, 2nd ed., Springer, Berlin.

Santoshi Sengupta Santosh Dev , (2013),”What makes employees stay?”, Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal, Vol. 6 Iss 3 pp. 258 – 276


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