ANNEXURE-I

A SYNOPSIS ON
Effect of organizational brand on prospective candidate recruitment and selection strategies adopted by BPO industries
(Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement of Master of Business Administration, Distance Education, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar)

Submitted By: Atul Upadhyay

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ANNEXURE-II

FORMAT FOR RESUME OF SUPERVISIOR/GUIDE 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. NAME DESIGNATION AREA SPECIALIZATION EXPERIENCE OFFICIAL ADDRESS MOBILE E-MAIL : Mr. Ajay Tyagi : Sr. Ops Manager : Operations : Over 10 years : Bldg 8, Tower B, 2nd floor, DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon, Haryana : 09810257741 : ajayagi9@dc.ibm.com

I am willing to supervise Mr. Atul Upadhyay Enrolment No. : 521158436

On the topic Effect of organizational brand on prospective

candidate recruitment and selection strategies adopted by BPO industries

Countersigned by Director of study centre with seal.

Table of Contents
1. Certificate Page 2. Acknowledgement 3. Executive Summary 4. Introduction 5. BPO industry in India 6. Recruitment 7. Recent trends in recruitment 8. Research methodology 9. Observation and findings 10. Conclusion 11. Questionnaire

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The balance of power has tilted. The spotlight has now moved from employers to their employees. And these power shifts had many repercussions, as the power to choose has evolved to the great extent, both in practice and in meaning. For instance, a person considering a job today would evaluate the organization on the basis of its portrayed image. Therefore it has becoming very important to oneself with the right qualities or attributes. This has led to organizations building brand image focused on attracting prospective employees. In the war for talent, HR professionals need to be backed by a strong brand that would serve as an important weapon in their recruitment armory. An organization should project itself in a way that would attract talent and conform to all their needs as well as employees expectations of an ideal workplace. Conversely, if an organization fails to project itself as an employer of choice, it can have a negative impact on even the best recruitment and retention strategies. Thus, any investment made on brand- making would be money well spent, if one equates it to the benefits that one stands to gain from it.

Following this, organizations seek to build an employer brand, having attributes that prospective employees look for in an organization before considering a job. Current stability and the future potential of the organization would be two key criterions for any prospective employee. as an employer brand, it is the sum total of what consumers (staff, potential staff, ex-staff) think about the organization as a place to work.

INTRODUCTION

The principal objective of the survey was to understand the current Recruitment & Selection trends in the ITES-BPO Industry in National Capital Region of India. Through the survey, I also sought to understand the various challenges BPOs are facing and the measures they are following to address these challenges. The sample comprised companies with different size of operations, headquarters at different tiers and locations across the country. These companies offer Voice & non-voice services to their clients. These companies specialize in more then one industry verticals that they serve. Most of them are moving up the value chain, i.e. they are moving from mere cost-saving options to providing more value added services that meet the growing requirements of their respective clients. For instance, in case of voice services- Tecnovate eSolutions, established in India in July 2001 by ebookers group, Europe's No.1 Online Travel Business is a pioneer in Multilingual Offshore Business Process Outsourcing in India. It is successfully servicing ebookers group, Europe's leading Online Travel Business and its group companies across 11 European countries in

9 different languages (English, French, German, Swiss, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Spanish). The Survey reveled that most of the BPO companies are trying to complement their hiring strategies with brand-building activities in order to increase their chances of hiring the best talent.

Hiring Strategies Adopted

The Hiring Strategies adopted by the respondents includes: Employee Referrals Campus Recruitments Advertisements and HR Consultants

For Lower Level Employees, the most widely used strategies are

Referrals, Campus Recruitments and Advertisements For Middle-Level and Senior-Level Managers HR consultants are mainly used.

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BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING (BPO) INDUSTRY IN INDIA

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a broad term referring to outsourcing in all fields. A BPO differentiates itself by either putting in new technology or applying existing technology in a new way to improve a process. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the delegation of one or more ITintensive business processes to an external provider that in turn owns, administers and manages the selected process based on defined and measurable performance criteria. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is one of the fastest growing segments of the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry. Few of the motivation factors as to why BPO is gaining ground are: Factor Cost Advantage Economy of Scale Business Risk Mitigation Superior Competency

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 Utilization Improvement Generally outsourcing can be defined as An organization entering into a contract with another organization to operate and manage one or more of its business processes. Different Types of Services Being Offered By BPO's Customer Support Services Technical Support Services Telemarketing Services Employee IT Help-desk Services Insurance Processing Policy Maintenance / Management: Data Entry Services / Data Processing Services Data Conversion Services Book Keeping and Accounting Services Form Processing Services

Internet / Online / Web Research

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Outsourcing is an arrangement in which one company provides services for another company that could also be or usually have been provided inhouse. The rapid development of the IT Sector, leading to increased cross-border trade of ITES, has widened the scope of outsourcing. In recent times, however the concept of outsourcing has experienced a sea change. The traditional perception of outsourcing has gone far beyond the use of other local firms in various operations. Today, outsourcing possible from single aspects of IT offloading the entire business functions to be performed and managed away from clients locations and even in different country.

Dimensions of BPO Business Process outsourcing (BPO) is often divided into two categories: Back Office Outsourcing which includes internal business function such as billing or purchasing and Front Office Outsourcing, which includes customer related services such as marketing or technology support.

Call Center Off shoring to India The successful experience of early offshore to India (Companies such as American Express, General electric and British Airways) from the mid1990s proved influential. While these were not interactive call center

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operations, but in-house, directly owned and controlled back office processing centers, they demonstrated the capabilities of both Indian workforce & the improving telecommunication structure. Tightening labor markets in the United States in the 1990s increased the volumes of IT & Back office work that were offshore, and also led to GE opening their first Indian Voice operations. Central & Local Indian Government Policies, including telecom deregulation, exemption & financial incentives and the generally accepted standard of infrastructure & facilities have influenced companies decisions to migrate. Nevertheless, Indian call centers employment has continued to grow rapidly as an integral pat of the ITES-BPO Industry.

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RECRUITMENT

The process of identification of different sources of personnel is known as recruitment. Recruitment is a process of searching the candidates for employment and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organizations Recruitment is a process of searching the candidates for employment and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organizations. It is a linking activity that brings together those offering jobs and those seeking jobs. Recruitment refers to the attempt of getting interested applicants and creating a pool of prospective employees so that the management can select the right person for the right job from this pool. Recruitment process precedes the selection process, that is, selection of right candidates for various positions in the organization.

Process of Recruitment

It is a positive process as it attracts suitable applicants to apply for available jobs. The Process of recruitment: Identifies the different sources of labor supply Assesses their viability Chose the most suitable source or sources

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 Invites applications from the perspective candidates for the vacant jobs.

Sources of Recruitment

The various sources of recruitment are basically grouped into two categories: Internal Recruitment (recruitment from within the enterprise) External Recruitment (recruitment from outside)
Internal Sources 1. Transfer 2. Promotion Sources of Recruitment

External Sources Advertisements, Management Consultants, Education Institutes, Recommendations, Employment Agencies, Casual Callers, Telecasting, Contractors, Poaching/Raiding, Website/e-Recruitment

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RECENT TRENDS IN RECRUITMENT

Outsourcing

Under this arrangement company may draw the required personnel from the outsourcing firms or agencies or commission basis rather than offering them employment. This is also called leasing of human resources. The outsourcing firms develop their human resource pools by employing people for them and make available the personnel to various companies (called clients) as per their needs. The outsourcing firms get payment for their services to their clients and give salary directly to the personnel. The personnel deputed by the outsourcing agencies with the clients are not the employees of the clients. They continue to be on the payroll of their employees, that is, the outsourcing agencies. Several outsourcing companies or agencies have come up which supply human resources of various categories to their clients. A company in need of employees of certain categories can approach an outsourcing company and avail the services of it human resources.

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The advantages of getting human resources through the outsourcing agencies are:

1. The companies need not plan for human resources much in advance. They can get human resources on lease basis from an outsourcing agency. 2. The companies are free from industrial relations problems as human resources take on lease are not their employees. 3. The companies can dispense with this category of employees immediately after the work is over. Poaching or Raiding

Poaching means employing a competent and experienced person already working in another reputed company, which might be a rival in the industry. A company can attract talent from another firm by offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions. Whatever may be the means used to raid rival firms for potential candidates, it I often seen s an unethical practice and not openly talked about. In fact, raiding has become a challenge for human resource managers of modern organization.

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 Website or e-Recruitment

Many big organizations use Internet as a source of recruitment. They advertise the job vacancies through the worldwide web (www). The job seekers send their applications or Curriculum Vitae, that is, CV; through e-mail using Internet, which can be drawn by the prospective employer depending upon their requirements.

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SELECTION

Selection involves a series of steps by which the candidates are screened for choosing the most suitable persons for vacant posts. The process of selection leads to employment of persons who possess the ability and qualifications to perform the jobs, which have fallen vacant in an organization. The process of selection divides the candidates for employment into two categories, namely, those who will be offered employment and those who will not be. The basic purpose of the selection process is to choose right type of candidates to man various positions in the organization. In order to achieve this purpose, a well-organized selection procedure involves many steps and at each step, unsuitable candidates are rejected. Both recruitment and selection are the two phases of the employment process. Recruitment being the first phase envisages taking decisions o the choice of tapping the sources of workforce supply. Selection is the second phase, which involves giving various types of test to the candidates and interviewing them in order to select the suitable candidates only.

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STAGES OF SELECTION:

Stage 1: Preliminary Interview In most of the Organizations, the selection program begins with preliminary Interview or screening. The preliminary interview is generally brief and does the job of eliminating the totally unsuitable candidates. The preliminary interview offers advantages not only to the organization but also to the applicants. It generally consist of a short exchange of information with respect to organizations inters in hiring and candidates inquiry. Stage 2: Receiving Applications Whenever there is a vacancy, it is advertised or enquiries are made from the suitable sources, and applications are received from the candidates. Stage 3: Screening of Application After the applications are received, a screening committee screens them and a list is prepared of the candidates to be interviewed. Applicants are then called on the basis of certain criteria. The screened applications are the reviewed by the personnel executives. Stage 4: Employment Tests

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Individuals differ in almost all aspects one can think of. They differ with respect to physical characteristics, capacity, level of mental ability, their likes & dislikes and also with respect to personality traits. Organizations rely to a considerable extent on the following employment tests: Intelligence Tests Aptitude Tests Proficiency Tests Interest Tests Personality Tests Employment tests are widely used for judging the applicants suitability for the job. They bring out the qualities & weaknesses of individuals that could be analyzed before offering them jobs. Stage 5: Employment Interview The main purposes of an employment interview are: To find out the suitability of the candidate, To seek more information about the candidate, and To give candidate accurate picture of a job with details of term & conditions and some idea of organizations policies. Employment Interview may consist of number of rounds of interview with various interviewers.
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Stage 6: Checking References A referee is potentially an important source of information about a candidates ability and personality if he/she holds a responsible position in some organization or has been an employer of the candidate. Stage 7: Medical Examination The pre-employment physical examination or medical test of a candidate is an important step in the selection procedure. Medical examination as part of selection procedure depends entirely upon the kind of jobs to be offered to the candidates. For instance some industries do not take up medical examinations of the candidates at all. Stage 8: Final selection & Appointment letter After the candidate has cleared all the hurdles in the selection procedure, he/se is formally appointed by issuing an appointment letter or by concluding with him/her a service agreement.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Objective

To study the Recruitment and Selection Trends in BPO Sector. The principal objective of the survey was to understand the current Hiring & Selection Procedures followed at various BPOs in the ITES-BPO Industry in National Capital Region of India. Through the survey, I also sought to understand the various challenges BPOs are facing and the measures they are following to address these challenges. Universe

BPO Sector located in National Capital Region (NCR)

Sample Size

02 BPO Companies situated in NCR (Delhi, Gurgaon & Noida)

Sample Area

Delhi, NCR

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Data Collection

Sources of Information: Primary & secondary sources of data

Primary Sources:

Questionnaire Interview Schedule

Secondary Sources:

Newspaper clippings (Regular Articles on Current HR Trends in HT Power Jobs section of Hindustan Times)

The Business Today experimental guide to Managing Workforce (special fourth anniversary issue of Business Today)

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OBSERVATION AND FINDINGS 01.

Name of the Company Situated in Number of offices in India

: IBM GPS Pvt. Ltd. :DLF cyber city, Infinity 5th floor, GGN. : Eight

Rose IT Solution is a leading provider of world-class Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services to global customers

Hiring Strategies (Sources of Recruitment)

External sources

1. 50% of hiring through Employee referrals: In case of Referrals, 50% of the first salary of the new recruit is paid to an employee who referred him/her. 2. Consultants

Internal Sources 1. Transfers 2. Promotions

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Selection Procedure

Mode of Selection

Round 1: Written test-General Aptitude Test Round 2:Test for Specific Skill Sets (Process Specific) Round 3: Group Discussion Round 4: Personal Interaction Round (PIR) Round 5: HR Round

Steps Followed

1. Preliminary Interview 2. Receiving Applications 3. Screening of Applications 4. Employment Tests 5. Employment Interview 6. Final Selection & Appointment Letter 7. Induction

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Types of Employment Tests

Aptitude Tests Proficiency Tests (Process Specific: Voice or Non-voice)

Kind of Employment Interviews

Group Interview Process Specific Interview

Client Participation in the Recruitment Process

Clients Participate in the Recruitment Process only at the time of Process Initialization.

Average Duration Of the Training Period

2 Months

Average Duration of the Probation Period

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6 months

Measures Adopted to Check Retrenchment Rate

People Oriented policies, practices & initiatives Performance Monitoring & Appraisal System is made highly transparent. Appropriate Incentives to employees at various levels.

Future Plans

Over the next two years, company is aiming to have 2,500 professional headcount. Looking for a new place as part of Companys ramp-up exercise.

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02.

Name of the Company Situated in Number of offices in India

: Artech Infosystems Pvt. Ltd. : A 4 &5 logix Park, Sector-16, Noida : Three

Artech Infosystems Pvt. Ltd. is a leading US-based global provider of process-driven, quality-centric BPO, contact center and technology support services. These services are provided from its multi-city, state-ofthe-art processing centers in India and are supported by highly secure, reliable, and scalable computing and communications systems.

Hiring Strategies (Sources of Recruitment)

External sources

1. Education Institutions/Campuses 2. Website/e-Recruitment

Internal Sources

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1. Transfers 2. Promotions

At Artech Internal Job Placements are the most preferred modes for filling vacancies. Transfer of employees is considered o he most preferred way of filling any vacancy. The recruitment process at Artech requires a potential candidate to go through a series of rounds involving telephonic interview, online tests to assess technical & language skills, V&A assessment and HR screening.

Selection Procedure

Mode of Selection

Round 1: Telephonic Interview Round 2:Online Tests to assess Technical & Language Skills (Artechs Recruiting System) Round 3: Process Round

Round 4: V& A (Voice & Accent Assessment) Round Round 5: Final HR Screening

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Steps Followed

1. Preliminary Interview 2. Receiving Applications 3. Screening of Applications 4. Employment Tests 5. Employment Interview 6. Final Selection & Appointment Letter 7. Induction

Types of Employment Tests

Aptitude Tests Online tests to check Technical & Language Skills

Kind of Employment Interviews

Depending upon the vacant position to be filled, following Employment Interviews are taken

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 Structured Interview Non-Directed Interview Stress interview (Situational)

Average Duration Of the Training Period

1 Month

Average Duration of the Probation Period

6 months

Measures Adopted to Check Retrenchment Rate

People Oriented policies, practices & initiatives Appropriate Incentives to employees at various levels. Career growth programs are tailored to meet the aspirations of individual employees in terms of professional and personal growth.

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The Project basically included a survey on the Recruitment & Selection Procedures deployed by the BPO Companies in the National capital region (NCR) of India.

The aim was to find out the Current Recruitment Trends in the BPO sector and further to find out the selection procedures followed by the companies.

The survey threw up some interesting findings about the Hiring Strategies (Sources of Recruitment) of the BPO companies in NCR, which have been summarized below:

By & large, companies have depended on three channels of Recruitment-

Referrals Print Advertising and Consultants

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In absolute numbers, referrals and print advertising channelize the largest number of employees. 90% of BPO companies are using referrals & print advertising as a source of recruitment. Other popular channels of recruitment are academic institutions, web and internal postings. For instance, referrals are expected to bring in as much as 40 percent new recruits for V-Customers this year (i.e. 2005).

Companies in the NCR region have a strong dependence on consultants too There are possibly two explanations for this trend.

The NCR has much larger catchments area from where they can source people. NCR companies can source their talent pool from Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Kolkata and even Northeast. Consultants are more aggressive in the North.

Remunerations offered by the BPO companies

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Most of the BPO companies are offering a remuneration of 10-13K per month to their customer care executives. Where as for other position participants were reluctant to disclose the Pay packages.

Emerging Trends in the BPO Sector as per the Survey Responses

Speech Automation

BPO hiring ads to get bigger, better

Expansion by existing BPO players, new entrants, bigger projects, mergers and acquisitions and the setting up of R&D bases make for perfect ingredients for mammoth recruitment drives that are only set to get bigger and better. Attracting the right talent is the highest priority for IT/ITES companies.

Companies Hiring from Small Towns

Recruiting is fast becoming a fine art in the BPO sector. With the number of contact centers on the rise, recruiters are hard-pressed to

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turn to smaller towns for meeting their rising manpower needs. There is a move to fill the gap with recruitment from smaller towns.

For instance, Rose International, a third party BPO service provider for the US and United Kingdom, is currently hiring 300 people per month. As part of its recruitment strategy, in addition to its ongoing recruitment in the National Capital Region, Rose is also aggressively targeting B and C-category cities for candidates. HR Banks on Referrals While traditional channels like print advertising, consultants, academic institutes, and the Web continue to play an important role in the recruitment strategies of BPO companies, employee referrals have emerged as a big source of recruitment in the BPO Companies.

Challenges before the BPO Sector

There are several challenges faced by BPO sector but the most important of them are:

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 Rising Attrition Rate Security of Clients information in terms of confidentiality poses a major threat to Outsourcing business.

Recruitment and Selection Trends in the ITES-BPO Sector

QUESTIONNAIRE
Name of the Company Address of the Company Number of Offices in India Year of Establishment Name of the Interviewee Designation Department : : : : : : :

Q.1-What is the nature of Ownership of your Company? VC Funded Pure Play IT-Services Owned Corporate Owned JV/Other

Q.2-What is your companys primary industry? Automotive Banking

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Business services Communication Computer Services Electronics Education Financial Markets Government Healthcare Insurance Life Sciences

Q.3- How many employees does your company have?

Less than 1000 1,001-5000 5,001-10,000 10,000-20,000 More than 20,000

Q.4- How big is your HR Department? How many people are directly involved in Recruitment?

Q.5- What is the nature of services you offer? VoiceServices only Non-Voice Services only Both

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Q.6- Mark the types of services your company offers: Voice Services a) Simple/Lo wer end Inbound Customer support Outbound Customer support IT Tech Helpdesk Level 1 &2 IT Support Skills Required Non-Voice services Transaction Process Content Management Document Conversion E-Support Medical Transcription Desktop Publishing Research & Analytic Tax processing Adjudications Medical Billing & Coding Skills Requi red

b) Premium/ high end support

IT Tech Helpdesk Level 3 Outbound calls Collections

Q.7- What is the scale of Operation of your Company?

Q.8- What are the positions offered by your company? Please bifurcate according to cadre.

Q.9- What is the career path of the positions specified by you?

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Q.10- What is the range of current salaries offered at various levels? Executives Sr. Executives Team Leaders Asst. Managers Managers Trainers Others

Q.11- What are the various other benefits & fringes offered?

Q.12- How do the salaries of Voice v/s Non-Voice employees compare?

Q.13- What are your Hiring strategies (Sources of Recruitment)? Rank in order of preference:

External Sources: Advertisements Employment agencies Management consultants Educational institutions

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Recommendations Casual callers Telecasting Contractors Poaching/ Raiding Website/e-Recruitment Internal sources: Transfers, Promotion

Q.14- Do your clients also participate in the Recruitment process? If yes, when & to What extent?

Q.15- What percentage of candidates interviewed ultimately get selected?

Q.16- An average organization undertakes the following Selection Procedure 1. Preliminary Interview 2. Receiving Applications 3. Screening of Applications 4. Employment Tests 5. Employment Interview 6. Checking References 7. Medical Examination

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8. Final Selection & Appointment Letter 9. Induction Chose the ones Relevant to you

Q.17- Which Employment Tests do you, use for employee Selection? 1. Intelligence Tests 2. Aptitude Tests 3. Proficiency Tests 4. Interest Tests 5. Personality Tests 6. All of the above

Q.18- What kind of Employment Interviews do you generally conduct? 1. Patterned/Structured Interview 2. Unstructured/Non-Directed Interview 3. Preliminary/Background Information Interview 4. Stress Interview 5. Group Interview 6. All of the above

Q.19- What is the average duration of the training period?

Q.20- What is the duration of the probation period for your BPO employee?

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Q.21- What are the various measures adopted to check the retrenchment rate in your company?

Q.22- According to you what are the key trends emerging in the Indian BPO-Industry?

Q.23-What according to you are the challenges faced by the Indian BPO-Industry?

Q.24-What Brand building activities your company is carrying out to complement its hiring strategies?

Q.25- What according to you, BPO-Industry is heading towards?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Newspaper clippings (Regular Articles on Current HR Trends in HT Power Jobs section of Hindustan Times)

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The Business Today experimental guide to Managing Workforce (special fourth anniversary issue of Business Today)

Reference Books:

DeCENZO A. DAVID & ROBBINS P. STEPHEN, Personnel/ Human Resource Management, Third Edition, Prentice-Hall India

Kandula R. Srinivas, Human Resource Management in Practice (with 300 Models, techniques and tools), Prentice-Hall India

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