Product details

This is the first of a two-case series (204-132-1 and 304-389-1). In 2004, call centres were the fastest growing segment of the Indian information technology enabled services (ITES)-BPO (business process outsourcing) sector with historic growth rates of 112% in revenues and about 75% in employees. The competitive advantage that India enjoyed was the combination of a huge pool of technically qualified English speaking graduates who were willing to work for lower pay than their counterparts in the US or the UK. However, the Indian companies now faced the problem of increasing attrition among its workforce - 30-35% in 2003, from 20-25% in 2002 and 10% in 2001. This case discusses in detail the nature of call centres in India and the various reasons that have led to the high attrition. Call centres in India is a nascent industry, but has been experiencing robust growth since the late 1990s. Revenues from call centres have increased from US$90 million in 1999-2000 to about US$810 million in 2002-2003. This industry now faces the problem of employee attrition, which if left unchecked could seriously affect India''s competitive advantage of high quality, low cost service offering. This case allows scope for discussion in the following areas: (1) the challenges being faced by Indian call centres with the emergence of attrition problems and whether or not this would affect India''s current competitive advantage; (2) the issues related to compensational and non-compensational factors of attrition and which of these needs greater attention; (3) if the inherent nature of the job is causing attrition in call centres, then what should be done by the companies to reduce attrition; and (4) whether the focus of retention strategies should be more on compensational or non-compensational factors. A structured assignment ''204-132-4'' is available to accompany this case.