Myths of BPOs busted: of 6 Sigma and Loyalties (Part II)

Who is the right sort of person for working/being hired by you?

Before I answer this question, let me first dispel two myths about BPOs. It is important to clear the air even before you start hiring or you will end up hiring the wrong people.

Myth #1: BPO jobs demand no entrepreneurial skills.
Truth #2: BPO jobs demand no entrepreneurial skills from only the clerk. The creative ones among us can find newer methods to deliver the services that are demanded by clients. Let me give an example how the truly gifted can carve for herself a unique niche within the BPO/KPO industry. It is commonly held that this sector is best run through the Six Sigma Protocols. What is this Six Sigma process and what are its applications? Six Sigma is used for routine tasks and is used to save operational costs through the streamlining of routine activities like delivering parcels for a courier company, servicing customers with technical help for an electronic product and so on. This same Six Sigma breaks down in one-to-one human interfaces. It is precisely at the instant when a call-centre executive talks to a customer trying to sell insurance, say, the Six Sigma loses value. Here the entrepreneurial skills of the executive come into play. How better can I pitch my sales? Is it proper that to this client, who is so grumpy, I appear so cheery? What does his voice tell me? All these parameters and more have to be assessed by your employee within literally milliseconds. This is where the individuality of the employee comes into play.

The present structuring of the whole BPO/KPO industries is based on the SIX SIGMA protocols: get them, train them, and let them loose. This is the sure fire way to waste both crucial financial resources and human resources. Your training makes zombies of your most important assets and the money spent in terms of both raw cash and time/manpower is an ultimate waste. As you have to understand that your call centre or back-office cannot be manned by robots, so also the people you hire need to understand that they are not parts of processes. Rather they are the process…the process is not something rigid but something which brings optimal long term results. In the short term acting like zombies may yield results but then when customers tire of the old ways, then you have got a problem in your hands.Myth #2: In BPOs one can’t/shouldn’t stay long with the same company. Or working for a company.
Truth #2: When an employee is loyal then the company wants to keep her. But when does an employee feel a sense of belonging to an organization? Only when he or she feels appreciated and there is an honest appraisal on both sides. There is no such thing as a company or a firm. Of course they exist on paper but the reality is that people work for other people. The first lot we call employees and the latter, the company. So if a company is willing to go a step forward and see to the needs, both psychological and financial of the employee then the employee feels a sense of security. This is important for thus grows a sense of being responsibility towards the company: I too am an owner, my decisions count. The newly joined might want the coffee-break at 3am and not 4am. Be attentive and listen and sincerely see what you can do about this simple request. This then will be the beginning of a healthy dialogic relationship between you and your employees. Japanese Corporations have succeeded so well by not giving the short shrift to their employees. The Japanese model works better than the US model of kick-assing employees. Most US businesses are being taken over by the Japanese. LOL.

So we are searching for employees who will be able to function within this Six Sigma Protocol and at the same time will be able to negotiate the chasm between abstract inhuman process-systems and the emotionally charged world of regular human interactions. And we want kids who are not heartless, kids who will be assets to the hiring company and will not bolt the day a better offer arrives. The present recruitment process does in no way look for these qualities in possible employees.