Attrition rate in BPOs falls by 20%
At Infosys BPO, attrition rate currently stands at 28% while in the case of TCS BPO, it has been hovering around the 18-20 % level. Tips to handle employee exit
By P P Thimmaya & J Padmapriya, ET Bureau |
BANGALORE: The bugbear of the Indian BPO industry-attrition-seems to have stabilised at a broad level.
From the highs of over 50% a couple of years back, attrition is hovering closer to 30% for most well-run BPO companies in India. Infosys BPO CEO Amitabh Chaudhry says, ���It has stabilised or come down across the industry .��� The Indian BPO industry employs around seven lakh people and accounts for revenue of $12.5 billion for FY08.
The reasons for the drop in attrition are manifold. The BPO sector was once losing people to ���hot sectors��� like aviation, retail and real estate. However, that trend has come down a bit, as these segments are not on an aggressive expansion mode now.
According to StantonChase International VP Priya Chetty-Rajagopal , ���The BPO industry has reached a certain maturity and scale. Employees are now looking at building careers in the BPO industry.���
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Further, there has been consolidation in the industry with the growth of the captive BPO centres slowing down in India. There has been an increasing trend of captives either scaling down their operations or selling out their business. The latest example was Aviva selling its captive BPO business to WNS and AOL divesting its call centre to Aegis BPO.Some of the leading BPOs have seen their attrition rates coming down. Wipro���s BPO business has seen attrition levels come down to 18% in Q1 FY09 compared to 24% in the corresponding period in 2007-08. At Infosys BPO, attrition rate currently stands at 28% while in the case of TCS BPO, it has been hovering around the 18-20 % level.
Now, each company follows different ways of calculating attrition. To that extent, they may not be strictly comparable. But, broad trends indicate that attrition is a less defined frown line on the face of the Indian BPO industry.
For instance, Wipro BPO���s attrition in Q1 was 7% during the training period and it touched 11% after training. According to Genpact, the attrition rate for the first half of 2008 calendar year measured from day one of employment was 25% compared to 30% in 2007. It further said its attrition rate would be 19% if measured after six months of employment as many of ���Genpact competitors do.���
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