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Employees at a BPO firm in Mangalore in this file photo. — R. Eswarraj

Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee
Adith Charlie

Mumbai/New Delhi, May 11 Fewer employees are jumping jobs in the BPO industry, courtesy the ongoing global recession. As a result, attrition rates (the number of people quitting per 100 employees) for several listed BPO firms have come down by 5-13 percentage points on a sequential basis.

Genpact’s employee attrition rate for the quarter, measured from day one of employment was down by 5 percentage points to 21 per cent from 26 per cent in the preceding quarter and 24 per cent for January-March 2008. If the attrition rate, were to be measured after employees completing six months of employment (as many of its competitors do), Genpact’s attrition rate would be 18 per cent.

EXL reported a record 12.8 percentage points dip in attrition for billable employees at 21 per cent from 33.8 per cent reported in the previous sequential quarter. “Operationally, our attrition management and employee engagement programme, in combination with the weaker economy, has resulted in record low attrition levels,” the company said in its earnings statement.

WNS too posted a reduction in its attrition numbers this quarter. Attrition declined by 7 percentage points to 22 per cent, down from 29 per cent last quarter and 38 per cent in quarter ended March 2008. “The employment market in India is softer compared with this time last year,” WNS said.

For Firstsource, the offshore attrition (India, Argentina and the Philippines) remained unchanged at 35.8 per cent during the just ended quarter. The onshore (the US and the UK) attrition was 38.4 per cent compared with 38.8 per cent in third quarter.

(While Genpact and EXL run a January to December fiscal, Firstsource and WNS follow an April to March fiscal).

For Wipro BPO, the quarterly attrition has come down by 500 basis points to 13 per cent from 18 per cent in the previous sequential quarter.

BPO firms seem to be hiring in smaller numbers as they prefer to work with on-board employees in a bid to cut costs.

WNS ended the quarter with an employee base of 21,356, higher only by some 28 employees over the quarter ended December 2008. WNS’ smaller rival EXL posted a net increment of 32 employees during January-March quarter. “We continue to hire about 200-300 employees each month spread across India and the Philippines,” a company spokesperson said without going into details.

EXL, which runs a January-December fiscal, had 9,563 employees on its rolls against 9,531 in the previous quarter.

An HR head of a large BPO player pointed out that while the industry was hiring fewer numbers, companies were also cleaning up their bench. “Companies are not retaining non-performers. Also, one has to see the employee count in the backdrop of growth of these companies,” the official said.

Mumbai-based Firstsource saw a net reduction of 950 employees in the just-ended quarter compared with net addition of 2,944 employees in the preceding quarter (October-December), and a net addition of 279 in the year-ago period.

“Reduction in headcount in the fourth quarter is due to large ramp up in previous quarter getting in to production mode and headcount stabilising,” its CEO, Mr Ananda Mukerji, said in a recent interaction with analysts.

The quarterly gross hiring numbers for both WNS and Firstsource for the fourth quarter were not available. The sole exception to this pack was Genpact, where growth remained more or less intact on a sequential basis. The company’s net addition stood at 300 employees against 200 employees in the last quarter.

However, the gross addition for January-March quarter stood at 2,200 employees, with hiring largely focused on BFSI and India-to-India business, sources said.

In fact its gross hiring in the first quarter of 2009 is a tad higher than the gross hiring in the fourth quarter of 2008 at 2,100 employees.

Genpact had about 36,500 employees globally, as on March 31, 2009.

More Stories on : Outsourcing | Human Resources | Employment

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