'Ageing to set in early for BPO employees'

Ageing would set in very early for sleep-deprived youth working continuously on night shifts in BPO firms, warn experts.

"Heavy food during night, skipping breakfast, eating lunch in the evening and all such irregular habits affect their health," says Dr Lim Li Ling, Deputy Director, sleep disorders unit, Singapore General Hospital.

Besides premature ageing, their overall performance would be affected due to lack of proper sleep, Ling, who is specialising in neurophysiology and was recently here in connection with a seminar, says.

"The performance of youths working in night shifts is affected. Since, they are sleep-deprived, their efficiency and alertness is less compared to those who sleep sufficiently. Their concentration is hindered due to lack of sleep"

BPO industry in Asia is expected to grow at the annual rate of nearly 14% till 2008

BPO industry in Asia is expected to grow at the annual rate of nearly 14% till 2008, generating six million new jobs by 2015, according to United Nation Development Programme (UNDP)’s Asia-Pacific Human Development Report 2006, released in Phnom Penh.

The global outsourcing market has grown phenomenally from $570 billion in 2002 to an estimated $1.2 trillion in 2006. India accounts for over 40% of the global BPO market. India’s dominant position has meant that services account for nearly 26% of South Asia’s exports. Within services—business process outsourcing and shortterm migration emerge as the most important segments. Of the top 10 BPO destination in the world, five are in Asia.

While India leads the pack other major Asian providers are China, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Asia’s advantage lies in its growing pool of highly skilled, low cost workers. The 3000-odd educational institutions in India train more than 200,000 software professionals and an equal number of non-engineering English Speaking graduates every year. Add to this, labour shortages in Western Europe and the US on account of their ageing populations. All this has turned out to provide Asia, particularly India an edge.

The employment possibilities from the BPO industry in the future seem immense. An additional advantage that outsourcing has is that it “draws on a wider social spectrum” meaning it is age and gender-neutral. It also has, according to the report, spillover employment effects due to higher demand generated for consumer durables and other services.

India still hot favourite for call centre biz: Study

Manufacturing, financial and outsourcing companies are still heading to India, Malaysia, and Singapore, to manage their call centre businesses in Asia, according to a report released by Kelly Services today.

A study titled `The Asian Contact Centre Industry Recruitment Index' for 2006 analyses major trends in both the in-and outbound call centre industry in the region.

India still shows the highest recruitment pace at 15-20 per cent depending on the location, sector, and whether it is captive or third party contact centre, showing a strong pace of recruitment in the country.

India's contact centre business continues to grow despite closely emerging competitors such as the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand, the report added.
According to the study, which interviewed contact centres across nine countries in Asia, 44 per cent of recruitment is for new positions in the centres, thus pointing to growth in the industry.
Indian contact centres have the most positive outlook for recruitment, with 88 per cent of those studied foreseeing an increased headcount over the next six months.

Key industries looking to hire are ITES, IT, banking, financial services, automobile, telecom, and insurance companies.

Other countries surveyed in the region require talent in the areas of banking, finance and insurance, IT, telecommunications and media, and travel.

Source: internet /online news

With a bang in telecommunications and the boundaries of countries fast disappearing

With a bang in telecommunications and the boundaries of countries fast disappearing because of the Internet, the world is shrinking into smaller and smaller dimensions. It is getting slighter by the day and faster by the hour. Whether it is culture, arts or economy, you are no more in your own national space. The world has telescoped into one big melting pot of ideas.

What started as a niche service provision has evolved into a whole new industry in itself. Call centers are organizations in countries where an offshore company services American customers for American clients. Although the business did start off with America, it is no more restricted to the United States only. Countries like Australia, Canada and The United kingdom have also started outsourcing their work to India. The work that is outsourced is from various industries like credit cards, healthcare products, personal care products and education.

BPO career opportunities

In a growing BPO organization, career opportunities exist across various facets of the business - extending from the core contact center to support functions like HR, legal, marketing, quality, administration etc. Opportunities in the contact center include customer support, telemarketing, technical support and multilingual support (which require people having knowledge of foreign languages like French, Spanish etc.). Opportunities also exist for experienced people from various backgrounds and industries. - like hospitality, services and the retail industry.

In a growing BPO firm the career opportunities exists across various parts of business, from core contact center to the supporting functions like legal, HR, quality, marketing, administration etc. Opportunities in contact center involve telemarketing, customer support, telemarketing, technical support and multilingual support. Because of its vast English speaking population, India has become an ideal candidate for outsourcing US workload through business process outsourcing. English is a popular and well spoken language here. Indians learn English as their second language and are familiar with it. But speaking the global language is not the sole reason for this choice.