BPOs say hello to local language speakers

With the job market testing new lows, R Sridevi from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu had few hopes of finding employment. The 19-year-old Std XII passout felt her poor English-speaking skills — the result of being educated in a Tamil-medium school — would harm her career prospects.

Even her engineering and Bachelor of Science graduate friends couldn’t secure jobs. Being an undergraduate with little knowledge of English, Sridevi saw a bleak future when it came to her career.

That’s why the bespectacled teenager was surprised last week when she was offered a customer service officer position by a leading Bangalore-based business process outsourcing (BPO) unit. The monthly salary offered was a decent Rs 8,500. Her non-proficiency in English made little difference to her prospective employer. In fact, it was her fluency in Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada that helped her clinch the job.

Sridevi is one among the many youngsters from tier-III and -IV towns such as Ranchi, Bhagalpur, Durgapur, Shimoga, etc who are being recruited by the domestic BPO sector for their fluency in regional languages.

Manpreet Kaur, an undergraduate history student from Patiala, has recently joined a Gurgaon BPO that recruited her for her Punjabi and Haryanavi skills. “Domestic BPOs are a blessing for those who are not proficient in English, especially in hard times like these,” she says.

Industry experts feel the domestic BPO industry has remained largely unaffected by the economic slowdown as it caters to Indian clients from telecom, retail, insurance, and other spaces. Pune-based research firm ValueNotes estimates that this sector will employ 5.4 lakh people in the next four years from 1.4 lakh now. It adds that the industry’s revenues stood at Rs 6,900 crore in 2008 and are expected to grow to Rs 22,800 crore in four years.

Aparup Sengupta, managing director and global CEO of Aegis Ltd, says business continues to grow. “And therefore, the need for people to execute the business. We are looking at hiring 2,000-3,000 people in the coming months,” he adds. Aegis has 17,000 people working in the domestic business.

MphasiS and Intelenet Global Services, the other key players in the space, are also adding 800 and 1,500-2,000 people per month, respectively. Radhika Balasubramanian, chief operating officer of Sparsh BPO Service, the domestic BPO subsidiary of Intelenet Global Services, says, “Currently, 25% of Intelenet’s revenues are from the domestic market.”

K N Srikanth, head (domestic BPO) at MphasiS, sees more growth coming from tier-II and -III towns such as Indore, Pondicherry, etc. “At these locations, the customers who call generally speak in local languages. So we need to have customer service officers who are fluent in these languages.”

Srikanth says MphasiS is thinking of entering Bellary and Belgaum in the near future. “So we will have to take in more people. Right now, our employee strength is 7,000 and we hope to reach 10,000 by the end of this calendar.”