As far Personal experience is concerned have been working in Call Center for past six years and have seen this Call Center organization making a very mix response, so this study would be working on one of the main Department of this industry and that is Human Resource Department. Study will be done by going through some call center visiting them personally and try to getter problem which lies in between these companies. Because it's been 10 years almost that call center got in establishment, but in the first five years it has been growing rapidly, but for the past few years survey report from PSEB declared that it has been almost 400 International call centers (www.pseb.co.pk, Call Center Forum)
Call Center having 10-20 seats are being operational in Lahore apart from TRG (The Resource Group) or Ovex Tech. Due to this problem the HR having difficulties in arranging the Right Employees for the Job and firing had been a very Important role, so my task is to go in dept to see where the Problem is lying and how to Solve this problem in this Industry. So that People would start taking this Job seriously and try to take it as a Career Path
Getter information about the number of call center working in call center working in Pakistan (Lahore)
www.pseb.co.pk
Chapter I
Introduction
The purpose of these studies was to identify the problems faced by the call center in Pakistan.
There are number of factors, which needed to solve in order to make the environment better. Such as,
HR- there is the back bone of any company because they are responsible for maintaining the training and development, recurrent and policies.
Operations- they are basically consisted of in bond and out bond department, where they are focused on sales, order taking and customer support.
Globally call center have been divided into various departments, such as IT or information technology is responsible for the maintenance and equipment of the office software and Cisco phone Operations: this is the department in which it's have been divided into In bond, out bond, order taking, customer support and HR: it is the department which is taking care of training and development recruitment and policies and last but not the least Fiancé: they are taking care of budgeting and pay roll.
The main problems faced in call center industry are
HR
Project Problem
It's been almost ten years since international call center have its operation in Pakistan. But the main problems are the Human Resource Department that could not able to retain employees and even though by hook or by crook then due to some other call center reasons other problem Accor that is of Project problem.
So the study would identify these problems and by doing these studies it would help to minimize the problems and will create benefits in future.
Chapter 2
Literature Review
1.1 Brief History of International Call center.
Call center has just started their business in Pakistan. The career provided by call center is one of the best suited and growing options for the young youth. With the opening of call center in Pakistan more opportunity have been arrived for the young people, a trend started by GE when it established a call centre near New Delhi in 2000.
A call centre is a service centre with adequate telecom facilities, access to internet and wide database, which provide voice based or They-based information and support to Buyers in the country or abroad through trained personnel. Call centre's exist in all sectors of business including banking, utilities, manufacturing, security, market research, pharmaceuticals, catalogue sales, order desk, Buyers service, technical queries (help desk), emergency dispatch, credit collections, food service, airline/hotel reservations etc. The wide area of services provided by the call centers makes it a lucrative career with a range of opportunities.
Traditionally, call centers meant only voice-based Buyers support. But now most call centers are more of a contact centre, offering e-CRM services that include voice based Buyers support as they'll as e-mail response, They-based text-chat services and other Buyers interaction channels. The call centre services can be 'In bond' where in dialed numbers are received from Buyers enquiring about a service or product that an organization provides. The call centres services can be 'out bond' where in dialed numbers are made to Buyers to sell products or collect information/money etc. Call centre services can also 'specialized' say in business processing where in dialed numbers are made from one company to another company.
Some call centers stick to only domestic businesses dealing with Buyers within the country called domestic call centers while others such as an International call centre mainly deal with clients from abroad say from US, Europe etc. There is a great scope for Call centers in Pakistan, with a large population of educated English speaking people. The wide range of opportunities, comparatively They'll paid jobs for the minimum qualification it requires and the facilities the companies provide like to and fro transport, subsidized meals and medical facilities makes Call centers a good option.
http://career.TheybPakistan123.com/career/options/IT_field/call_centers/intro.htm
There are basically two major departments which play a very vital role in creating of a call center.
In bond
Out bond
1.2 In bond
Customer service is always a very important aspect of any services. Excellent Customer service will create an excellent company reputation and provide a lot of profits to the company. One satisfied customer often brings many more satisfied Customers. Many companies are now having better customer support department to solve a lot of problems for their company product. In bond can be defined as a concept where a person would be calling any Agents support person in order to get information about the product or solving problem regarding the product of any particular company.
1.3 Out bond
Out bond is something where the Employees have to call the Buyers to either sell their product or make a surrey to get knowledge about the product and to either solve the query of the customer and to advertise their products too, so that the company will gain more attentions of the buyers.
Pakistani Cell Center Culture
Pakistan is considered as third world state but it has been a growing country in a few years. Call center have a major impact on Pakistani economy. The employment has no doubt increased in past years. Pakistani work force is more effective in handling communication, then in work, incentives and performances with relation to time management.
Since the innovation in the call center industry in 2004 the workforce has a bigger way to learn about US and UK culture too. The call center trainers have trained the agents on just about everything. The trainers are giving training to the Agents to make sure that they can communicate with all the people in UK or US in such a way as they the agents are living there for Ages.
Pakistani who actually came from UK or USA are giving out their level best to make sure that they can able to bring changes within the Country growth and teaching all the agents in Pakistan about the culture of the foreign countries and teaching them how to make sale to them giving them knowledge about their culture.
There is always a room for improvements. For example, the call center atmosphere must be an American look alike. Investors must educate themselves on the setting of call centers. They must be creative to understand that they cannot courier an American call center on cargo planes and instantly expect return on investments.
http://www.intelisales.com/docs/PakistanWorkforce.pdf
1.5 Call Centers More Recognized Problems
Although in Pakistan there have been specific issues in each call centre the research made will surely gives you lot information about the common problems happing in call centers. Namely:
The Buyers Support application is not used during training procedure. This is due to number of obvious reasons; paper doesn't get updated on time, their notes may not even be accurately recorded because of this problem Buyers moves to other company, etc.
If Buyers service Employees knows one piece of information, which is inaccurate, it undermines the Buyers trust in all other information on the system of their product.
Employees are commonly incentivized to complete dialed numbers in the shortest amount of time. Besides a whole bunch of other issues that this form of in company may lead to a lot of problems, it does encourage Employees to go with the quickest way of finding an anther to Buyers problems.
For the reasons mentioned above, printed reference materials bound within call centre environments. Rather than ban printed materials available and send these underground stuff (as many call center staff), wonder if there is a way for management to ensure that printed materials are up-to-date and accurate. For the reason research have been made to solve these sorts of sorted problems
In order to get the HR problem, Had to visit few International call center, so that can come up with some reviews where can know the main problems, so after visiting these following call centers and talked with their HR person who gave a wide number of problems
Chapter 3
Hypothesis
(H1)
"Retaining Employees through HR Improved Attention, will Bring a Vital Change in Call Center.
To Generate More Profits towards Its Organization"
(H2)
"Bringing New Project in the Call Center Industry, so that it will create more Employment"
Chapter 4
Research Methodology
This research studies have been conducted through personal experienced and the interviewed have been conducted with the HR head of Ovex Tech, MindBridge and Project Head of Abacus Consulting.
So in order to get the response from these companies first of all need to have an idea what these companies do and how do they operate in Pakistan
Ovex Tech
Ovex Technologies, a subsidiary of En Pointe Technologies (NASDAQ: ENPT), is a third-party offshore Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) provider in Pakistan.
In total, it has eight facilities, located in the cities of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. The company has also recently opened their new facility located in the 'Blue Area' (the fourth office in the Federal Capital); it is solely dedicated to projects commissioned by PremierBPO. The company's clientele ranges from Fortune 500 companies, to dynamic medium-sized businesses, located primarily in the United States. Major clients include Enpointe Technologies and PremierBPO. Currently, Ovex Technologies employs over 850 employees. The company was established in January 2003.
An agreement may have been reached among En Pointe, the present owners of Ovex, and the original Ovex management, to separate Ovex Technologies (Pvt.) Limited and Ovex Global. Ovex Global is being looked after by Bob Din's son, Ali Din and Kevin Schatzle, whereas the Ovex Technologies business is being led by Omar Saeed's Team.
In the financial year of 2005-2006, Ovex was one of the five companies which contributed the most to the rise in Pakistan's IT exports by value.[3] Together with United States firm Enpointe Technologies, the company has invested more than $2 million in various IT-related areas in Pakistan as of 2006.
(Now in the above I have given the introduction of Ovex Tech and now I had an interview with the HR Manager of Ovex to get an idea what is the problem going on and there is so much firing going on. Here below I have noted down the question that I have asked from here and the anther I got at the end had been listed below.
1.2 Abacus Consulting Center
For over 22 years Abacus Consulting has been offering cutting-edge business solutions helping organizations to transform their visions into realities through a combination of latest business methodologies and technological tools. The business value offered by Abacus Consulting has a deep scale, is industry focused and technology driven with a world class delivery capability. They help to transform the businesses of clients who want to be leaders in their industry.
Strengths of the companies
Regional scale
Integrated services
Deep industry expertise and knowledge of industry processes
Leading-edge solutions and tailored service offerings
Rich technology skills
Strategic alliances with leading technology vendors
Premier client list and experience
Ongoing investment in innovative solutions, people development and intellectual capita
Abacus had started its operation as an consulting organization, by working with bigger organization and giving them resources and giving them training and development classes but in 2005 they started working on call center industries and got project for TELENOR and 2008 they got business for overseas and it's been an OUT BOND campaign, couldn't get to interview from the HR, because their Head office is in Karachi and they conduct interview over the phone, but got to know from closed resources that there outsourcing business is not working that good, because of project changes and because of the Employees problem.
Project Head: John Walter
1.3 MindBridge Tech
MindBridge is a leading global provider of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services. They manage Buyers services and Main office processes for organizations in the domain of support, travel, retail, financial services, data and document conversion, knowledge management, transaction processing and other value additions. Mind-bridge ensures client satisfaction through world-class human resources, strong management focus, dedicated business units and a strong financial platform. MindBridge enables Buyers to concentrate on their core business by outsourcing their marketing & Buyers centric support services. Armed with years of relevant industry experience, along with its strengths in recruitment and management of professionals, MindBridge handles time critical challenges maintaining strict confidentiality of information, matching but surpassing Buyers' expectations. MindBridge prides itself on its process efficiencies and quality conscious philosophy which has enabled the company to multiply accounts on a regular basis. MindBridge adopts a quality conscious work ethic, tempered with a clear and in-depth understanding of the business environment. To remain competitive and cost-effective, MindBridge is continuously evaluating new services and trends to satisfy its Buyers' needs. The BPO industry is one of the most challenging businesses to be in and requires outstanding execution skills. MindBridge has an outstanding team to manage this challenge. The entire spectrum of our business model and are focused on building high client satisfaction through high-quality service delivery and value addition to their businesses. From Employees and voice response to enabled solutions, Mind bridge's systems and expertise help your company maximize Buyers satisfaction and focus on your core competencies. At Mind Bridge, our goal is to help you succeed by building main relationships with your clients. So when you're serious about retaining and growing your Buyers relationships or maximizing efficiency in business processes, contact MindBridge and let us develop a successful solution for you.
Hr: Ali Janjua
These Matters the following people, with whom I had important discussion and talked to them the important issues which are being arises and due to which Employees are leaving rapidly or getting terminated. So I asked them the way to improve these things and after getting their views and reviews I researched on those points and listed down all the important stuff and provide the reasonable ways by which these problems can be solved.
Chapter 5
Result and Analysis
After going through the research first of all going to find out the problem being lies in the following departments and what the ways to solve them are and after going through
Human Resource
Project Management
Then afterward going to analysis the situation of the problem, and then give the view regarding as what needed to be changed and how to change
The highlighted areas are the one where the problems have been lying, and in future discussion all the problems have been solved.
1.1 Human Resource Problem.
Now first of all I would be taking care of the first department and try to give a lot of good solution in order to recover it to an extent. The first problem that They have, which is quite a lot common in most of the call centers are the Hr Department problem in International Call Centers. Why is that so, because They will in such country where people are born with an expert in two languages and that is URDU & PUNJABI, but as far the foreign language is concerned They don't get out basic rights from the very beginning of a educational background, so for that reason the Employees gets problem in order to communicate with the foreign Buyers, and apart from that its really easy to setup a call center in Pakistan, so due to more call centers HR get problem in order to find the right person for the job. So there is hire and fire rules are quite a lot common in this industry. So in order to eliminate such problem now they have researched few things for the personal experiences through the help of internet which can guide us they'll in order to give us the right path, from where they can solve this problems. While going extensive studies I came to evaluate that there are 12 major steps, which call play a vital role in order to bring turnover of the employees more and bring better result in the industry. Apart from these major 12 points there are other important things too which can help in bringing out the best out the employees in the company.
Hiring the right people.
Develop a profile of the people that have been interval they, so by do this they can only putt those people for the training, who are actually right man for the job. By doing this no one can deny that there are problems with the employees.
Build a Fun and supportive Organization.
Whenever you hire any new bees, so it compulsory to give them all the benefits which are positive and to give them knowledge about the company by showing them the positive sign and for the older people fun stuff, like concerts, games and extra activities which can make them more happy and relaxed.
Compensate fairly.
All the Employees should be treated equally and plus they should be given equal benefit and salaries should be given according the project demands and they work they are putting into, so that wont switch their job with the other one.
Establish benefits programs.
Build all important programs, which create benefits within the company and plus give them incentives if they achieve their targets on and before times and apart of then give them bonuses on the regular basis. So they should be happy all the times.
Ensure career advancement.
It's basically a work of the Human resource to look after this matter and give training to new people and to people who are already working in the organization. So that they should be up to date with the currents changes being made inside the organization and they will come up with the entire important thing and should have an idea about that if they perform, so next level is waiting for them.
Avoid overwork.
Overwork is a terrible aspect. It not only reduces the quality of service and diminished productivity inside the organization as they'll, but also contributes to the turnover rate. During every shift, scheduled should be made so that everyone should be working under one roof and work according to their shift timing not extra timings.
Hire part-timers.
In order to bring more profit within the organization, it better to hire part timers as they'll. So that whenever there is a problem of any particular Employees not showing on their shift timings due to any personal or other reasons, so better to hire part timers so that they can fill the space of the person who is not available on the shift. So it would avoid over timer and people leaving the company without any reason and with stressed.
Find day-shift clients.
They're difficult to find, but you should always try to look out for call center clients that can offer work for your day-shift. You can offer prospective day-shift clients better rates, since day-shifts are cheaper to run due to higher retention rate
Find clients with intellectually challenging work.
Improve your line managers.
The line managers is the main person who is taking care of at least 10-20 person in one shift, and they have to be really supportive and professional and bring changes according the needs of the project and able to give proper motivational lectures to their Employees
Exit interviews may not be an enough source.
An exit interview is an after-the-event activity. Just think about the benefit you would have gained if you had interval they the departing person six months prior to the exit! Retaining a trained employee is less expensive, typically, than getting a new one hired and trained. Clearly, being proactive is better for the bottom-line.
1.3 Core Benefit of Professional Qualification
How to introduce professional qualifications in to your contact centre
In order to make certain things better, basically we should have to be implement regular bases hiring and training those people who are well educated and should be having an idea how to grasp the information accurately, because depending on the hire chary people should be hire according to their qualification and things should be done accurately and with fully attention to the project for which they are hiring the staff member, they should only call those people starting from the bachelors, and people with having less qualification should not be hired even though there language is up to the mark of neutrals language
Qualification with Benefits
There are win-win benefits for all parties, be they the individual, the Buyers or the organization, in introducing professional qualifications to the call centre business. The individual finds a recognized career development path with objective assessment, which in itself acts as a massive motivator and provides a very good reason to stay with an employer that wants to help them progress.
The benefits to the Buyers, meanwhile, are all around the development of a great service experience and Buyers satisfaction. Consistent professionalism, helpfulness and friendliness, backed up by good product knowledge, all make for meeting the Buyers' needs and expectations. If Buyers has a great experience with your frontline team, it stands to reason they are more likely to come back, continue their relationship and make the organization their supplier of choice.
Finally, for the organization, the benefits far outweigh any investment. Not only will you be setting a framework of standards, but you will also have a way of constantly working towards delivering against those standards and continually maximizing performance. A caring, sharing culture within an organization that invests in the individual and offers a career path aids the recruitment strategy and dramatically reduces staff attrition. In fact, one of our clients saw Buyers
Satisfaction increased by 5% while staff turnover was reduced from 44% to 9% as they became an employer of choice. In another example, absenteeism was reduced by 50% and the organization climbed to the number one position in its sector league tables for Buyers satisfaction. This is in comparison to previous ratings where it had sat at number therefore five consecutive years
1.4 Successful Qualification Required
In opinion, there are six fundamentals to introducing and implementing qualifications in to the call centre.
Skills Building
To identify the skills requirement, you need to clearly understand the needs and wants of the peoples or the Employees. How does Buyers contact differ as the relationship of the Employees and Buyers movies to the next level? Are you cross-selling or up-selling? Do the Buyers need to write confirmation or contact via e-mail?
Planning Infra-Structure
Firstly you need to develop a strategy what need to be done and what step should be taken to make sure that everything is up to date and there are no much problems is facing, so planning have to be made. So that problems should be solved.
1.5 The benefits created by the professional qualifications
In the following Hr Problem faced in call centers in Pakistan, the last and the most important thing which can be beneficial in order to find the right person for the job is to Hire Professional qualified in the Call Center, why because I have highlighted few of the following important things.
The Employees will:
Should recognize the rite path for the Employees
Undertake objectives in the right direction
Should be given the reason to stay
Should feel for loyal towards the company
Be motivated all the times
Should be given proper respect and give response
The Customer will:
Should have positive experience
Need to be experienced consistency
Need to be experienced helpfulness for the Employees
Should experience friendliness and professionalism
Everyone should experience great Buyers service
The organization will:
Need to set Proper standards
Need to make and sure that company should be experienced higher levels of retention
Organization should have higher levels of employee engagement
Companies should enjoy increased Buyers satisfaction
Need to develop common ways of working and language
2.1 Project Management
Project problem is something, which is common in the International Call Center in Pakistan, because apart from the largest call center there had been a lot of problem going on in the small businesses call centers. Now even though in the above context if you try to solve the problem of the Human Resource. But project and call center is not in a good running position, so it would be of no use now it would be discuss one of the major important part that how to Operate start up a successful Call Center in Pakistan. What are the tools and things required for the center to operate? So that everything would be in streamed line and in future no Center would be facing difficulties in Closing down these things.
Now in this research the focus should be differentiate between the Indian Call Center and Pakistani Call Centers, why they are so much successful. By looking at these case studies which had been done from different people. I would able to come up with a good result and see where the problem is laying and how to operate a successful call center in all means.
Because the reason for emphasizing on this study is that there have been lots of problem going on in terms of small call center, so it's basically common problem in Pakistan Call Center, so instead of going to all 400 hundred call center to look at the view the research have been done on internet and case study to make sure that how to get a successful call center in terms of the whole hierarchy and by comparing with the successful market of India and looking into view why they are making profit and International companies are providing them more businesses as compared to Pakistan. Now in research the main problem in small call centers is getting the right project for them and making sure that payments would not get delayed.
2.2 Comparison with Indian BPO why they are so successful
Call centers in India are very successful, because they have been in the market for a very long period and they have followed the rules and regulations of the global Market. For example, to compete in the Global market they have taken these following steps such as
English Language
Man power
Infrastructure
Reliability
Framework of Call Center
Cost Benefits Efficiency
Time Zone
Pro-Active Government
English Language:
India is basically the second largest language in English and due to that reason they are competing at a faster rate global
In India English language is considered as the principle of every business terminology
Man Power:
India is having the second largest and fastest growing companies of technical manpower.
Most economical Manpower
Most computer Graduates
Infrastructure:
They are the IT largest support in the World
Reliability:
The work force which are working there are the best of the best in their field and can able to work under any pressure
Framework of Call Centers
Government Policies maintained for the call center
High cost in every sort of Sectors is Maintain
For 10 Years not Tax, should be Maintains on the Call Centre Companies.
Cost Benefits Efficiency
Indian companies provide more benefit to every foreign country, so that the cost will be more effective as compared with others.
Time Zone
Work for 24/7 in all over the call center in India, and every one will work according to their timings too.
Pro-Active Government
Indian government are really pro-active and they know that they should be more taking part in developing their country by implementing and developing more BPO centers, because they are the largest IT companies in the world, so they have an idea what to do and when to do it.
2.3 Some Important concerns, which needed to the resolved.
Why is Pakistan not one of the choice call center locations in the world?
There has been a lot of reason, because it had a lot of problem with the electricity, resources and main important language. Pakistani are well known for their unpredictable structure, for that reason mostly companies who wanted to outsources their business in Pakistan, they have to do a lot of surrey and have to see a lot of check list that these are following in an appropriate answer or not.
What is a call center? A successful one?
Well as an experienced person, the main and important work which should be done in order to make an successful call center is to make sure that everyone in the organization implement the rules and regulation according to the needs and wants of their consumer, because call center is something which is really easy to open, but really difficult to work, because you have to be very sharp and be aware of the projects and international culture and their atmosphere. Call center is something which divided into two major part that Out-Bond or In-Bond. Well it's easy to work in the out-bond but more difficult to work in the In-bond call center. Basically when ever HR is hiring any person for the job, they need to be very good.
What makes a successful call center in Pakistan
A successful call center will only hire persons with a minimum of neutral English speaking ability and good listening comprehension, basic skills have to be in computers and Internet such as e-mail making, chat support, and they should know browsing to input any information in the database, and a polite and confident with entuasitic attitude toward Buyers query and concerns. The ideal Corporate Desk representative should be having all of the above capabilities. But the Employees are also motivated by something inside of him to succeed, which in order word call self motivations. Company representative will pursue a good command on English written and reading comprehension for anything, an understanding of English wordings and different types of American slang and other rural areas languages, and have a will to be persistent, caring, flexible, observant, and assumptive with each unique Buyer he deals with.
Internet Service against the Government Policies
Government sector and private industry need to work together to encourage High Speed Internet and other fast Internet access to be a common standard to be used in everything; this allows the Employees to use a computer with the Internet and still make out bond and receive in bond dialed numbers at the same time. At the least, a mere minimum bandwidth of 25kbps per line is needed to make it workable. The people of Pakistan must be knowledge about this things and that's why everything is working in appropriate manners.
Large call centers
Basically they are setup in such a way that everyone is having their own station and on every station phone is available and plus the headsets is there too. And there is an individual IT room also available there to take care of the calls routed to them and to use the net properly and which site to be implemented and which site needed to be blocked Call center needed to be located somewhere in a remote area, where you can find all the necessity of life and plus Agents can able to come to the location easily and without having any problem in anything.
Predictive Dialers and Auto Dialers
The difference between PD and AD is that predictive dialers is a semi In bond machine, in which you just needed to put the data in it and it will automatically dial the numbers for you, while in case of Auto dialers. It is that where you just need to give command to the dialers and it will automatically dial the number for you.
DSL, a great investment
Now in order for the call center to be working under any circumstances, so it needed to be worked under the rules and regulation of PTCL way, because they would be an only source. Who would give away the internet faculty to any call center that has just started its operation? Basically now days DSL is an important source of making a lot of money, because it's an 21st century and every one needed to have an internet facility at their place. And a call center minimum bandwidth that it would require to be operational should be having at least 3-4 MB bandwidth.
2.4 Permissions
In order to start up an call center business it look pretty easy few years back when you just had a project with you and a place and you just need to hire the staff and there you go. Start working but now due to infrastructure have been changed and things have been changed with the government have changed, so now people and government have awareness whets going on and what steps need to be taken to improve these things. So now in order to open up any new center the owner have to register its company to the law court and then they have to go PSEB (Pakistan Software Export Board) and have to give it a legal name and identity. Then they have to show how many station they have and how many staff member will be working and what will be income that every employee should be earning.
These are the following things which any new center has to go by and work on it to make sure that everything is working at the appropriate manner.
2.5 Selling practices
Beneficial Points
be quick in decision making and able to teach other people as well
Buyers service,
Buyers focus is important
Empathy
Risk takers maintains
Think one step ahead
Able to judge all decision
Be Tough and active
Ego strength Important
Communication skills Important
No habits of thinking,
Not afraid to make mistakes
Good at listening Important
Team player,
Effective use of time Important
Ability to multi-task Important
Ability to speak proper and know what to do,
Ability to develop rapport with Buyers
Ability to handle rejection
Assumptive and confident nature Important
Chapter VI
Conclusion and Recommendation
After going through the research in detailed and looking after the loop holes of the Human Resource and Project Management following recommendation should be given to make thing better.
Human Resource
Need to work on the training and development department
Accent training needed to given
Incentive Plans should be revised
Growth Opportunity needed to be told individual Agents
Project Management
Need to work on the in structure of the Pakistani Culture
Needed to work on the existing project, to make sure it goes for a longer period of times
Needed to find out new project having a good market value
