The BPO sector today is fraught with peril & fragility because as an industry, its frayed, flayed and littered with many of who’s who, others of vintage and numerous start-ups! But that you may argue is true for many a nascent business which has seen a lot of churning and regurgitation of small players!
Of course being a non-regulated industry, by this I mean statistics, White Papers are still obsolete but company specific data still exists! And surprise, surprise Infosys BPO growth rates outweighed even that of the Software Major’s figures by over 10%! Why then you may ask is a bloke like this lampooning the market?
Its not that I’ve a natural anathema towards these brick and mortar establishments or this one in particular. All companies thrive on a particular need to serve, understand, rejig & redevelop their goals or to put it more succinctly their commitments!
What have these outfits actually done to improve their position, leverage & position on the domestic or international stage? Are such an impoverished, hackneyed audience that the only recourse we actually have is to browse social networks, readers forums’ or media caricatures for us to understand the true situation?
Rather than dwell on this, for the benefit of my readers, I’ll take an example of FIS in a nutshell & a big one at that! The company in its infancy was christened as E-Funds in the early to mid 90’s, and at the time, its personnel namely HR, training especially V& A ones were renowned, feared & in high demand!
So much so that at the time, the company did put its best foot forward to acquire LOB’s, Processes like Chex, US West, Primus, Food Stamps for Govt.of Kansas etc But while this may look great on paper, there was always a sense of deja vu, complacency & an attitude of resting on one’s laurels so to speak a la Caesar!
However, muted efforts, dilution of focus, an attitude’if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ competed with growling voices, heated arguments & resounding voices of change for a new coat of paint! Almost a contentious decade later, there existed a lot of factionalism, divide, obvious resentment amongst a few leading to attitudes bordering on insurgency & extremism! So much so that one would have to muse, suspect that break away factions, splinter groups would have contributed to the attrition spell thereon! Leading the way(no points for guessing this) were the trainers, HR, administration honchos leaving very little in the already threadbare cupboard which eventually meant’their cup of woe runneth over’ akin to the medieval parlance! That sort of contributed to a revolution of some sort which took the decade away from them!
The emergence & resurgence in the mid-2000’s of the likes of Satyam, Wipro, Cognizance & Infosys led to a lot of what we may call delimitation, churn & a separation of the chaff and the grain so to speak! Only true giants held their own in this space like HSBC(Domestic), JP Morgan Services India(Investment Bank), BA Continuum(Bank of America) from the financial space & others in the technical domain like Infosys(Progeon); Accenture BPO, Satyam, that too for a limited period till the IT bubble burst and things like On Site & Off Site became the general norm§
Now, I’ve given you a real spin & spiel about the general industry trend & I certainly don’t intend to bore or browbeat my readers & other columnists. So, now for the facts of FIS;
§ The Creme de la Creme:
© Recruitment, training, on boarding are very methodical, strict, stringent & categorical here meaning that your English, both written, spoken & understanding, expression have to be of an above average standard range to clear the plethora of tests they have! This has to be cleared by every FTE(Full Time Employee) or CT(Contract Employee) to get to the floor. This is as per old E-Funds culture & is a method of weeding out unwanted elements!
© Cleanliness, decorum are excellent here! Coming from a hovel like Serco the environs were a revelation as in cleanly mopped floors, ramped up toilets, improvements. I mean there’s a continuous movement to make things good within the space crunch they actually have. Its actually only the 3rd Floor in Fairmont that’s the hive of activity & buzz with a cafe thrown in for good measure for all, which by the way also incorporates all the above traits!
© Friendly, cooperative, supportive people, many of vintage & extended tenure with a strong belief in themselves. Its common to find TL’s, managers, operation heads who have spent a lifetime here with a strong belief in the company’s work ethics, goals & objectives! This has an extended rub-off on its employees & temporary workforce as example to learn from which incidentally is alien to the regular BPO culture of short-tenures & early exits for greener pastures!
§ The Curious Case of the Kettle Calling the Pot Black:
© A company like this or probably the erstwhile E-Funds ought to have been a leader or more importantly a wizard, pioneer, initiator of change in this space what with its industry hold, appreciation, associations & old charm. But its withered away in its own space with its people holding on to what’s dear to them like tenure, old beliefs & a curious tendency of late to cut costs by ridiculous means, which I’ll elaborate in a later point! This takes away from the charm, lineage & a sense of belonging.
An organization which has processes of a major brands like American Express, O2, EPS, Chex, many US Processes big & small ought to have been the architect of change among the Non-Captive BPO’s but hasn’t done so!
© Old habits die hard they say and so its true with all the’Ass" & Bootlace" licking over here. It may be very sexist of me to say that this company is overly friendly to women & tries to powder puff its way in every nook & corner of their existence!
Probably, they’ve taken the gender sensibility, equality issues a little too seriously but it sort of makes male employees feel threatened & feel that their growth opportunities may be limited & unfair!
Things like good looks, extreme sycophancy, amorous liaisons go a long way here but not necessarily in the right direction. Its no secret that to pick one over the other, the woman will score over her male counterpart due to their obvious advantages but its a dangerous concoction any day!
© Ancillary support & operation services are nerve racking to say the least, risk operations, transport, administration are seriously lacking in competent, diligent, & capable staff not to mention contemporary practices & sophistication in equipment!
Half of the admin staff cannot help but speak broken English & rarely command an audience of a new batch of inductees, which is essential! Transport is horrendous and more so when you consider the risk of logistics associated with Powai from both Western, Central & Navi Mumbai! There are no pick-ups, only drops for shifts ending from 1am to 5am and in these vehicles people are put in like chickens in a coop each one destined to some farthest corners of the universe!
You almost wonder if the ERP/Software addressing or rostering these has been infected by an eternal virus! You could end up coughing up anywhere between a half hour to an hour if you are the last person to be dropped off post shift which isn’t ideal.
And for shifts that end post 5am, you’re at the mercy of Mumbai local trains if you live on the Western or Central lines & commute by them from point to point. The pick ups operate from Kanjurmarg, Malad & Andheri(East) by means of extra large buses, coach & sometimes Trax/Sumo’s(Sundays). This is the only glitter in the transport as Powai is away from all civilization for the newbie!
Cafetaria has only a single contractor for meals, snacks & they seem to run on a rate-contract system as they never change. Also you have to be a master at the times the best snacks are made & time your breaks to coincide or else you’ll be left with an empty stomach! There are no food stalls anywhere in the vicinity of the place & with the timings, less likely to be. Also its quite commonplace to find toilets eternally occupied during the after hours
© There’s a clear lack of bonhomie, responsibility & sense of direction here! Skip meets see so few issues being raised for fear of being harassed, witch-hunted or being doctored. In Skips, you rarely see HR/Admin but here you see them and they are absolutely clueless about the finer points of a team leader~advisor relationships it seems.
They are more keen to address issues pertaining to discrimination, sexual harassment which again means pandering to widely popular female audience. Important, relevant issues are never raised for fears of being denied leave, a raise, promotion or general well being.
You have to be in the good books of all the Managers, TL’s, SME’s here or else the word will spread around that you’re a troublemaker. Also certain processes have very poor managers who have carried over their baggage from the old EFunds days so not many new folks wished to be ever hired there!
Also beware that there are a lot of spies, snitches whom you wouldn’t otherwise recognize. Dhirubhai Ambani called them’Chamchas, Chelas who report to the TL’s; Managers on any misdemeanors, faults, weaknesses of yours, with a warning letter or citation likely to follow, so watch your step. They also look for a lot of evidence from CCTV
© Hardly a clear vision or Career Planning Perspective out here because despite a lot of the external training programs, how it can be managed & inculcated into your work style & hours is near impossible to understand.
Moreover, the need to learn grow, develop, & become skilled is lost on this company probably because its yet to sink its teeth into a big brand technical process. That being the case, O2, a UK process is more of a chat process but telecom, yes. So, a lot of lessons have to be learnt before FIS takes the big leap onto the center stage