By Tungnung, Zamlunmang Zou
The recent examinations conduct by the Delhi Times shows that, Call Centres is no longer an alternative place to work in. The attraction has seemingly boomeranged into repulsion for Gen. X. Today the dropout rate among the 20-30-age group at Call Centres is as high as the industry’s growth and the profile of the pros working there is in a state of transition.
Call Centres, inspite of it many disadvantages, has been the fastest growing sector in the Indian IT industry-both in terms of the number of people being hired and revenues generated-is the IT enabled services segment comprising Call Centres and Business Process Outsourcing (ITES-BPO) sector. This sector added 70,000 jobs in the last financial year, according to NASSCOM, the apex industry body of software and service companies in India. NASSCOM also estimates that by 2008, these will be 2,70,000 jobs in the customer interaction service sectors.
IT-enabled services are support functions and services for customers provided either through the telephone and web based channels. Where as, BPOs are companies, which provide similar functions and services but not from the country where the products have been sold. So, what is Call Centre job all about and why is it becoming a dream job for thousands of young people, many of whom are not even completing their graduation.
There are various types of Call Centres. Any company can set up its own Call Centre to deal with its own customer’s (i.e. a captive call centre) or they can hire a professional firm (i.e. a their-party call centre) to do the job for them. Function-wise too, they are divided into inbound and outbound Call Centres. Outbound Call Centres are places where operators-or Customer Service Associates, as they are called-make calls to the existing or prospective customers. Where as, at inbound Call Centres, the process is reversed and the Customer Service associates takes or received calls from the existing or prospective customers.
Call Centres can also be classified into Domestic and International. In the former, you work for an Indian based companies and deals with its Indian customers alone. The later deals with foreign customers of foreign companies, where you have to pretend yourself a foreigner besides flawless spoken English.
The selection process for the job of Call Centre Associate is not an easy task. Since the bulk of growth is happening in the BPO category, fluency in English is an absolute must. Your spoken English has to be flawless; its not just a matter of grammar, the way you talk must be void of any regional accent or MTI-Mother Tongue Influence. To be an associate, one has to acquire standard XII as a minimum qualification, but graduate is preferred. BCA, B.Sc. (Computer Sc.) can also apply for technical support jobs. Some firms take BE or Btech graduates too.
Most Call Centres offered 24/7 (24 hours a day and 7 days a week) support function round the clock. Willingness to work night shift is a must. In metros, the salary for fresher is anywhere between Rs. 8000 – Rs. 10,000 per month as advertised in the daily esteems, but the said amount is hardly paid to any newly recruited person instead, less amount is being paid to them. People in marketing get sales-based incentives. With 6 months experience, you can get another job and a hike of Rs. 1000 to Rs. 3000. Interestingly moving up the ladder, with 2 years experience, you can become Team Leader, Voice Coach or Quality Analyst, etc. with a salary of above Rs. 15,000 per month. Managerial positions are also available after a few more years of experience.
Provided you satisfied the above criteria, you will be call for an interview. Not only that, there are several elimination rounds you have to undergo. Firstly, you will face the preliminary round of interview. The next step is to answer the written test. This could be anything-from simple English Test with Analytical/Logical Reasoning thrown in or a complex Technical Aptitude test or both. Some Firms also administer psychometric tests. The next steps includes a Group Discussion, where the applicants are judged for their ability to talk clearly and with poise and a Listening Comprehensive test, to judge listening skills. If you go through all these, you will have at least two round of personal interviews. Once you are hire, you will receive training before going to "LIVE". This process of selection is not always the same in every Call Centre; however, these are the common norms being followed.
The industry is growing at a lightning speed, but the call of Call Centres does not sound as sweet to Gen. X. What’s wrong, Why and How? Who’s Mr. Call Centre’s Associate? It’s simple, he is an employee working under strict rules but sleeping whole daylong. He is the one who does not have time to see the beautiful daylight. No time to breathe fresh air and no time to interact with people and love ones. He has no future in education life and no time to glare at the books but time to close his eyes. Oh! What a boring and irritating life!
According to psychiatrist Samir Parekh. "Those who work in the graveyard shift suffer from the Shift Mal-adaptation Syndrome. With the rest and activity cycles reversed, the biological clock is confused, such people are prone to physical illness and suffer from depressive and anxiety symptoms. They are also prone to substance abuse. Most importantly, their social life gets disturb. Which is why Call Centres tap people whose needs are higher, like those of from small towns and elderly people".
As with every industry, there are downsides to working in Call Centres, some people face health problems because of the cycled routine of day and night shifts. Others face psychological problems because they are pretending to be someone else. The most complaint put up as per the survey is the effect on family and social life since the Call Centre employee is working while the world they live in is fast asleep and they are sleeping while people are busy socializing.
These problems, however, does not seems to be deterring the increasing number of young people making a beeline for the interview. It is mainly due to poor financial conditions being face by most young and old people. Not only that, Call Centre gives a handsome amount of salary to its employee and that can make people forget the pains.
