BPOs dial SOS over English

Industry leaders say it is time for the government to intervene since it is not possible to make candidates who have studied in vernacular schools fluent and confident in business communication with a few weeks of training. BPOs are unwilling to invest more time in education since employees have little loyalty — all investments in the employee go waste because he is soon head-hunted by a rival. The BPO industry therefore argues it requires government help just like the IT industry. In the early 80s,numerous courses were designed to help the nascent IT services industry — Masters and Bachelors in Computer Applications,in Computer Science and in Applied Maths among others.

“Irrespective of voice or non-voice work,fluency in language helps people gain confidence. If a mandatory spoken and written English course is introduced in the education system,they would become very fluent in English communication,” says co-founder and chief people officer of 24/7 Customer S Nagarajan. Spoken English should be enforced as a second language in vernacular schools and students should be tested at Xth and XIIth levels,he suggests.

Indian BPO firms have now started hiring big time in the Philippines — the country is fast catching up with India’s BPO industry but has a population that is one-tenth of India. Philippines has compulsory English courses.

Milind Godbole,president of Asia Pacific at Aditya Birla Minacs,says that most government schools can make it compulsory for students to speak in English within the campus. Second,reading abilities need to be developed.

“We are good in product knowledge. But there is a desperate need to develop conversational abilities. When somebody starts speaking in a typical American or a British or an Australian way,we struggle; we give mono-syllabic answers while the customer is habitual of expecting some other statement. We appear not very empathetic,” he notes.

Besides spoken English,even written communication skills are now becoming critical for Indian BPOs as they are now transitioning from primarily being a call centre to a contact centre – contact can happen via SMS,email,chat,or call. “Mobile texting has introduced short form of words and sentences. It does not affect spoken skills but has started affecting grammatically correct sentences,” Godbole says.

He suggests that courses have to start very early in schools – around the VIth or VIIth standard since this is the time students start cultivating habits. Also,it would make them employable by the time they finish school — most BPOs have started recruiting non-graduates.

Sandeep Aggarwal,EVP,Sales,Solutions and Transitions at Intelenet doesn’t see any employability gap at the moment but says a person from a vernacular background would never be able to manage unless he or she is exceptional. “Will English courses help vernacular people increase their chances of getting employed in the BPO industry? The answer is yes. The way it will help the industry is by bringing in more supply of labour into the talent pool. This may reduce cost pressures,” he notes.

Jessy Christin,vice-president of Human Resources at Hinduja Global Solutions Limited says that at the university level,having a course in business communication will help. But it should be supplemented by other courses relevant to the industry — telephone etiquettes,listening ability and keyboard skills among others. “Structured BPO oriented courses should be aimed at training final year students who would soon be venturing into the job market. Such training intervention is more needed in the tier-2 and tier-3 towns which are emerging as the new hubs for our BPO industry,” he says.