Retention - A Challenge

The Team Leader's Challenge One of the most important issues in the BPO industry in India today is Attrition. Various estimates place the industry's annual attrition rate anywhere from 50% to 60%. But an informal chat with executives of many companies will reveal that this number could possibly be under-reported. In some cases, the attritions rates are as high as 100% i.e. the company re-invents every year. There are many factors that cause agents to leave their job. There are localized company specific factors like company policies, culture, reputation, salaries etc. There are also personal factors like travel time, marriage, relocation and other family issues. But there are larger economic or demographic factors also at play. A couple of these factors are: Jobs are a commodity

As compared to the mid 80s or 70s, jobs are no longer scarce. Today, BPO companies are providing graduates with a diverse range of jobs resulting in multiple opportunities (a situation earlier enjoyed only by institutions such as IITs). Therefore, jobs are now perceived to have become commodities. The question for every BPO company now is "how do we build employee loyalty" when our employment is perceived to be a commodity. ·   Low tenure differential between Team Leaders and Agents

The high growth in the industry has resulted in people with low tenures getting promoted to higher levels even before they are ready. This low tenure differential leads to lower managerial maturity among team leaders. From an agent's perspective, it means that he (the agent) learns very little from his team leader.

It therefore makes no difference which team the agent is in (i.e. which team leader he currently work for). If there is no difference, then the agent might as well work for a team leader in a different company which pays a few thousand rupees more. Therefore, Team leaders with lower managerial maturity become a major reason why agents leave companies. The Concept of the Value Basket

Team leaders should be trained to build a value basket for their team members. The concept of the value basket enables team leaders to think in following terms:

Why should agents work for me? If my company had a democratic system where agents could choose their own team leaders, what are the reasons agents would choose me?"
A common excuse given by agents and team leaders as to why people leave is low salary levels. However, research has shown that people join companies, but leave because of what their managers' do or don't do. When various other issues important to an agent are not addressed, they don't have a choice but the compare the only common factor across companies i.e. money. Therefore, a few thousand rupees more at another company becomes more attractive. This is where the concept of a value basket comes into the picture.

In the value basket, the team leader must perform a set of activities for each individual in her team. Whenever an agent thinks of leaving the company, the agent will then evaluate the new company against all of these value adding activities, and not just money. Some examples of such activities are given below:

1. Success in current job
Everyone wants to be successful in his or her current job. However, not everyone knows how. Therefore, one item in the value basket will be the coaching-monitoring-feedback cycle that is intended to improve the performance of agents. This cycle is frequently underestimated. Not too many team leaders are taught how to coach. Most of them end up telling agents what to do, rather than showing them how to do the job. This requires detailed analysis of areas of weakness and having a razer sharp focus on improving those areas. Such detailed work will enable agents to see that the team leader is genuinely interested in their success.

2. Focus on future career
Everyone has career aspirations beyond their current jobs. If agents see that their current job offers a path towards their future career aspirations, then they are likely to stay longer in the company. Therefore, team leaders have to play the role of career counselors and need to perform career-planning activities. They need to create succession plans for every one of their team members. The goal is to ensure that the agent has the best shot at making it through an IJP after preparation. If the agent qualifies to attend the IJP, the team leader should spend time preparing the agent by administering mock tests, mock interviews etc.

3. Training
Training is a great way to increase competencies of agents. While most team leaders focus on process related training, they do not realize that developing agents on other parameters will enhance an agent's capabilities. For example, team leaders can train agents on new skills (e.g. use of word, excel, power point etc.). They can choose to train agents on a variety of other topics including time management, importance of personal savings, career opportunities in various departments, changing attitudes, how to get jobs done in various departments, aspects of the team leader's own jobs etc. If this happens, the agent observes that he is getting smarter by staying with this team leader. 

4. Extra Responsibility
Giving extra responsibility to agents is another way to get them engaged with the team/company. However, just giving the extra responsibility does not help. The team leader must spend time teaching the agent all the tasks involved including data collection, data analysis, drawing charts and trend lines, top problem generation etc. With this, the agent also learns all the skills that will help him move to his next role. 

5. Delegation
Many team leaders and managers feel that they are the only people who can do a particular task or job. Therefore, they do not delegate their jobs as much as they should. Delegation is a great way to develop competencies. However, the moment a job is delegated, team leaders must understand that there will be a performance problem with the agent. For this drop in performance, the team leader must be ready to take the heat from his manager. He must also be ready to compensate for this drop by putting in extra hours to coach the agent. Consistent coaching, monitoring and feedback will enable the agent to improve upon the job and over a period, the agent may do the job better than the team leader.

6. Focus on Family
A key element of Indian culture is family involvement on any major decision the member of a family makes. Therefore, if the team leader takes the effort to establish closer ties with the agent's family, he can add an extra layer of friction that will discourage the agent from quitting. For instance, if an agent does something significantly good at work, the team leader can call up his parents and talk about the good job that the agent has done. When the parents know that their son/daughter is being recognized at work, they will certainly check if the agent is making the right decision when he thinks of quitting. 

7. Standing up for the Team
Team leaders are closest to their team members. While they need to ensure smooth functioning of their teams by implementing management decisions, they also need to educate their managers about the realities on the ground. When agents see the team leader standing up for them, they will have one more reason to stay in the team.

8. Setting expectations about career growth
Team leaders and agents need to understand the value of staying in one company for a significant period of time. At a time when jobs are plenty, agents tend to look at their careers in 1 year blocks rather than 5 year blocks. It is very tempting to jump jobs for a more money. However, such jumps will only slow down a person's career in the long run. In the short run, the jump will fetch more money, but in the long term, the agent loses out because his colleague (who did not jump) has had the benefit of tenure, and has therefore increased his competencies. The agent, who changed jobs, restarted himself at his new jobs time and again.

Building tenure in one company gives the agent an opportunity to solve various problems that comes his way (personal problems and professional problems). Jumping companies takes away that opportunity. A senior management position will be offered to a person in the future only if he is able to demonstrate that he can stay and solve problems, rather than run away from them. 

9. Becoming Interesting
The team leader must become an interesting person to work with. If the only thing agents hear from their team leader are work related issues, the team leader may be perceived to be a "boring" person. Instead, the team leader must make an effort to discuss various issues with agents. Team leaders can develop such qualities by reading books on a variety of subjects, reading newspapers etc.

10.   Creating a Motivating Environment
This has become a cliche in BPO circles. However, team leaders who are able to create motivating environments are likely to keep their team members together for a longer period of time. Motivation does not necessarily have to come through fun events such as pizza parties, celebrations, team outings etc. They can also come through serious events e.g. arranging a talk by the VP of Quality on career opportunities in the field of quality. Agents will look forward to these events and are likely to remain more engaged. 

The above-mentioned items in the value basket are just a sample of a vast number that the basket can actually contain. Every team leaders must build the value basket based on his or her strengths. Developing team leaders to create these value baskets can be the strategic weapon companies are looking for to combat attrition.