Attrition: The Biggest Challenge for HR Managers in Indian BPO Industry

According to the study conducted by NASSCOM and Everest India, the IT enabled services (BPO) industry is being looked upon as the next big employment generator. This sector has been growing at more than 35 percent over the past three years and currently estimated at US$ 26–29 billion and could grow nearly five-fold to reach US$50 billion in size by 2012. It is, no doubt, one of the toughest tasks for an HR manager in this sector, to bridge the ever increasing demand and supply gap of professionals. He has to find the right kind of people who can keep pace with the unique work patterns in this industry. Adding to this is the challenge of maintaining consistency in performance and keeping the motivation levels high, despite the monotonous work. The toughest concern for an HR manager in India is, however, the high attrition rate which is approximately 30–35 percent at present. In this regard an earnest attempt has been made by reviewing the literature and the available reports on various dimensions of BPO industry to find out the list of challenges faced by the HR managers in the Industry. It concluded that attrition is the most challenging factor for all HR managers.