In India, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is growing
significantly as a segment of the ITES (Information Technology Enabled
Services). The sector has been growing at an annual rate of 50%, which is proof
that the industry will continue to bloom. To date, BPO has provided jobs to
more than 80000 Indians. But the question arises– how a BPO company takes lead
in the market?
A BPO company’s most important department is — Operations.
Let us hear some tips on how to manage and ensure the proper functioning of the
operations department from Mr. Anand Kumar Jha, Head of the Operations
at CNS Comnet, one of the leading
Indian BPO company:
2. Develop a democratic team culture: To
ensure the smooth working of the department and to keep up the
morale, creating a teamwork culture is essential. By letting employees
suggest projects, discuss ideas and work together by setting up goals, one can
deflect chances of errors and internal clashes. Appreciating and providing
feedback to employees must be seen as an investment. Giving rewards is a factor
to inspire and motivate the team, the aim is to focus on “what is right” rather than “who is right”.
3. Proper communication and monitoring are of
utmost importance: Miscommunication or under communication can lead to
unwanted clashes and can hamper the procedure hence leading to poor delivery of
the service. Maintaining reports and modules is essential to ensure consistency
in the work. By keeping a backup and maintaining the database, management
becomes easier. Communication and meetings must be done regularly between
departments in terms of daily tasks, achievements, deadlines, and
responsibilities. Do not micro manage
but never leave things under managed.
4. Choose your team members wisely: A
company is known by its team. The better a team performs, the better is
the company’s stake holding. Starting from the hiring procedure, an employees’
skill-set must be studied and attitude towards the work culture must be tested.
Treat interviewee like he is an enemy sitting in an interrogation camp and once
he is hired, treat him like he the most valuable person of the team. There
are four types of people, high skill- high will, high skill- low will, low
skill- high will and low skill- low will. Proper utilization of
talent and understanding one’s capabilities are important to ensure that people
do not swing from high skills- high will to high skill- low will.
5. Always meet your commitment: What’s
better: Promise less, deliver more, and get an appraisal for delivering more
than promised or Promise more, deliver less, and underperform. Well, I
believe everyone would like to go with the first option.
6. Always ask for feedback: Always keep improvising. Asking
for feedback from your clients will not only help you understand your mistakes
but will also warn you from repeating or making new ones in the future? Never overlook
even a minor suggestion from your clients. Because BPO is all about providing
what the client wants not what you want to give to the clients.
7. Always track your expenses: A minor leak can sink the
whole ship. To claim payment, one must have a clear audit report of what
happened and when happened. It will save you from a load of tension and
arguments.
8. Stay updated: Remember providing services is all
about what the client wants rather than what you want to give to the clients?
But what if we are doing every procedure in difficult way when there is an easy
option already available in the market, so instead of delivering a project in X
time, we take 2X time, now this is terrible. Staying updated and taking
risks to accept changes in the procedure will help you to become a leader in
the industry because a leader leads the way for its followers by taking risks.
9. Stay focused: If you fail,
still be focused. Do not change your goal very frequently instead learn from
your mistakes and make required changes in the procedure to achieve that goal.
If you are successful, appreciate your team immediately. They should feel
valued, so they are focused and committed towards next goal.
10. Security: Very important. Clients trust BPO with
their data. It is the BPO’s foremost responsibility to secure it. Nothing
matters, if data security is breached.
Starting a BPO isn’t rocket science but maintaining it, definitely is. Outline
a strong business plan, find the like-minded team members with high skill- high
will set, complete the necessary paperwork, maintain database and a backup,
invest in updated technologies, and you’ll have no trouble running your own BPO
firm and growing it in no time!
