BPOs: Rural youths join the gang

‘COUNTRYSIDE Nationwide’ - reads the tagline of Rural Shores, a BPO which currently employs Class 12 passouts at its delivery centres located in rural Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. The escalating cost of real estate, transportation and attrition levels in the metros has paved the way for this phenomenon popularly referred to as the rural BPO. Murali Vullaganti, CEO-Rural Shores talks to Merril Diniz about a two-fold opportunity – jobs for the rural youth and a career opportunity for those with a passion for development.

Q. Define the geography within which a rural BPO operates.
A. I am referring to the sub-taluka level, not Tier 2, Tier 3 or even district level. Places with 20,000 or less population. We have to go to that level to sustain the advantage on a long-term basis. Currently, we have six delivery centres - three in Karnataka, one in Tamil Nadu and one in Gujarat, and six more centres to be operational in the next two or three months.

Two in Rajasthan, one in UP, one in Bihar and one in Himachal. Typically our centres have 100 seats each with approximately 180 people on an average at each centre, we work in two shifts. Today we have 500 plus people on board, mostly rural youth who have passed Class 12 and above.

Q. How do you locate and interview the kids?
A. Once we start setting up a centre, we appoint a local centre administrative manager, someone well-versed with the area, and who is also respected there, like say a recently retired headmaster. He knows how to source, motivate the people.

Plus we go to the local institutes and also through word-of-mouth. We don’t go and recruit all 200 people on Day 1. We take them in batches of 30-40, put them through the training process. So, when the first batch moves into the process work, we get the next batch. You really need to handhold them. It’s not like group therapy.

Q. What is the kind of work they do?
A. Two categories. One is transaction processing such as bank account opening process or claims processing, customer correspondence, e-mail based, anything that has certain defined rules that they have to follow in managing the process. Two, local language voice support. People provide to say a telecom client providing Kannada language support. It is much better served from these centres than say Bangalore or Gurgaon. Transactions include insurance, banking, retail, telecom, transport and predominately service-oriented organisations, where the volumes are high.

Q. Do they need to have any specific skills to be hired?
A. We don’t look for any skills. The purpose is the give those from the BPL (Below Poverty Line) or underprivileged families, opportunities. The first two-three months we have very intensive training in the basic skills, where we try to bring them up to the level where we can put them through process training. There are three types of training – to read and write English, not necessarily to speak. Then basic computer skills such as typewriting plus MS Office. Third is soft skills like how to speak politely, courteously, how to comb your hair, dress nicely, and be professional. After this they undergo process training for three to four weeks.

Q. What is the experience of transforming them?
A. It takes time. For them it is a first-time opportunity to be exposed to a job. It takes a couple of months to understand what this really means. Little things like taking leave is new to them. For instance, if there is a marriage in the village, everyone goes to the marriage without informing. So, you need to tell them – ‘you come in this shift, work for four hours and then you come for next four hours’. It is not that they don’t want to do it; it’s just that they don’t know. Once they come up to speed there is no looking back. They do excellent work. There is no distraction and commitment levels are very high. But from their side, they are skeptical as they think this job is too good to be true until they start getting the pay cheque.

Q. And when do they receive their first pay cheque...?
A. The basic training for three months is free, after which they get a certification. More than 90% get through. For the remaining training continues until we bring them up to speed. We don’t want to leave anyone behind unless they have an attitude or behaviour issue. They received a stipend of Rs 2000 during process training. After that they get salary when they start work.

Every state has a minimum wage regulation, depending on this the entry-level salary is Rs 4000 to 5000, plus we pay the Provident Fund, health insurance and gratuity, all the benefits one would typically get in a regular BPO. We have a pantry but everyone gets their own lunch. We don’t need to pamper them, as it also increases the cost of operations. We have two shifts - 6 am to 2 pm and 2 pm to 10 pm. We offer a home drop for those in the night shifts.

Q. Who are your trainers?
A. They are people with process and domain skills. For basic training, we have partnered with institutes such as NIIT Uniqua and IL&FS.

Q. What is the background of your senior managers? Are they willing to relocate to be able to run the show?
A. Our process managers and team leaders all have several years of experience at BPOs. We recruit them from cities, pay them market rate salaries and depute them to those places for two to three years. It’s a career challenge. Plus there is a lot of saving, since we pay market-rate salaries. But most importantly they have a passion and want to go to the village. We also have a ’First-Time Manager’ programme, where we recruit postgraduate degree-holders and train them to be managers at the delivery centre and take a team of 15-20 people and do team-management and process management.

We prefer post-graduates because their level of maturity is higher and they are more ready for these entry-level management positions. Also, there are plenty of them. Recently, we recruited half a dozen from a management college in Shimoga (Karnataka).

Q. How do you orient these management trainees?
A. It’s a six-month to one-year training programme. We do a classroom training where we teach them about leadership, team management, but mostly one-job training where they shadow a Team Leader or Process Leader and learn about it. Once done they are qualified to manage a team and process of their own. Depends on how quickly they can transform themselves to that position. May take three months and sometimes nine months to one year.

Q. How have things moved since you set up your first centre in Bagepalli two years ago?
A. Initially, they thought this was like those government schemes where they make promises with lots of fanfare and nothing happens. Getting a white-collar job in their own area, was too good to believe. But perceptions have changed and they now realise these jobs are for real. Particularly the parents of the girls to send them to a place where they mix with boys. The girls are also able to earn Rs 4,000 – it’s a lot of money for them by the way – equivalent to earning 15 K in a city, because they already have a place to live. For some it means having three square meals for the entire family. Starting from there to buying a TV or a tractor. For them, it’s a life change as opposed to a lifestyle changes in the cities. 

(RuralShores seeks passionate individuals, to work in rural India. E-mail careers@ruralshores.com )

Rural BPOs (with predominantly non-voice processes)
 

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