Human Resource Management in Indian Call Centers

This report discusses the role of human resource management in Indian Call Centers and the strategies that can be implemented to improve the working environment and increase productivity. It covers general and specific HR strategies, solutions to identified problems, and recommendations for improvement.

Running Head: Indian Call Centre Journey 1
Human resource management
Assignment 2: India Call Centers

Indian Call Centre Journey 2
Executive summary
The call centre industry plays a vital role in expanding and flourishing the business activities and
operations globally. The role of human resource management in developing the business of BPO
in India is great because their specific strategies help company to develop in specific parts. There
are many issues such as lack of processes to scale the business, lack of management capabilities,
inadequate investments in technology and improper structure for proving growth opportunities to
keep the workers motivated. The discussion has been made on the Indian Call Centre Journey
and the strategies of human resource management are discussed under this report for the purpose
of making improvements in the BPOs.

Indian Call Centre Journey 3
Contents
Executive summary.........................................................................................................................2
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Background..................................................................................................................................4
Scope............................................................................................................................................4
The purpose of the report.............................................................................................................5
Analysis...........................................................................................................................................5
Human resource strategies...........................................................................................................5
General HR strategies..................................................................................................................5
Specific HR strategies..................................................................................................................7
Solutions to solve the problems identified...................................................................................9
Conclusion and Recommendation.................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Background
Human resource management entails administering and developing programs that are designed
to amplify the effectiveness of an organization. It encompasses the whole spectrum of
developing, handing and cultivating the employer-employee relationship. There are various
issues regarding human resource management that affect the productivity of the employees in
Indian Call Centers. It has been analyzed that the human resource management is about
addressing current employee concerns, acquiring new employees, managing the employee
separation process and improving morale. The issues regarding HRM have been discussed in the
previous assignment in which the lack of training, communication gap, improper client servicing
issue lack of processes to scale the business, lack of management capabilities, inadequate
investments in technology and improper structure for proving growth opportunities to keep the
workers motivated are discussed.
Scope
The scope of the report is broad as it will entail the HR strategy in order to change the working
environment so that the revenues of the company can be increased significantly. The focus on
employee strengths and the reduction of the flaws in the operation of Call Centers in India will
be emphasized in this report. It would be helpful for making a better understanding about the role
of HRM in the organization so that the operations of BPO can take initiative for the aim of
bringing change for the purpose of increasing the productivity of the employees.

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The purpose of the report
The main purpose of the report is to highlight the HR issues within the operation of Indian Call
Centers. The agenda of today’s human resource management team will be elaborated under this
report. Another purpose of the report is to explain the HR strategies so that the organization can
save itself from a hazardous situation such as increasing rate of attrition, developing a bad image
of the company and the decreasing motivation of the employees towards performing the
allocated tasks.
Analysis
Human resource strategies
Human resource is the department that searches and trains an employee. They facilitate conflict
resolution and the employee benefits (Brewster, Chung and Sparrow, 2016). Human resource
strategies are the major concept of the human resource department that takes the responsibilities
and ensuring they meet the mission and the needs of the company in the future (Chatterjee,
2013). Indian call centres are facing issues of high attrition rate because of lack of techniques
which should be applied by the company in order to develop the competitive advantages. It has
been found that Malaysia, Brazil, China and Philippines are giving a tough competition to India.
It is necessary for the organization to focus on the HR strategies for the purpose of improving the
environment of working. HR strategies are categorized into two parts such as general and
specific in which generally refers to those strategies which can be followed by any organization
in order to make changes in the working environment. On the other hand, the specific HR
strategies are considered for the specific organization or industry. The discussion will be made
on both kinds of HR strategies.

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General HR strategies
Overreaching strategies elaborate the general intentions of the organization regarding how
people should be handled and improved and what steps should be taken to make sure that the
organization can retain and attract the people (Thite and Russell, 2010). General strategies define
the overall system of complementary HR practices that the company develops to put into
consequences in order to develop the organizational performance. Three main approaches are
described below:
High-performance management
The aim of high performance management system is to make an influence on the performance of
the organization in definite areas like quality, levels of customer services, productivity and the
growth (Dessler, 2016). The practices of high performance management entail thorough
recruitment and selection processes, performance management processes, extensive training and
development activities and the incentive pay systems. These kinds of practices are referred to as
high performance work systems that can help employee in the involvement of the employee, skill
enhancement and motivation (Lockwood, Forey and Price, 2008). This kind of term is commonly
utilized than either high involvement management or high commitment management; however,
there is a scope of having common characteristics between these approaches and HPSW.
It has been found that the call centre employees are practicing several of social, health and
psychological issues, which alleviate the affirmative influence of any kind of activities related to
internal marketing which is carried out by the organization to encourage these employees. For
instance, some employees of call centre are asked to anticipate various identities and this is
reflected to be reason of psychological problems. Moreover, employees of the call centres are

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generally asked to change their names, obtain foreign accent and improving new interests to
better converse with and satisfy clients. This reason has become the major problem of ‘multiple
personality’ disorder. It is necessary for the human resource management to focus on this issue as it is
the reason of improper structure of working in Indian Call Centre.
High commitment management
It has been found that one of the elaborating features of HRM is its highlights on the importance
of amplifying mutual commitment. High commitment management has been elaborated by
Hollenbeck, Noe, and Gerhart, (2018) that it is a form of management which is aimed at
extracting so that behavior is mainly self controlled instead of controlling by various sanctions.
As per the case study, it can be stated that high commitment management should be considered
in the call centers in India. The organization that adopts high commitment management is
capable to reveal sustained performance because they attain the three paradoxical goals such as
performance alignment, psychological alignment, and capacity for learning and change.
High involvement management
High involvement work practices are considered as the set of human resource practices that
centre on employee decision making, access to information, power and training. It has been
identified that the involvement of the employees in the company will be increased if they are
given the chance to control and understand their work (Marchington, Wilkinson, Donnelly and
Kynighou, 2016). This kind of approach entails treating employees in the form of partners in the
entity whose interests are considered and who have influence on matters that concern them. It is
worried with entailment and communication. The objectives is to build in which a progressing
dialogue between the members of their teams and managers takes place in order to elaborate

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expectations and share information on the mission, value, and objectives. This makes mutual
understanding of what is to be attained and a structure for overseeing and budding people to
make certain that it will be attained (HR Strategies, 2018).
Specific HR strategies
As per the global call center study, the rate of employee turnover in Indian call centers is highest
that is 40% in opposition to a global average of 20% and around 60% of employees have not
more than 1 year of tenure at work. It is anticipated that these conditions can be worst in coming
years that is why it is required for the Indian call centers to increase the productivity of the
business by making effective business strategies of human resource management. It has been
found from the journal article of Soltis, Brass and Lepak, (2018), that India is the second highest
country that has bigger attrition rate, absenteeism rate and lowest employee tenure rate (11
months). Therefore, it is apparent that enthusiastic and young Indians who get attracted towards
the glitter of the BPO industry that exposure of working in a high tech environment; this industry
is not able to get retained employees due to ineffective HR strategies. It is required for the
business of BPO in India to focus on the HR strategies so that the employee of the company can
be connected with the organization for a long period (Hollenbeck and Jamieson, 2015). Specific
HR strategies set out what the organization (Indian Call Centers) wants to do in the area such as:
Maintenance: The specific HR strategies help the company to attain the benefits and improve
the policy in the context of safety and health in Indian Call Centres. The specific HR strategies
help business in completing the needs of the business. The maintenance is necessary for the
business and the role of HR in this activity is great as they perform towards the accomplishment

Indian Call Centre Journey 9
of the vision of the company (Rowe, Malhotra and Pérez, 2013). HRM of India Call Centres
should be effective so that the employees can stay with this industry for a long period.
Development: development is essential for the Indian call centers so that they can complete
international BPO as plenty of business is dependent on the BPO to increase their revenues. The
role of human resource management in developing the business of BPO in India is great because
their specific strategies help the company to develop in specific parts (Albrecht, Bakker,
Gruman, Macey and Saks, 2015). Employee training is the major component for the BPOs of
India because without having the effective training of working, one cannot be able to perform in
a sophisticated way which may lead the company in to the adverse situation. On the other hand,
employee development is another factor which should be focused by HR at the time of
recruitment in which HR should elaborate the success factor to them in the way of describing the
ladder of success in BPO sector (Pal and Buzzanell, 2008). Employee orientation is an integral
component for every organization and it can be observed that a number of organizations neglect
this factor which brings the issue of lack of confidence and productivity in the new employees.
Motivation: Motivation is an essential factor for Indian Call Centres because it has been found
through a case study that the organization neglects the motivation factor at the time of taking
work from the employees. The unproductive environment at BPO can force an employee to leave
the organization soon which is the major cause of increasing rate of attrition (Budhwar, Varma,
Malhotra and Mukherjee, 2009). There should be the proper structure of rewards so that the
employees get what they deserve. Along with HR should focus on the promotion and promote
the employee as per their performance for which they should implement 360-degree feedback
policies. Employees should be rewarded who follow discipline as per the norm of the
organization; it would inspire others to be disciplined at the time of performing the job.

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Solutions to solve the problems identified
It has been found that there are many problems with HRM in Indian Call Centres such as
improper training, lack of management capabilities, inadequate knowledge of latest technology
and lack of motivation (Bailey, Mankin, Kelliher and Garavan, 2018). It is required for the
business to have the effective HR strategies for the purpose of making a good environment at
BPO in India. There are some solutions mentioned below which can be helpful for the
organizations to make progress in the industry.
Proper structure of training: there should be the proper structure of the training in BPO
because it has been observed that it provides the platform to the fresher who has not knowledge
of the corporate world and ineffective knowledge about how to work can lead the organization
into the adverse situation.
Focus on employee orientation: HR of the organization should focus on the employee
orientation because the purpose of employee orientation is to serve as an essential factor of the
employee welcome and organization integration. It helps in reducing the start-up costs, anxiety,
and employee turnover, save time for the supervisor and develops realistic job expectations and
positive attitude. In such a process, HR should make feel comfort them so that they can ask any
questions regarding continuous learning and development.
Work with latest technology: it is the responsibility of HR in Call Center to work as per
effective strategies as the technology is growing rapidly and due to involvement of outside
business in India, it is required for the Indian Call Center to get updated as per latest technology
and provide training to the employees as per latest technology so that they can work
appropriately.

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Rewards and recognition: rewards and recognition are considered as the major factors of
motivation. They help employees to get motivated that is why HR should motivate the
employees by offering them rewards not only in the form of monetary but also in a non-monetary
form that would be helpful for them to connect with the company for a long time. Instead of this,
Hr should elaborate them about the policies and the promotion structure by giving examples of
seniors. This strategy would facilitate them to do hard as well as smart work to reach particular
position.

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Conclusion and Recommendation
It can be concluded from above discussion that the role of human resource management in Indian
Call Center is great as they help in increasing the productivity of the employees in a significant
manner. There are two kinds of strategies of human resource which can be applied in the terms
of general and specific. General HR strategies can be applied for any kinds of business and
specific kinds of strategies are helpful to increase the productivity of the employee as per the
working condition of the specific organization and industry. The discussion has been made on
both strategies which will help for further research. It has been apparent from the above report
and the result of the case study that whereas human resources are a major power of Indian BPO,
they are also considered as the huge threat in regards of retaining, engaging talent and attracting.
It has been found that this industry is hardly ten years old but has been developing hastily
building great demand for employees. It has been found that on the supply side of the labor
market, it is not the matter of the quantity but also matter of the quality of “employable” people
that doubts employment managers. They are consequently strained to increase their recruitment
network deeper and in the procedure, the quality is possible to undergo.
It has been recommended to the Indian Call Centre to focus on the human resource strategies in
order to improve the functions of the operation. Employee engagement is necessary for the
business to get involved in the work as it is dependent on trust, two ways of commitment and
integrity between an organization and its members. It is considered as an approach that amplifies
the opportunities for business success and individual performance and well being. There should
be a proper focus on motivation strategies in which the HR can commence monetary as well as
the non-monetary procedure for them. Just as the feature and degree of the role of India in the

Indian Call Centre Journey 13
global information services sector are generally underestimated, the capability, motivation as
well as the competency of human resource management in India are overstated. In such response,
it is required for the HRM of India to perform as per the set rules of the organization and take
initiative for the purpose of making satisfied the employee from their jobs.

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References
Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee
engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An integrated
approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1), pp.7-35.
Bailey, C., Mankin, D., Kelliher, C. and Garavan, T., 2018. Strategic human resource
management. Oxford University Press.
Brewster, C., Chung, C. and Sparrow, P., 2016. Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.
Budhwar, P.S., Varma, A., Malhotra, N. and Mukherjee, A., 2009. Insights into the Indian call
centre industry: can internal marketing help tackle high employee turnover?. Journal of Services
Marketing, 23(5), pp.351-362.
Chatterjee, S.R., 2013. Human resource management in India:‘Where from’and ‘where to?’. 
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Hollenbeck, J.R., Noe, R.A. and Gerhart, B.A., 2018. Human resource management: Gaining a
competitive advantage. McGraw-Hill Education.

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HR Strategies, 2018. HR Strategies. [online] Available:
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