Indian employees are as good, if not better, than anyone we'd find in New York Joseph Sigelman/Co-Founder/OfficeTiger

Some weeks ago, Anupam Ahuja was in for a pleasant surprise. A client she was servicing made her, a Mumbai-based pr executive, an impromptu job offer. That was the pleasant part. Now for the minor shock. She was asked if she'd go across and work in their New York office as a marketing executive.

The client was financial services outsourcing firm OfficeTiger, which services several top global investment banks with a 1,500-person strong offshore delivery centre in Chennai. And Ahuja's leap across the seas has served to undermine the Indian Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry's foundational belief: that while it's very nice that you're paid for skills of your mind, you have a job only so long as it doesn't cost much to keep that mind alive and functioning.

Ahuja now has an OfficeTiger job in New York, and it costs the company much more. "I wouldn't have missed it for the world," she says from across the globe, "The exposure is tremendous-I'm glad I came here." But then, "It was a bit of a sacrifice," she reflects, weeks later, "since I now have a long-distance marriage." Her employer is ever so glad though. "Well," says Joseph Sigelman, Co-Founder, OfficeTiger, "she has already delivered tangible benefits. She is as good, if not better, than anyone we'd find in New York."

That Shattering Sound

For years, BPO employees in India have lived with an uncomfortable presence hovering over them that they'd rather not talk about. The glass ceiling. The first promotion, you click heels (like on TV) and party like you've just won an Oscar; the second, you have everybody thumping your back till it hurts; the third, and you want to leave office early to mope yourself sick about your future. It's only thus high-and no further. Another year or two, and ouch-the head hurts.

Stand back. The first few cracks have appeared in the BPO glass ceiling. The closer you look, the more you see Indian BPO agents escaping their cubicles in Gurgaon, Chennai and Belapur. "At any given point," says Sigelman, "we have about 20 Indians in our New York office now, performing a range of functions like working with clients as account managers-these would have to be people with technical as well as managerial skills. And then we also have Indians in executive functions like marketing and strategy development in the New York office."

It's a great opportunity to look at a global role while being based here in India Atul Kanwar/Managing Director, Global Delivery/eFunds

Apart from foreign postings, there are also instances of Indian executives making the corner room of global BPO firms (though this is part of a separate trend). Atul Kanwar, for example, has recently been appointed managing director for global delivery for the US-based financial transaction processing firm, eFunds, though his job is based in India. "From my perspective it's a great opportunity," says Kanwar, "Having taken the decision to be based here (in India), I really needed to look at a global role while being based here. This job really meets those aspirations. Of course, there is the option of being based out of other geographies as well, but it works just fine this way too."

Defying Geography

Increasingly, BPO companies are getting busy with their global delivery models, which require round-the-clock fine-tuning of communication and project management strategies for business across the planet. What companies need is simply the best talent available, regardless of origin. The idea is to render geographical location irrelevant, and operate as a sort of virtual organisation.

Consider Lason India, the Indian arm of US-based BPO firm. The company, which has delivery centres in India, Mexico, China and the US, has asked its chief of India operations, Pradeep Nevatia, to take on the additional responsibility of formulating a strategy to optimise the use of managers in India for a diverse range of global operations.

To service assorted time zones, Lason India's professionals have formed strategic units that operate beyond their locations. For example, the Business Development Support team, comprising four finance professionals, now decides on all project pricing for any job across all global delivery centres. Likewise, the Lason India hr team is starting to play a significant role in the global hr function for the company's 60 odd locations in the US as well as all locations in Mexico, China and India. The same goes for the company's Quality Control professionals in India, who have formed a Strategic Support Group to leverage their quality processes across worldwide locations.

Indian professionals are doing vastly sophisticated jobs, even on the global map Pradeep Nevatia/Chief Of India Operations/Lason India

Of course, Nevatia does not deny that the same jobs done by the same people overseas could mean unbearably higher costs-but the Lason experience does indicate that Indian professionals are doing vastly more sophisticated work, and that too in the global scheme of things, than they'd been doing a while ago.

Virtual Skill Juggling

Other units, such as the Hyderabad-based HSBC Process Management, are also using Indian skills across many markets. According to Malcolm Wagget, COO, HSBC Electronic Data Processing, "We have one executive in the Middle East for project management, two in Malaysia, and we also have finance and hr professionals who are currently in Sri Lanka to build a centre there."

To Wagget, it's a matter of getting the work done, and is not unduly perturbed by the cost implications of sending people overseas. "You have to look at it in pure number terms," he explains, "it's an opportunity for very few people really, and it's all about finding the right skills and filling skill shortages in the company in all the markets where it operates. I don't see a situation where several hundred people from a company go overseas-so there isn't any real cost implication."

In any case, BPO firms are getting their professionals trained at a low cost by having people start off in India-before packing them off to foreign locations. "Typically," observes Atul Sharma, Director, Human Resources, Prudential Process Management Services, "this sort of movement (from India to other centres) starts to happen after the Indian operations have been in existence for about two years." The first year of operations is typically spent mastering client processes and getting the manpower into shape. After that, it pays to expand their "sphere of influence", as Sharma terms it.

Release At last?

In a globalising world, where people are posted is not the issue. The important trend that seems to be emerging is the propulsion of Indians towards job functions of increasing criticality in the global scheme of operations. The reduction of geographical constraints brought about by technology, thus, is helping Indians grab not just the classic answer-the-phone jobs, but also the ones that global jetsetting executives hanker after.

That's just how it should be, says Sigelman. A matter of merit. For that's also the reason some BPO units will attract better talent than others. "I want OfficeTiger to have a career path for its people," he says, "sending people across geographies gives them tremendous exposure. In fact the process is two-way-we also have people from the US coming down here."

In an industry notorious for its revolving doors, Prudential's Sharma also sees the trend as significant for the incentive factor. The prospect of global assignments is a major selling point.

In all, it offers a beacon of hope for the swelling ranks of BPO employees. They've always been realistic enough to understand that business hierarchies tend to be pyramid-shaped, so opportunities narrow as one moves up. But the BPO industry has had a unique problem of short career spans-which, if addressed, could work wonders. Every good business, after all, must give its least paid employee the hope that she too could become CEO. Picture a global company's CEO looking back at her career some day, and speaking of the fateful customer complaint she took many years ago in Gurgaon one late night that gave her a paradigm-altering insight into what needed to be done.

COUNSELLING
Help, Tarun!

I am a 26-year-old management trainee with a large FMCG company, which recently went through an extensive restructuring exercise. Ever since, the top management has been very diligent about deadlines and targets, particularly with newer employees like me. We work almost eight to ten hours every day. My senior colleagues tell me that this was not the case earlier. I feel this is unfair. What should I do?

If you're looking for an easy life at work, you should either not work, or look for an easier occupation. Honestly, you should thank your stars that you've been given so much work, because it gives you a great opportunity to further your skills and knowledge. And you should know by now that life is anything but fair to most but a select few. So you should stop worrying about your company's history and the good old lazy days, and put your time as a trainee to better use, for yourself and for your company.

I am a 34-year-old direct selling agent for an insurance major. Though the company has been doing well over the last five to six years, lately we have been unable to attract new policy prospects. Our pay and incentives depend on these to a large extent, but people probably want to buy houses and cars rather than invest in insurance. This has created a sense of unease about my job. Isn't any job secure today?

Yes, job security as we knew earlier doesn't exist today. Today job security can only be derived from the skills you possess. As for the insurance market, today there are a lot more insurance companies competing for the policyholders' money, so it's much more difficult to land new policyholders. In this situation, more focussed strategies are needed. Your company could look at selling different types of policies-specific, targeted ones-to existing policyholders, rather than just targeting new ones. That would surely add to business.

I have recently joined work with an MNC in New Delhi. Being a cricket fan, the ongoing India-Pakistan cricket series is of great interest to me. However, my superiors are not very interested in the game. I don't want to miss any match, but that means I must miss many days of work. I'm unable to decide whether to request a TV in our bay, or just go on leave on match days. Please advise.

No boss, even one as addicted to cricket as you are, would allow you to follow your passion at the cost of job productivity. The cardinal rule of success is to be able to separate business from pleasure. And since you're new to the job, your career must take precedence over everything else. Besides, you can't expect your bosses to install a TV just so you can watch cricket at work. And taking leave on match days would mean 20 days of leave over one month. You do that, and you may soon find yourself looking for fresh work.

I have been working with a battery manufacturer over the last five years. Recently, my younger brother joined the same company. And that has created a peculiar problem for me. At my company, it is quite common for senior employees to be reprimanded by management in public. Till my brother joined, I managed. But now, I resent being talked down to with my brother listening in. I feel humiliated. What should I do?

First of all, it's not wise for family members, particularly close ones such as brothers and spouses, to work for the same organisation, or in the same department within an organisation. But with the job market being what it is today, I can't blame you too much for that. And managements have this habit of making their point known in full view of people under their command. My advise to you is to keep calm, explain your problem to your brother and hope that he understands. If he doesn't, perhaps you need to start looking for a change in job.

Answers to your career concerns are contributed by Tarun Sheth (Senior Consultant) and Shilpa Sheth (Managing Partner, US practice) of HR firm, Shilputsi Consultants. Write to Help,Tarun! c/o Business Today, Videocon Tower, Fifth Floor, E-1, Jhandewalan Extn., New Delhi-110055.