Career in BPO in India!

Few years back, India was basking in international recognition as a lucrative business destination for foreign companies. With more and more companies outsourcing their key business processes to India, the BPO industry saw an unparalleled boom. This created countless employment opportunities for young graduates and professionals. It became a great career option for numerous young, mid-career professionals to earn a competitive pay package and get acquainted to international work standards and cutting edge technology.

But with the financial meltdown in USA, the prospects of BPO industry look bleak now. With the crash of the major financial behemoths at the Wall Street, there is chaos, panic and despair in the entire IT and BPO industry in India. Almost 60% of the IT-BPO companies get their bread and butter from American financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, Washington Mutual, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers. The future of about 23 lakh people is in doldrums right now with layoffs being witnessed in all major firms. Leading global HR consulting firm Manpower has drastically downgraded hiring outlook for India. According to Manpower, hiring outlook (percentage of hiring that companies plan) dipped from 56% to 33% for quarter ending March 2009 for finance and insurance sectors. For IT-ITES, the outlook has declined from 58% to 47%. Companies are going to be badly hit, especially in the banking financial services & insurance (BFSI), IT and BPO, say experts. It is estimated that at least 5000-8000 people may have to search for other job options.

Meanwhile, at Lehman’s India unit, the fate of 2,500 employees is still uncertain. At a meeting in Hong Kong this week, the company decided that employees will get their September salary, but there was no word on their future.

Vikram Bhardwaj, CEO of Redileon, an executive HR firm said: “All hirings, especially of top management across sectors, is going to be badly hit in the ripple effect. From short-to-mid term, the scenario can only worsen, unless positive signals emerge from the US economy. Every new requirement for a hiring is being scrutinised heavily by the finance departments in IT companies.”

The ripple effect has lead to cost cutting in the IT and BPO industry in India. This has a direct impact on the recruitment and pay-packages offered to fresher’s.

Though Indian BPO industry is shaken by the global meltdown, there might still be some hope left. Nasscom has assured that the impact on Indian industry would be company specific and short term. Stating that the Indian IT-BPO sector is a part of the global financial system that has seen a lot of turbulence in the recent past, the apex body said ‘our preliminary analysis of the current situation indicates that the impact will be short term and company specific.

All we can do is wait and watch how the world-wide paranoia and crisis affects the Indian industry in the future. Let’s hope that there is a silver lining of optimism behind this cloud of disaster.