As understanding of problems of BPO employees grows, more and more companies are either employing counsellors or hiring the services of professionals.
BANGALORE: As understanding of problems of BPO employees grows, more and more companies are either employing counsellors or hiring the services of professionals.
BPO/IT/ITES employees are increasingly making a beeline for professionals their companies have tied up with to sort out day-to-day problems such as time management, dip in performance and monotony.
The counsellors help in adapting to change, overcoming grief and bereavement and managing stress and provide solutions to marriage and family problems through printed material, orientation programmes, face-to-face and phone talks, online suggestions and referral services. “Psychological counselling under employee assistance programmes (EAPs), a popular concept in the West, is catching on in India too,” says Archana Bisht, director of 1to1help.net that recently tied up with 27 IT/ITES firms including IBM Daksh, DEL, Hewlett-Packard and MindTree.
A majority of IT/ITES employees are youngsters aged 19 to 29. Their problems are mostly related to broken relationships, anger management, lack of focus at work, lethargy, a sense of fatigue and the inability to cope with emotions due to a lack of sleep, Bisht says.
“Studies reveal companies lose at least 60% of employees every week. The reasons are various such as stress, less pay, road rage and altercation at work. Employees lose their problem-solving ability,” says Kumud Rajendran, CEO, Personal Performance Consultants, which offers services to 15 companies in India.
Despite the problem of attrition being so grave, only the bigger companies have adopted EAP.
“The industry in India considers EAP as employee welfare, not a financial measure and hence it has remained just a tick in the box among employee welfare initiatives. The industry needs to employ qualified professionals, not low-cost service providers,” Rajendran asserts.
For the IT industry, EAP is an extra HR health exercise. “We are an allied industry of core industries such as manufacturing and petroleum. Hence, monotony and no career growth are a myth. We provide facilities that no other industry provides,” contends S Nagarajan, co-founder and chief operating officer of 24/7 Customer.
But the employees are already benefiting from whatever the little measures the companies are taking. N Pradnya, 24, a BPO employee in Bangalore, recently approached a counsellor because she was suffering from low productivity. Her biological clock had gone haywire due to night shifts.
“Within six months of joining the industry I developed problems of acidity, lethargy and fatigue. When I approached a counsellor online, he set me a daily routine and counselled me that improved my health,” she says.
In yet another case, H Nagraj changed from voice-based service to non-voice-based for a lower salary after two years.
“I needed peace of mind. Taking hundreds of calls everyday would drain me. I even developed back pain. It was then that I was advised by a counsellor to change service.
Now, I am happy as I have the energy and enthusiasm needed to pursue my interests of reading and writing,” he says.
k_bhargavi@dnaindia.net
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