BPO industry body conducting new security trials

MUMBAI/DELHI: To streamline the security apparatus across the BPO industry and ensure safety of call centre employees, the BPO industry is trying out a new security framework, to begin with in Gurgaon.

Sam Chopra, president of the business process industry association of India (BPIAI) told DNA: "The association members have pooled in Rs two crore worth of equipment and employed personnel for this new security framework that we are examining in a pilot mode."  "Since employee security has become a major watch word for all of us, we think only a motto of 'collaborate and succeed' will help us tide over the security menace," Chopra said. Once the pilot goes on smoothly BPIAI aims at introducing similar collaborative mechanisms in Pune, Bangalore and Mumbai.

But while the BPOs are searching for an elusive foolproof technology to ensure employee safety, earlier attempts to do the same have not yielded much result. BPOs in Pune, Bangalore and Chennai have tried some "prospective solutions."

Most solutions are "communication centric" based on SMS alerts by employees and the transportation desks of their companies. For instance, an employee is expected to inform through an SMS when he or she boards a cab and gets down at home. The absence of such SMS alerts triggers the concerned officials at the call centre to check the employee's safety.

In mid-2006, the Call Centre Association of India (CCAI) had announced that it would start training their female employees in unarmed combat. However, several female employees  (who constitute a large chunk of the call centre work force) of call centers in Gurgaon claim they have not even heard of it.