Need of the hour

The fact that the second post came after a year should tell you something about the way we work in the BPO industry... ;-)

Jokes apart, this time I'm talking about some of the challenges the industry faces.

Cutting corners.
With the war for talent & market share raging, companies often don't follow laid down processes succumbing under market/client/BOD pressures. Examples of this are:
Hiring managers with less than desirable people focus. In an industry that is 90% people, this is the biggest error companies & managers are making. I for one, never hire anyone short on people or coaching skills. Thankfully, one of my ex-companies trained me on CBI (Competency Based Interviewing) and that's stood me in good stead all along.
Not following processes. Not only does this prove counter-productive, the apparent short term gains quickly start appearing like "Fraud". Worse, this can lead to legal action from both customers & ex-employees. Devastating for a company vying for market share. Damaging for the image of this young industry. All of this can be avoided by senior managers & the leadership in companies carefully choosing the people they bring on board.
Talent at the grassroot level. Not enough is being done at an industry level to develop entry level talent. We have to do this fast if we're not to allow later entrants like China, Phillipines etc to catch up.

More on this later. Stay glued.