HCL E Serve, which took the pioneering step of acquiring a call center overseas, has now managed to rope in one of the best call center managers in the region to manage that center. Kevin Houston, under whose leadership Stream’s call center in Ireland got two successive European Call Center of the Year award in 2001 and 2002, has joined as the director of E Serve’s Apollo Call Center at Belfast, Northern Ireland. He replaces Alan Hall, who has gone back to the parent company, British Telecom from which HCL had bought the call center.

The very fact that such professionals are willing to work for Indian companies by itself is a testimony to the growing importance of Indian companies, feel observers. This also brings out another strength of IT services companies vis-a-vis others in the BPO space. Many of them like Wipro, HCL, and Infosys are recognized names and luring talented professionals is easier for them. "HCL is a global company anyway" says Houston, adding he is impressed not only with the company’s global business culture, but with the capability and professionalism of the call center staff at its Indian facility at Noida in the national capital region.

A veteran in this industry, Houston feels that India has now entered the growth phase and the focus of Indian companies now needs to change from client acquisition and building a framework to actually managing growth in people, process, and technology. In a way, it is recruiting, training, and retaining people that is key to this business.

Is there a solution to the turnover problem? "There is a two-pronged approach," says Houston. "First, you have to accept the fact that three to four years is the maximum time for which employees will stay with you. And two, once you know that, you need to try achieving that."

"For that, you need to understand what would be the best incentive," he says. Looking at India’s situation where mostly young college going students/graduates who have higher aspirations work in the call centers, he believes the companies need to help them in their careers in order to retain them. "Ongoing joint certification programs in areas like management and IT are the best bet. By giving them education, you are making sure that they will stay for that 3-4 years period and then ‘graduate’ to other jobs. Some of them can fit into your own organization as well in functional jobs such as marketing and HR," he adds.

Hope Indian companies are listening.