The BPO and Call center culture has brought about quite a lot of changes – some positive and some negative. Though critics and well-wishers are right in saying that there the changes are more of negative, especially in India, there would be no denying the fact that there a lot of changes that are positive as well.
One such welcome change was the tobacco-free revolution that brought about a change in the smoking habits of quite a few BPO employees. Smoking had become a fashion statement for these employees working in BPOs, majority of them youth. What started as a reason to stay awake in the night shifts that, they had to work in, soon became an addiction that was difficult to get rid off.
I have been witness to my friend and colleagues in my organization becoming chain smokers. No sooner has one cigarette finished, that they light another one. Then they would blame the entire habit on the night shifts and the work pressure. I would often wonder as to how smoking relieved somebody of the work pressure. Nevertheless, smokers felt so.
In just about a few days, a small cigarette shop popped up outside the office premises and business boomed for him. Who cares even if it is at the cost of somebody’s life.
Then came the tobacco-free revolution and banners popped up everywhere urging people to quite smoking and that smoking within office premises was banned. The otherwise official smoking zone in the organization turned into a garden and employees had to walk a bit of distance to go outside the office premises to smoke. Soon people felt the pain to walk outside the premises, though some of them still had the motivation to do it. The others, started to quit smoking slowly and cited various other reasons for it.
Whatever the reasons quoted, this change in culture at least ensured that the youth in India are not sacrificed to the deadly habit of smoking.
Photograph courtesy Vivek Chugh
As was being expected, Barack Obama finally fulfilled his promise of formulating policies that will discourage “Outsourcing”, so that there are more job opportunities in the United States. So what is this policy?
Barack Obama finally initiated a bill that is still pending approval at the US Congress, is aimed at providing tax-cuts to companies that operate within US and imposing higher taxes and removal of tax benefits to US companies that outsource business to countries like that of India. While announcing this President Obama did not forget to make special mention of Bangalore. But is this policy going to work?
The United States of America is already reeling under severe economic recession. Quite a few of its top companies have gone bankrupt already. Will the US want its companies to incur more costs. Because outsourcing is here to stay. The cost-effectiveness that these companies see due to various cost factors in countries like that of India, including low cost labor, is something that they just cannot overlook.
This is what a report in the TOI had to say -
Domestic business process outsourcing (BPO) units providing services to the American companies will not be affected by the proposed
decision of US President Barack Obama to discourage outsourcing by imposing taxes, said global consultancy firm Ernst & young.
“The companies which outsource business to third parties will not be impacted (by the proposed tax move),” said Ernst & Young Tax Director Rajendra Nayak. However, he added, the US companies which outsource services from their own arms including wholly-owned subsidiaries might face the heat of Obama’s tax proposal, which is yet to be approved by the US Congress.
According to the E&Y expert, the captive outsourcing units of Americans will be impacted by the proposal as it would be required to adhere to the regulations of the home country. On the other hand, the domestic Business Process Outsourcing units provide services to companies from different countries, including America, will primarily be governed by Indian laws
and may escape the impact of changes in the US tax laws, Nayak said.
The step, he said, is directed at encouraging the US companies to do business in the US. However, the success of this objective would depend on comparative advantage that locations like India provide over the loss of revenue because of taxes back home in the US, sources in the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said. The US companies would stop giving business to their subsidiaries in India only after evaluating if the benefit they have in India based on lower production costs
in the country is higher than the tax to be borne in the US itself, they said.
So if you look at the overall perspective, the impact of this policy on India is negligible. Hence we do not need to worry at this point in time and can be assured that indeed, “Outsourcing is here to stay”.
How can you enhance performance within a team? Businesses in BPOs and Call-centers are more of team-work and less of individual efforts. So when it comes to the success of the business, the focus is more on TEAM BUILDING. Why is team-building important?
It is said that TEAM means “Together Everyone Achieves More”. The most important word in this sentence is the word “Together” and this is the most difficult thing to do. Teams often fail in their objective just because the team members are busy working individually and the togetherness is nowhere to be seen.
I cannot forget the day when one of our colleagues got so angry with the term “together” being used in a forum discussing team-work that he stood up and said, “So do you mean that I should tie myself up to one of my team members who doesn’t know anything about me or, whom I don’t know, with the expectation that I would then be able to achieve my targets”.
The benefits that team-work can bring in is undefinable. One has to experience it to know it. The intimacy that comes with team-work helps each other in learning new things and finding new and better ways of doing things. It increases your efficiency and knowledge. There are different kind of people in a team – people with different skill sets, different expertise, different view points etc. When this varied knowledge and skills are exchanged within the team members in a team, each of the team members stand to gain thus improving your productivity and efficiency.
Bonding and engagement is an integral part of a team. The more the team members engage within the team, the more the bonding and the better the bonding, the better the results. Various team building activities can help improve the team bonding. There are a variety of team building games that can improve the bonding within the team members. In order to improve interaction and involvement of the team members in a team, it is important to plan these team buidling activities from time to time.
Modern day organizations know the importance of team building and hence corporates have set-aside specific budgets for various corporate events to be organized. I have seen a sea-change in the mentality of the team members after a corporate event. Team outings, treasure hunts, themed reviews etc. have proved to improve the inter-relations between team members. Hence, recession or, no-recession, organizations that are serious towards team-building and understand its importance do not touch finances set aside for such corporate events. Consequently they always stay ahead of the competition.
