HR in BPO Industry

My good friend Thakur Amar Singh aka Dr. Munnabhai B.D.S, has posted a comment on my yesterday’s topic.

"Are all distributions of data supposed to be Normal? Or is it that for doing a 'six-sigma' analysis, you need to squeeze every bit of data into a normal distribution."

IIM students undergo a course in statistics and they generally have sound knowledge on the subject. I may not be competent enough to answer his question; however I will attempt to do so.

It is neither required nor supposed for all data distributions to be normal, there are so many other kinds of distributions, geometric, log logarithmic are a couple of examples. Even for doing a Six sigma project, it is not required to squeeze (convert) every bit of data into a normal distribution. There are other techniques and tools one can use to analyze non normal data.

Not very long ago, I had interacted with Progeon (BPO division of Infosys) for a position of Manager - Quality at their Bangalore site. My former boss at ICICI, Ram Mohan K who is an Associate Vice President at Progeon referred me. Although I was selected I didn't join owing to other reasons. Today, I received a mail from their HR co-coordinator asking me to fill out a survey/feedback form on my interaction experience with them. I did fill out and sent it to her.

The interview process with Progeon was a smooth sail; however, I have the following to highlight. My observation is that HR people in BPO industry act funny and different than HR in any other industry. When my cousin who works for Motorola, told me how supportive and wonderful their HR acts in times of need I was surprised why the HR in BPO industry doesn't do that.

In fact, it is my strong opinion that, HR guys in BPO industry generally consider themselves as direct descendents of God or less importantly His messengers. The reason why they are not friendly and why they don't smile is that, when they enter the interview room and sit in front of the interviewee, they suddenly consider themselves as either Marlon Brando or Amitabh Bachchan, listening to a protégé who is in need of a job. They cut a long face which I feel constantly hints the interviewee that the HR guy is not happy hiring him/her. As far as salary negotiations are concerned, the lesser it is talked about, the better it would be. While I understand they have stringent targets, they negotiate as if the company would go bankrupt paying the amount the candidate has asked for; I wonder how they talk while they are negotiating their own salary.

They look perennially unhappy and arrogant mortals. Any clarification that you request is treated as an additional burden to the already existing one (of course you) and hence it is not clarified half of the times. There are so many occasions when my colleagues in the companies that I worked, scorned the HR team for its high handed attitude towards them. Also, I have seen that their attitude and tendency towards senior people in the organizations is different from what they portray to entry level and others.

I had once forwarded a mail to a HR co-coordinator to grant access to the printer room, 15 days have elapsed nothing has happened, then I sent a remainder, even then nothing has happened. In the next mail, I did not ask them to grant the access, I simply asked them what the TAT for such a request is. Needless to say, it was done the same day.

The list is endless, I could go on writing Part I, Part II and so on about HR in BPO industry. When will the HR understand that we are their customers (although internal) and hence they better behave themselves because they are dependent on us. Through this blog of mine I appeal to my BPO brethren that next time you feel your HR is not upto your expectations, remind them that you are thier customer and cane their ass if need be. I will end this with quoting what my feedback about the HR interviewer in Progeon was.

"The HR person who interviewed me behaved like a “typical” HR guy in BPO industry. Somehow, it is rare to find a HR interviewer who sounds friendly and happy. They typically put up a long, serious and unhappy face and generally resonate a feeling that, “you know, but for the operations guys, I wouldn’t want to hire you.”