Outsourcing Employees: Wake Up!

With all the focus in the outsourcing industry, there has been an intense scrutiny over the sustenance and credibility of it. You can hardly ignore the gripping that the same youth is getting into. A thought of where do I see myself 5 years down the line? Is the industry going to be in there for a long time, what will I do afterwards? All of that. In spite of his happy present, his thought process is limiting and cannot see beyond.

By Prabal Atreya

The buzzword Outsourcing today needs no introduction among the average Indian Youth. We see other synonyms in the form of Call Center, BPO, KPO, LPO etc. An average graduate looks out for one of these as soon he steps out of college. He brings along a fat salary in the first month itself, quite unheard of during the previous generations. Suddenly, he/she belongs the most suited son/daughter, boyfriend/girl friend, husband/wife. In comes a lifestyle, where black and white is just a color, gadgets became a must-have, shopping experiences were like never before. People now don’t watch a high-voltage match in homes, they will hit the nearest pub over a sip of beer, hang out there, celebrate every boundary and over it with great pomp and show. The youth today bears all the medical expenses with the coverage he gets for his dependents; gets his hatchback at the earliest, but ensures he goes to Tirupati with the same as well.

But behind all of these, with all the focus in the industry, there has been an intense scrutiny over the sustenance and credibility of it. With all the analyst reports (which one to believe in?) flowing in from all the major banners, you can hardly ignore the gripping that the same youth is getting into. A thought of where do I see myself 5 years down the line? Is the industry going to be in there for a long time, what will I do afterwards? All of that. Inspite of his happy present, his thought process is limiting and cannot see beyond.

Outsourcing is not just about call centers and BPOs, to begin with. There is a whole lot of quality work that comes along with it. Any part of the business could be outsourced. Whether you’ve converting sales or collecting sales, sourcing products, collecting market intelligence for your client, maintaining contracts, insurance coverage maintenance, providing legal management support, IT support and maintenance, provide analytical support to the business and so on. You name it and you’ll find everything right there. Let us also accept the fact that today, the toughest competition lies here with candidates coming from the all backgrounds play out here. But what we need to understand and graduate ourselves there is, outsourcing in not just another business decision to reduce cost but is very much a business requirement, a rather global requirement. The best minds across all industries believe in the mantra and are opting for the change called off shoring. We have to understand the nuances of the business, take pride in the work that we do, and without an element of doubt, keep developing the professional within us.

Cost is definitely an important driver for such a business decision but let us not consider ourselves as low wage workers for the western world. Let us understand that it could not have sustained only because of the cost factor. Along with it, what keeps us ahead in the league is the quality of output the Indian Outsourcing industry provides. India is a proud owner of the highest number of graduates and post-graduates in the world. We definitely have a better EQ in terms of providing business solutions. However, it is disturbing to note that some C-Grade establishments help in reducing the number by hiring undergraduates just to have some high energy resources. But in the process, the so-called employers forget or do not care about the long-term career of the candidate. There are a lot of innovative ideas that came out over a period of time in the human resource management with the developing industry, to tackle this. Not everyone though, but some do have a ‘learn while you earn’ concepts, which is good. But not everyone handles books and big bucks at the early twenties well, do we?? The same C-Grade employers forget that they are actually encouraging a whole bunch of unskilled resources which could only be identified at a level later.

Having said all of it, a professional’s worry is not void. There are definitely concerns over the jobs. We are already loosing our cost factor edge to countries to Philippines, Romania etc., it even reached places like Guatemala. Our command over the international language is slowly loosing the shine, as smaller developing countries are actually looking at India and are slowly but silently creating their workforce. China has a very skilled labor but lacked on the language front; but they understand their problem, and have now launched a crusade to get their skilled labor more international and crossing their language barrier, their government policies says it all.

Its now time to play the game on our strength. Realise our strength, that we have the resources to provide the quality that is unmatched. We talk about adding value to the business but do we really practice that. But we have inculcate it, think in those lines every time we provide solution to our business partners. People sitting across the table would be saying that he has a better cost destination then why you? There would be questions asked for they are paying for it. But we have to qualify that with the offering that we have.

What the individual professional could do here? Literally everything. For the starters, don’t you start off without completing your education. Understand that you could face problems later in your career when you take up expanded assignments. I mean those who have circumstances that lead you to, it’s fine but otherwise, if I have to suggest someone I would tell him to finish education first.

Develop and enhance your skill sets time over time…see what your developmental needs are and fulfill that at the earliest. See what the requirements of the times are. Make sure you spend quality time at your level to have the domain expertise. Today, employers look for people who have a wealth of knowledge in their respective domains. See your strength, what you are good at and proceed!! Job hoppers…understand that you spend quality time before you actually think of moving out for greener pastures. Because, now you’d be questioned if you can really add in some value to the organization. The hiring department has no never been this choosy. They will definitely question you loyalty and credibility at every interview that you attend and we’d start failing to crack a smart interview unless we have it in us.

In all, be an asset that an organization would love to have. It looks like yet another GYAN but that’s the way it is. Beware, our actions and sincerity towards the job drives the industry. It’s high time we as Indians get the right ethics in place. If the industry is looking for other shores than our’s, then it is because of our actions that we will let the scenario deteriorate. But on an overall, let’s play on our age old strength and get back the shine that we all Indian talent pool is known for. Even if an Obama or Gordon Brown has to make some steps for its people but Outsourcing shall still be a reality. The only difference is, we the people have to, individually, pull up our socks, and get outs together now. This complacency factor has to be cut out of us. Am sure we’ll have a better life with better jobs for a long time provided we get the fundamentals right. So go, get your job, lead a life that you always wanted. With every job created, understand that you are also benefiting the business and nation…so be responsible and go for it without any qualms. This the best period in Indian history, recession or no, we would rule. But the time has come for us to be more responsible than what we were ever before.

P.S- I did not put any statistics because you already have an OD of it from the everyday media. For once, let’s speak and understand like layman and get on to the business.

Read article by Prabal Atreya

An Introspection - WEDNESDAY, 7 JANUARY 2009

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Bishnupriya Manipuri

An Introspection

I consider myself a decent Bishnupriya Manipuri; I speak the language, follow rituals whenever and however possible. My idea of contributing my community was limited to be an ambassador, a representative of my community; do good in what I’m doing. With every recognition comes my identity and then I would be probably introducing myself as a proud Bishnupriya. But the big question is, is that enough?? By Prabal Atreya

I am an average person with decent EQ, attitude, geo-politico-socio-cultural awareness (and all such termsJ) and doing so-so in my career blended with motivation. I’ve had pretty decent upbringing and exposure, my parents being rich on their own knowledge base and very active on the social front. They always offered to get me the best of our culture; probably I shied away deep inside. But I’ve got pretty decent amount of resources to expand my horizons overall, to say so. I think I speak my mother language pretty well, understand the rituals and practices, and abide by those. I would expect a call from my mom on every auspicious day- “Baba! Aaji niramish kheis”, “Ee haptaat gore giya dou homa ditangai, ti upeit to dou homadis”. (I stay away from my parents). Now why so much of self promotion? I’m coming there.

You know, this was all part of the root cause analysis that I was talking about. If I had a very normal background so to say, then why don’t I have enough reasons to talk and write about in the community where everybody is trying to contribute? Even I wanted to participate, but why am I not confident about certain things. Why don’t I have the facts and figures in place to discuss things? Why don’t I have sufficient information about the student unions, Mahasabha, their highs and the lows? Why did not I read upon any Bisnupriya Manipuri author, poet; I did have enough time.

Why can’t I appreciate the poem that a certain Mr. Jyotirmoy has scripted? I fairly understood the language, then what was missing in me. Why can’t I write in Bishnupriya Manipuri the way Santosh comments with the proper language? Why can’t I be as proficient as Henryy Da like his Bishnupriya Manipuri equals to his 1st and 2nd language? Why don’t I know about the impact of our student unions, its geographical presence etc? Do I make a sincere effort to spell check the Bishnupriya Manipuri that I speak or write, the way I’m doing while I’m writing this piece? I used to score pretty decently in history during my formative years and most importantly the interest was there. Then why don’t I have sufficient insights in the history of Bishnupriya Manipuri, its revolutionary period, the Martyr’s, and so on, the origin of Rajar gaon and Madoigaon apart from the mere difference in language; bits and pieces would be an understatement for me. Why don’t I have so much of conviction to write like Mr.Rishikesh does? For he surely believes in what he has known and many more.

I’m sure this kind of questions would have come up in many among us. I tried to get an answer for many of these. Got few answers, many in ‘ifs and buts’ and a lot in ‘maybe/maynotbe’. I thought I knew my language; the flow of thought was clear, speech clear. But when I read all of these, I still feel I’m missing some things. Although I speak the language like any other person in Silchar would. I got an answer, probably it’s the same difference between Lingo and Language is. But I could have been abreast with Bishnupriya Manipuri literature. Then there were answers like- “I guess I was not inquisitive enough to know”. Others like “No! Maybe I was interested but I had to prioritize on other aspects of my personal developments”. Sometimes like- “I wanted to know but I did not have the ready-made resources in place to know more about it. There’s one answer though which I got instantly- “If I don’t know so many things, then how can I be confident to write and speak in the way I would have liked to!!” All my thoughts revolved around in a vicious circle.

I consider myself a decent Bishnupriya Manipuri; I speak the language, follow rituals whenever and however possible. My idea of contributing my community was limited to be an ambassador, a representative of my community; do good in what I’m doing and getting recognized as a Bishnupriya Manipuri who did well in his domain. With every recognition comes my identity and then I would be probably introducing myself as a proud Bishnupriya. But the big question is, is that enough?? I’ll keep doing the things that I have been doing. My next generation would clearly be devoid of the misses I had; on top of it, there is this huge task of knowledge transfer which is never 100%. They would, at some point of time, even after I inject the right genes and strength to survive, would have many of these basic questions. To talk of the worst, my family would be loosing out on my cultural heritage generation after generation. And I have no choice but to be accountable for the blunder that I’ve done and still continuing.

Cultural heritage won’t remain the same, it is bound to change. But here’s the catch; the difference between good and bad is the same as expansion and extinction of a culture. Variety of inter-related circumstances acts as catalysts- like a change in economics leading to change in social structure and then hit the cultural part. But we preserve our cultural base, restore it and then pass it on to the next. How do we do that? This is the question that looms around the human race. Many in the world thought about it, gone thru successfully by and large and few who failed as well.

But I’m sure it was possible for them because they all had a collective vision. I’m sure they had this undying hunger in them to be identified and counted among the rest as a community notwithstanding their individual aspirations and success. I’m sure they must have had collectively chosen the right leader among themselves to represent, manage and stand for the cause (Henryy Da’s point on Choosing the right leaders, very true). I’m sure they would have established accountability along with their planning. I believe they would have taken lessons from the past but not included them into the discussion table for further criticism. And most importantly, they could not have done it without the efforts of the people at large. A leader is as good as his men, they say!

I sincerely feel any step intended for socio-cultural awareness makes a difference. I would like to thank all the Bishnupriya Manipuri netizens for having thought of this and going on so well. I would like to applaud for Rishikesh (bear with me, Sir! Am late for the showJ) for having initiated this forum. As I said in a comment, we now need to look ahead. I’m sure we’ll touch upon many of the things mentioned earlier on this passage as we go ahead in the year on a positive note. Also, making it reach out to as many as possible. Let’s be on a platform so that we all can echo the voices and have the sentiments flowing within us!

“Giri-Githaani- Bhul truti thaila khoma kore dibaang”. This footer note is a sorry statement of the same inconfident guy!

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