Call centres in crisis! Britons flock to India

Incredible it may sound, but it is true. Britons are flocking in hordes in India hoping to join the multi-billion dollar call centre industry here. Why? Suddenly India is facing a dearth of 'quality English speaking recruits'. The deficit is going to be over 120,000 employees in the next two years.

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No, it wasn't that before. There are two reasons for this:-

Reason 1. The BPOs here have become snobby and really finicky. In the early days of the call centre phenomenon, every Ram, Shyam, Mala and Shweta who could speak some English were being gobbled in. These days, when fresh high-school and college graduates appear for interviews, they are being given the last priority. Why? They are no longer willing to take the burden of putting freshers through a voice and accent training. It takes resources and time. There was a time when they made 'Texans out of Tamils' yet didn't hesitate to spend the resources needed to do that. It brought them money, loads of money. The sector made a killing and boomed beyond any expectation. Suddenly the booming industry came as a boon for both the clever and 'not so clever' freshers passing out from high school or college. It took care of their job worries. There was room for all. Alas! Not anymore.

Reason 2. This one is an irony of ironies. Outsourcing by developed nations to countries like India resulted in tremendous job losses in those countries. It started a mass dissent by the people who lost their jobs for the jobs went to other countries for low wages. This created a major employment crisis in those countries. It became a major political issue during the last Presidential elections in the US where Senator Kerry, the Democrat presidential candidate declared that if he won, he would ban outsourcing of government jobs to other countries. However, he lost. Outsourcing makes good economic sense to those countries, so it is going to stay.

Now, the people who lost their jobs are willing to work at Third World wages than being without a job altogether. Britons who lost their jobs in telesales processes are flocking to call centres in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore and are ready to work for as low as 350 pounds equivalent of Indian money here.

So young Indians, wake up and take notice. The days are not far away when you will have to wait in the queue for a job in the call centres. They won't come easy anymore. The Britons are already here and they don't have a problem with accent, speech-flow etc!

Source : Bruce Sterling's Blog Thanks Bruce Also Read: Outsourcing News - 23rd Nov 2005