Business Process Outsourcing Sector Research Articles

Talent Management and Work-Life Balance in the Business Process Outsourcing Sector in South Africa: Towards the Enhancement of Competitive Strategy

Talent Management and Work-Life Balance in the Business Process Outsourcing Sector in South Africa: Towards the Enhancement of Competitive Strategy

Effects of conflicts and technostress on employees’ job performance and satisfaction in a work-from-home scheme

This study investigated the work-from-home (WFH) experiences of 211 customer and service representatives, along with five team leaders, employed in the five top-ranking Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies in Pampanga, Philippines. It examined the effects of conflicts and technostress on the employee job performance and satisfaction. The study revealed that while quantitative analysis shows that family-work conflict has a negative effect on the job performance, qualitative data suggests that the WFH scheme permits BPO employees to balance their work and family obligations, despite statistical evidence of the opposing results. While quantitative results indicate that technostress, specifically techno-pile and techno-invasion, has a negative effect on job performance and satisfaction, qualitative findings emphasize the importance of computer know-how as well as other factors when measuring BPO employees’ job satisfaction. The divergent findings between quantitative and qualitative data underscore the role of cultural, organizational, and contextual factors in shaping outcomes in WFH environments. This study underlines the difficulties of WFH relations, as well as the importance of employing a diversified approach to identifying and addressing the issues that WFH BPO employees confront. The findings of this research are vital for developing tailored interventions and shaping effective remote work policies in the BPO sector, aiming to mitigate challenges and enhance the overall WFH experience.

The Demands for Accounting Graduates of BPO Industry: An Exploratory Study of the Learning Outcomes Required

The Demands for Accounting Graduates of BPO Industry: An Exploratory Study of the Learning Outcomes Required

Impact of Remote Work Environment on Employees’ Job Satisfaction: A Study of BPO Companies in Nepal

The transition from traditional office environments to remote work settings has been accelerated by technological advancements and the COVID-19 pandemic. This shift, particularly impactful in Nepal's growing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector, has necessitated a re-evaluation of employee satisfaction within virtual workspaces. This study explores the effects of remote work on job satisfaction among employees in Nepal's BPO industry, focusing on factors such as work-life balance, communication effectiveness, technological integration, and overall job satisfaction. Utilizing a descriptive research design, the study employed a structured questionnaire distributed to 407 remote BPO employees. Data analysis through SPSS and Excel revealed that collaboration and relationship building, communication, and monitoring and trust significantly impact job satisfaction, with work-life balance and technology playing more moderate roles. The findings highlight the importance of fostering effective communication, team cohesion, and trust to enhance job satisfaction in remote work environments. The study identifies a gap in existing research concerning Nepal’s specific context and suggests further exploration into how local socio-economic and technological factors influence remote work experiences.

Work Life Balance Challenges and Solutions for Special References to ITs & BPOs

An experienced several significant trends and shifts as a response to the changing global landscape and technological advancements. Here are some essential specifics related to the IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector India in 2020 contributed to 8% of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As of March 2021, the combined IT-BPM sector provides employment to around 4.5 million individuals. Notably, the Indian IT-BPM industry experiences a notably high employee attrition rate. As this sector progresses, there is growing concern that the advent of intelligent machines (AI) might lead to substantial automation, potentially impacting job opportunities in the upcoming years. It's worth noting that the United States is the destination for two-thirds of India's IT services exports.

Sustainable Ergonomic Workplace: Fostering Job Satisfaction and Productivity among Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Workers

The business process outsourcing (BPO) sector is important in managing business especially in a developing country like the Philippines. Call centers are one of the most common type of industries within the BPO sector as they generate 75.1% of its revenues. Given the lack of studies regarding the ergonomic factors in the BPO industry, the goal of this research is to examine the relationships of different ergonomic domains on the job satisfaction and overall productivity of the BPO agents in a customer service or call center industry. The data were gathered through an online survey and the approach used for this study was a variance-based partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with maximum likelihood estimation. Through analysis, it was proven that macro-ergonomics and physical ergonomics have significant effects on the overall productivity of BPO workers, while cognitive and macro-ergonomics have a significant influence on job satisfaction. In addition to this, it was also proven in the study that overall productivity and job satisfaction were significantly associated. This is one of the first studies to investigate and examine the relationship between ergonomic domains and the productivity and job satisfaction of a Filipino BPO or call center worker. The results of this study could be used as a reference for further investigations by future researchers, especially on more ergonomic factors as well as the extrinsic variables that were not covered by the researchers of this paper. In addition to this, the proposed framework might also be adapted and used as a reference for further studies to produce more accurate and updated results.

Human Resources Attrition: A Case Study on X-BPO

This study focuses on the phenomenon of human resources (HR) attrition within the context of a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company. The objective is to comprehensively explore the causes, consequences, and mitigation strategies of HR attrition in the BPO sector. Through a case study approach, quantitative and qualitative data have been collected to delve into the intricacies of this complex issue. The study aims to provide insights that not only benefit X-BPO but also contribute to the broader understanding of HR attrition in similar industries. By analyzing the unique challenges faced by X-BPO and its efforts to navigate the evolving labor landscape, this research seeks to unfold the practical mysteries of HR attrition before HR practitioners and organizational leaders deal with attrition issues.

Socio-Economic Factors and Job Satisfaction of Healthcare Units in Chennai City

Job satisfaction is not only related to various aspects of employees behaviour but also to their socio-economic factors. The relationship between job and life is complex depending on personality factors like job and the socio-economic factors. Hence, it is essential to analyse how socio-economic factors affects the job satisfaction of employees working in Healthcare units of Business Process Outsourcing sector. The present chapter makes an attempt to examine the relationship between the job satisfaction and the employees socio-economic factors such as age, sex, marital status, educational qualification, background of education, salary and experience.

How does Job satisfaction affect Job security in Indian BPO sector

Much consideration has been given to the blast in business process outsourcing (BPO) assignments in India. In any case, little concern has been paid to the introduction of Indian assistance laborers in these brisk moving and every so often wild conditions. Using an illustration of 160 help laborers from a covertly held BPO firm in India, we dissect the association between Indian assistance laborers' assumption and their introduction results. Backslide and hidden condition model assessments showed a basic positive association between Indian help laborers' levels of assumption and their presentation. These promising results include the centrality of assessing and regulating representative craving to extend worker proficiency and execution. By effectively making and regulating worker trust levels, Indian BPO firms can sufficiently fight representative issues, for instance, wearing out, stress, and burnout that has tortured the BPO business. Assumption may in like manner help ease the effect of parts of Indian culture on human assets the executives rehearses in Indian BPOs.

INFLUENCE OF WORK FROM HOME ON QUALITY OF WORK LIFE OF EMPLOYEESWORKING IN BPO INDUSTRY, PUNE

Globally, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector have grown rapidly over the last two decades, driven by the transfer of processes from companies in developed countries to ones in emerging economies. Work from home (WFH) has been fruitful during Covid-19 lockdown as per Governments mandate. As a result, about 90% of employees worked from home with 65% of them from homes in metros and rest 35% from homes in small towns.The main purpose was to study the benefit of work from home help employees enjoy better quality of work life (QWL) and the influence that productivity and promotions have on employees quality of work life working under work from home model through randomly assigning some employees of BPO companies in Pune. From the study it reported that employees working from home experienced of having a high positive attitude, less stress at work and improved wellbeing were the results of good quality of wok life. They were more likely to be happy with work and were also less likely to quit their job than those in the comparison group, but were less likely to be promoted than similar-performing peers working in the office. Further it also suggested that organisationscanconductvirtual employee training with best quality of work life initiatives in place will be an added advantage to both employees and employers receiving the full merits of improved workplace productivity and flexibility,strengthen team bonds, increase opportunities for upward mobility and retain employees than those who went into the office on a regular basis.

Prospects for employment of persons with disabilities in the post-covid-19 era in developing countries

The global environment has been hit with a pandemic of cataclysmic proportion. The COVID19 has created havoc on all countries and has claimed the lives of over 3 million individuals and affected over 100 million persons at the time of writing this paper. Countries have been forced to implement measures to safeguard their population. Included in these measures is work from home strategies. The crisis, whilst catastrophic in nature; has created some opportunities for groups such as persons with disabilities through remote employment. The author examines through a case study, the prospects for employment of persons with disabilities using the concept of remote employment. The Business Process Outsourcing sector is the focus of study. The fundamental question to answer in the study is to what extent can the Business Process Outsourcing sector employ more persons with disabilities in the Post-COVID19 era? The article is completed with some recommendations. Points of interest The COVID-19 pandemic presents challenges and opportunities for persons with disabilities. This article is about the possibilities of working from home by persons with disabilities in the after COVID-19 environment through the use of new technologies. The article is prepared by looking at a fast growing employment sector which showed that there is a big growth in working from home and that the chances are great for the employment of persons with disabilities through this means, with the aid of new technologies. Most of the public facilities across poor and middle-income countries are unfriendly to persons with disabilities and making some of these individuals work from their homes is a very good means of employing some of them in the labour market. This research is therefore important in showing how poor and middle-income countries can add to the employment of persons with disabilities by working from home with the use of new technologies and some recommendations are made on how to achieve this objective.

Demographic Characteristics and Turnover Intention : A Study of Indian BPOs

The purpose of the present study was to determine the relationship between the demographic characteristics and turnover intention of employees in the Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. The study considered employees' demographic characteristics such as gender, marital status, age, monthly income, and shifts to determine their relationship with turnover intention. The data collected comprised of 453 BPO employees belonging to the lower and middle levels in organizations. The analysis exhibited mixed results. Demographic characteristics like gender and marital status showed no statistically significant relationship with turnover intention. However, factors like age, monthly income, and shifts confirmed a statistically significant relationship with turnover intention among the BPO professionals. Young BPO employees at the entry-level positions had a higher intention to quit than the older ones. Similarly, lower-income group employees were less likely to stay with their current organizations. The study revealed that employees engaged in the afternoon and night shifts had more propensity to leave their current employers than those working in the morning shifts.

Insecurity and turnover as robots take charge: impact of neuroticism and change-related uncertainty

PurposeData were collected using a survey questionnaire of 379 participants from business process outsourcing (BPO) organizations affected by robotic process automation (RPA). Structural equation modelling and hierarchical regression analysis were used to test the hypothesized relationships between the study variables.Design/methodology/approachThe purpose of this paper is to develop and test a moderated-mediation model examining the relationships between uncertainty around changes due to RPA, neuroticism and job insecurity, and turnover intentions among BPO employees in India.FindingsUncertainty around RPA and neuroticism cause job insecurity among employees resulting in their intent to quit the organization. Further, the impact of job insecurity is influenced by employees' commitment to automation. Outlining the ways in which RPA-driven change impacts employees and organizations, our findings underscore the need for upskilling the affected employees besides developing coping mechanisms as a buffer to the negative impacts of large-scale automation-driven transformation in the industry under study.Originality/valueAmidst the debate around the impact of RPA in developing countries, our research is the first attempt to systematically examine how RPA has led to concerns around job security leading to turnover intention among employees in the Indian BPO sector. It uniquely highlights the role of personality besides the issue of growing uncertainty due to RPA, requiring the immediate attention of organizations.

Performance Measurement of the Business Process Outsourcing Sector in Kenya: Balance Scorecard Approach

The aim of this study is to investigate the performance measurement of the business process outsourcing sector in Kenya using the balanced scorecard approach. The components of the approach include financial, internal processes, customers, learning and growth. The study was carried out in all the registered business process outsourcing companies in Kenya and questionnaires administered to the marketing managers of the respective companies. To analyze data, descriptive statistics and Kruskal Wallis Test were used. Descriptive statistics was used to ascertain the view of the performance of the sector by use of means and standard deviations. Kruskal Wallis Test was used to obtain the perception of the respondents on the use of the four balanced scorecard perspectives in their companies. The study established that the business process outsourcing sector in Kenya used the balanced scorecard that included both financial and non- financial measures. However, they tended to lean more on the use of financial measures. This paper, therefore, recommends the use of non- financial measures to measure performance too.

The Influence of Political Environment on the Performance of Business Process Outsourcing Sector in Kenya

The purpose of this study is to establish the influence of the political environment on the performance of the Business Process Outsourcing Sector in Kenya. The study covered all the 118 registered business process outsourcing companies in Kenya. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used in this study. The descriptive results indicate that the political climate in Kenya has not been conducive to the business process outsourcing sector. The inferential results indicated that the political environment had a statistically significant influence on the performance of the business process outsourcing sector in Kenya. The study, therefore, concludes that a conducive political environment is vital for the business process outsourcing sector to thrive. The study suggests that the government ought to consider developing and implementing measures and policies that will ensure a conducive political environment to enable BPO companies to thrive.

Investigating Investments in agility strategies in overcoming the global financial crisis - The case of Indian IT/BPO offshoring firms

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the information technology and business process outsourcing (IT/BPO) sector are at the forefront of technological disruption and change, which necessitates firms to remain agile and continuously innovate their business models. This paper investigates the investments made by IT/BPO MNEs in intangible assets and the role of encouraging management and leadership practices that supports the core tenets of strategic agility at a time when the global financial crisis (GFC) occurred. Using a two phase mixed methodology, that tests three key a priori themes, first, we examine to what extent the investments in intangible assets led to the development of strategic agility (SA), which in turn led to greater technological performance over the longitudinal period 2007–2017. Second, we further shed light on the positive relationship between intangible assets and strategic agility by identifying which Indian IT/BPO groups (based on location and firm age) show greater technological performance and, third, how such groups translate deliberate investments in intangible assets that lead to SA and greater technological performance, as compared to other groups over time. Overall, our findings provide evidence that IT/BPO MNEs' past sustained investments in intangible assets paved the way for the IT/BPO MNEs to respond in an agile manner when the GFC hit.

Impact of employer branding on employee engagement in business process outsourcing (BPO) sector in India: mediating effect of person–organization fit

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of employer branding strategy (a mechanism used by organisations to hire and retain competent talent) on employee engagement whilst simultaneously measuring the mediating effect of person-organisation (P-O) fit.Design/methodology/approachThe study analyses a sample of 296 employees working in the BPO sector in India. The proposed model is tested with the help of structural equation modelling.FindingsThe findings of the research highlight that employer branding has an affirmative relationship with P-O fit and employee engagement. The findings also reveal that P-O effect has a partial mediating effect on the relationship between employer branding and employee engagement.Practical implicationsUnderstanding and implementing employer branding strategies provides the organisation with a tool for not only harnessing good employees but also facilitates them to engage and retain them. Employer branding strategies ensure an increase in employee’s sense of belongingness and alignment of goals. Value congruence in the form of person organisation fit also ensures that employees believe that they are valued across the organisation and may go an “extra mile” to achieve organisational objectives.Originality/valueEmployer branding is a comprehensive strategy which can be used by employers to attract and retain talented employees. In a global economy where a talented workforce is scarce and has plenty of choices available to them, firms can use employer branding as a strategic opportunity to enhance employee engagement.

Success and Failure of the IT Industry in India: A Study of the International and Domestic BPOs

India has established itself as a preferred market as the home to the largest business process outsourcing (BPO) firm in the world. India's huge population, low wages, and plenty of English-speaking specialists have all contributed to the success of its business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. NASSCOM's study also found that the best contact centers in Delhi consistently provide high-quality service throughout the clock. Because of India's strategic position, international investors may take advantage of the country's business-friendly tax system, which is a major factor in the BPO sector's meteoric rise to prominence.

Scaling Jobs for the Poor: Reducing Poverty through the Impact Sourcing BPO Approach

The best way to alleviate poverty is to increase the income of the poor by providing productive employment. A pragmatic approach is to focus on a sector of the economy that is employment intensive and growing rapidly. A good candidate is the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. Impact sourcing is a subset of the BPO sector that focuses on reducing poverty by providing jobs to the poor. While this sounds promising, impact sourcing has not delivered on the promise, at least not yet. We illustrate our argument using in-depth case studies of three of the largest impact sourcing service providers, and provide recommendations on how the impact sourcing sector can achieve greater social impact at scale.

The Impact of HR Practices on Employee Retention; A Case of BPO Sector, Sri Lanka

In today’s business world, employee retention is one of the much debated topics and identifying the reasons for employee turnover and implementing the necessary policies to retain employees can be crucial. Thus, all organizations expect to minimize the employee turnover to best possible level. Therefore, the intention of this research is to study the impact of Human Resource practices on employee retention, conducted on the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector in Sri Lanka. BPO sector is recognized as an emerging sector in Sri Lanka, and this sector is well known as an under-researched area. This study is significant as such research projects have been sparse in the Sri Lankan context and in order to fill that gap this research have been conducted for three companies namely Company A, B and C. The analysis was mainly based on 237 executive level employees from Company A, B and C respectively 108, 32 and 97 selected through simple random sampling. Primary data were collected using a self-administrated questionnaire and analyzed through deductive approach. According to the results obtain through regression analysis all three companies indicated that there is less impact of HR practices on employee retention. As a conclusion when management of BPO sector formulate the policies in their organizations with regard to employee retention, they should consider not only the HR practices but also, they have to concern about other factors that can effect on employees.