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Hero Mindmine is busy preparing an army that would help serve its global customers. SURBHI CHAWLA finds out what makes Hero Mindmine, the preferred trainer for the Indian BPO sector

As the twilight embraces the horizon hues, darkness starts to take over what has been a bright sunny day! For most working men and women, it’s time to pack their bags at office and head for their respective cozy homes. But then everyone doesn’t have the privilege of enjoying night at homes, for the work time has just started for many. We are talking about an entire fleet of young people who opt for the BPO night shifts, and from late evening to the wee hours of the morning (when only the night owls are awake) are contributing their best to ensure that the BPO sector continues to grow at 35%, like it has been regularly for the past five years. According to a NASSCOM-Everest India BPO study ‘Roadmap 2012 – Capitalising on the Expanding BPO Landscape’, the Indian BPO industry, at present is worth $11 billion and is contributing approximately 40% to the Global Business Process Offshoring market. With factors like recession in the US economy and the new laws, the Indian BPO industry would get a further boost and is expected to reach the $50 billion mark by 2012.

To maintain such stupendous figures is no mean task and one of the major hurdles that the BPO industry is busy preparing itself for, is lack of adequate skilled workforce. To bridge the apparent talent crunch in the BPO sector, the $4.2 billion Hero Group had set up Hero Mindmine Institute (HMIL) in 2000 to provide training and development (T&D) services to many multinational corporations (IBM, American Express, GE, ABN Amro Bank, MasterCard et al), Indian blue chip companies (Bharti Telecom, Wipro, Hero Honda et al) and even the PSUs (Bharat Petroleum et al). HMIL completely dominates T&D at the ITeS sector, with more than 75% of the top 30 corporates as its clients. In fact HMIL was the first institute to launch BPO training programmes, almost five years back. The year 2008 will clearly be a watershed year for the training institute, as HMIL is all set to introduce ‘international certifications’ for the BPO professionals in India.

A.W. George, Business Head, HMIL, has been entrusted with the task of providing international certifications for the BPO professionals. He divulges to 4Ps B&M that although the company is neck deep in providing T&D programmes to almost the whole of the BPO industry, but managing the HR function within the organisation is a different ball game altogether. George feels that the biggest challenge at HMIL is to retain quality manpower that can further impart the much needed training services. At HMIL, the HR Manager plays an integral role in the organisational success via his knowledge and advocacy of people. George elaborates, “This advocacy includes creating an environment that motivates people. To deal with the challenges, we are fostering effective methods of goal setting, communication and empowerment through responsibility and building employee-ownership towards the organisation.”

At HMIL, people play a pivotal role in shaping the organisation; hence the company ensures that the employees are a satisfied lot. HMIL too strives to be an employer of choice and the HR of the company is moving full throttle to achieve that goal. “Job security is an area where the Hero Group’s credibility plays the role of dream employer,” avers George. The BPO industry by and large boasts of being a good paymaster and HMIL is no different while compensating its workforce. George elaborates, “We provide employees with attractive compensation packages, which constitute of not just the basic salaries but also performance bonus and incentives, and that’s how we try to make the package attractive for our employees.” However, monetary benefits alone cannot keep the employees happy and satisfied. Bearing this in mind, HMIL also provides opportunities for advancement. For instance, the company gives ample opportunities for career advancement within the organisation. George adds, “Meeting personal aspirations to grow, both hierarchically and financially, is a key driver. HMIL addresses both these drivers very effectively.” To motivate its employees, HMIL has put in place a drive to create an environment that is conducive to learning. George enthuses, “Every third Saturday of the month is treated as the ‘Learning Day’ where every person has to do a session and it is necessary for everyone to participate. The ‘Learning Day’ also plays a pivotal role during appraisals.”

Being a part of the Munjal Group has been of great advantage for HMIL, which tries to constantly innovate its functions to suit its clients. Unlike any other MNC, they prefer to work as one big family. And like any other Indian family, HMIL too stands for strong values. According to George, “Values help in making the environment friendly and infuses feelings of unity amongst the employees.” Coupled with this, is the transparency within the organisation, whereby each employee knows what is going on in the organisation. Apart from the customary celebrations during birthdays & anniversaries, there is a party at the end of each month to acknowledge the achievements of the employees. “We clap as a team when a good job is done.” Team claps are a good way to motivate the employees as everybody gathers in what the company calls the ‘Bay’ (refers to a common place in the office) and everyone claps for any and every job that is well done.

In the era of cut-throat competition and in an industry where human force is your greatest weapon, you need talented people to succeed. In such a scenario, it becomes imperative to retain key talent and attrition has forever been eclipsing the dream run for the Indian BPO sector. When we quizzed George, he stated, “Due to talent shortage, attrition will continue to be a challenge. At HMIL, we’ve created initiatives like open door policy, an HR help desk and continuous training programmes.” There are many training programmes that help employees to sharpen their knowledge base. George adds, “We’ve an outbound training programme, wherein we take employees to places like Udaipur. Outbound training helps employees to enhance their risk-taking abilities, understanding each other and taking ownership of a programme.”

Surely, small initiatives like these help in making an organisation stand out for not only its strong HR philosophies, but also for its strong HR vision. HMIL too has put in place a very strong HR vision for the company and that in George’s words is: “We share a passion to build a HMIL brand, focused on individual and business needs to achieve organisational excellence as a sustainable competitive advantage.”

With inputs from Sachin Bharel

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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