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BPOs homing in on work from home
Jan 16,2009 00:00
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In 2008, when a series of nine blasts rocked Bangalore, Rajiv Shetty, who is Cisco’s vice president, strategic accounts, picked up hi s daughter from school, stayed at home to pacify his family and completed his official assignments for the day. He works from home for two days in a week. The software installed on his laptop and a Wi-Fi network helps access data, office telephone and voicemail. For meetings and interactions, he uses desktop video conferencing. Such instances will no longer be one in many. According to Nasscom, an industry body of the IT/ITeS sector, the change in the work-from-home policy in August 2008 will give a big boost to the sector and work-from-home phenomenon. The IT/ITeS industry had been aggressively campaigning for the extended-agent position (individuals who work from home) over the last two years. With companies like IBM, Genpact, Cisco, Applabs, Atos Origin and others in the IT/ITeS sector embracing the changed work-from-home policy, employees have less to complain. Under the changed regime, the Other Service Provider (OSP) licence can be granted to an individual , instead of an new unit, which had to be set up by the organisation, says Raju Bhatnagar, vice-president , Nasscom. “The position of the agent has to be clearly defined through provider positioned virtual private network (PPVPN).” With a workforce of 20 lakh, the sector employs a large section of the Indian population. At present, 5 per cent of them are availing the work-from-home facility. “The changed policy will lead to exponential rise of home-agents but organisations need to address issues like security, level of flexibility and proper training,” Bhatnagar adds. However, experts say, there are challenges before the work-from-home catches on. An open communication channel between employees and managers as well as change in mindset for both is imperative. And absence of any external motivation provided by work environment could be a major challenge in its implementation. “On any given day, one-third of employees are not at an IBM location. They are working onsite with customers or working from home. Our goal is to help employees at every level and handle demands in ways that boost productivity and revenues,” says Kalpana Veeraraghavan, Asia Pacific Global Work Life Fund Programme Leader, IBM. In India, IBM has over 80,000 employees. A flexible work environment requires employee initiative, self-management, coordination with respective departments and accountability. Productivity and career growth concerns can be directly addressed by keeping them in mind. Most beneficiaries of work-from-home policy are in middle management and senior management. http://infotech.indiatimes.com/Outsourcing/BPOs_homing_in_on_work-from-home |