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Emerging from the ‘shadows’
Nipuna Services takes great care to ensure that its projects
do not suffer if key employees leave. Srinivasa Rao Dasari writes about the
company’s shadow teams and focus on mentoring
 For
Nipuna Services, the BPO subsidiary of Satyam, the first priority of its HR
policy is to create a work culture that ensures career growth and job satisfaction
for its associates. Underlying the lack of hierarchy is a system that believes
in giving freedom and opportunities to perform and to learn.
In a highly fluid recruitment market, where talented professionals
easily get poached by competitive organisations, Nipuna has taken utmost care
to ensure timely completion of projects, minus any disruption if a key person
unexpectedly leaves the team. This has been ensured by the creation of shadow
teams. These shadow teams consist of similar talent pool, which ensures that
projects get completed on time in case of any contingency. This of course means
constant grooming of people for new responsibilities. For this, leadership programmes
are organised regularly. The four-stage leadership programme aims at improving
the operational efficiency of managers. The programme takes into consideration
several factors, such as the number of associates who have grown and left under
a particular manager. Based upon the associate’s performance, managers
are also encouraged accordingly. The organisation’s focus on mentoring,
apart from understanding the needs and requirements of its associates, enables
it to achieve the desired results.
Low attrition
Nipuna claims that its attrition rate is well below the industry average of
45-50 percent, for both voice and non-voice based sections. The total headcount
of Nipuna is more than 1,300 at both its facilities in Hyderabad and Bangalore.
About 60 percent of associates are in the voice-based section. The company is
planning to ramp up the headcount to 2,500 over the next few months. It considers
the Hyderabad facility strategic for its future plans as it houses more than
800 associates.
Sheela Reddy K, Head, HR Department, Nipuna Services, informs:
“We have reinforced the practice of our core basic values with a focus
on BPO. We have created a positive and professional environment for our associates.
We are looking at high-end BPO projects, for which we focus on professional
training for our associates. We categorise associates into A, B, C, D categories
according to their performance and their ability to meet the expectations of
the company.”
Campus cubs
Nipuna sources its manpower requirements for the entry level from campuses by
organising career counselling sessions. After going through a written test followed
by the interview process, including psychology tests, a candidate would normally
take three months to join the organisation. Nipuna utilises this time by grooming
the selected candidates in the ‘Campus Cubs’ programme, which is a
holistic approach to make them know more about the organisation. During this
time officials, including the Chairman, speak to the Campus Cubs on various
aspects of their careers.
“We are going to Tier 3 cities in the state to create awareness about job
prospects and career growth for young graduates. Students and fresh graduates
in Tier 3 cities and villages are not aware of prospects in the industry. We
try to help them understand the requirements and career growth options in this
segment,” explains Sheela Reddy.
The company has also taken up the initiative of inviting former associates,
who had left the organisation for various reasons other than performance issues.
This practice has been successful as many former associates have welcomed the
unique offer and rejoined.
Retention policy
Retaining talent is the most critical issue for any BPO organisation. Nipuna
has a well formulated retention policy in place, which has been successful to
an extent. Called ‘Priya’, this retention policy comprises many initiatives.
Priya works as an effective tool in retaining talent through intervention programmes.
It analysis the significance of all associates in the organisation and includes
20 parameters such as salary, performance and manager-related problems, etc.
This graphical presentation gives an accurate position of the value of the associate
and the risk to the organisation if he or she chooses to leave. Special counselling
is done for those who have problems with their managers.
Associate delight index
There are three key reasons why employees leave an organisation. These are:
better pay, lack of job satisfaction and problems with their immediate boss.
To ascertain the associates’ satisfaction level on various aspects in the
organisation, Nipuna has formed the Associate Delight Index. This index measures
the level of satisfaction of a particular employee on various parameters right
from key aspects such as salary levels, performance-related issues, career growth,
to basic issues such as transportation and canteen facilities.
As part of the ‘We Simplify’ programme, all rules and regulations
of the organisation have been made available online to help associates know
more about their company.
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