Pak set to hijack desi BPO talent

If you are a call centre exec and thinking of a job change, looking up a few Pakistani job websites may help. The friendly neighbourhood is fast coming up with a BPO industry and is turning to talent-rich Indian call centres in its search for competent staff. Already, about 18-20 BPO trainers have been recruited and the search for more is on.

Hired from Delhi , Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune, these people will help train other staffmembers in Pakistan’s leading call centres — Ensign and Crescent Telecom Limited.

Says Rakesh Gupta of Astra Netcom Limited, a customer relationship management company, “Middle-level execs from leading Indian BPOs have been hired by Pak call centres to impart voice-and-accent training, operations, human resources and IT technology.”

And call-centre professionals have to thank India’s image in the international BPO market for this job opportunity. Says Ajmal Shah, director, Ensign, “We have recruited 20-25 Indians staffers till now. They are working as consultants to help us set up new call centres. They know the field and are very professional . Right now, we have 12 call centres and 30 more are in the pipeline.”

And what is fuelling this growth in the Pakistan BPO industry? “The Pakistan government is investing a lot of money in the ITES sectors. The government has announced a 15-year tax holiday for setting up call centres, hence the spurt in growth,” says Khasif Amin of Pakistan Software Exports Board. So, is India going to face any competition from its neighbour in this sector?

From a pro’s point of view, the more competition, the better it will be for the industry. As Sayeed Ashfaq, an Indian working in a Pak call centre says, “This is a great job opportunity . The people here are very warm and have placed a lot of trust in us. However, since getting a work permit for Pak is difficult, we have to keep going back to India at regular intervals.”

Popularity: 1% [?]