Cornered by conning: agents' experiences of closure of a call centre in India

Abstract

Call centres have been initiated primarily to reduce organisational cost while simultaneously providing high-quality service. However, it is now well established that the twin objectives of reducing costs per customer transaction and simultaneously encouraging the employees to be quality-oriented are fundamentally contradictory. This contradiction could have serious repercussions for an organisation's survival. In the context of the organisation studied, the imbalance between efficiency and customer service was the primary reason for closure complimented by a lack of resources, poor leadership and weak HR systems. Qualitative interviews with call centre agents impacted by the closure also revealed that the HR practices followed by the management during the process of closure could be labelled as non-socially responsible. Not only was the decision not communicated in advance to the employees, but they were also deprived of their salaries and incentives for the last few months that they worked with the organisation. Nonetheless, given that the closure took place in a buoyant economy most of them were able to find jobs almost immediately in well-established organisations with higher salaries, albeit with the shift of priority from high pay to high job security. The job search criteria used by participants' post-displacement emphasised non-economic criteria, probably providing answers for the problem of high labour turnover rates witnessed in the IT-enabled business services–business process outsourcing industry.

Keywords:

• call centres
• closure
• HRM
• India

Notes

1. At Ringbell any deal with a customer who kept the product for more than 21 days was considered a stuck deal. If the number of customers keeping the product increased due to quality initiatives higher was the stick rate.