Aegis BPO designs Ace to tackle attrition

Aegis business process outsourcing (BPO), an Essar group company, has designed an in-house curriculum based on employee feedback to arrest attrition.

In the last three months, attrition of the company has come down by 25 per cent. The company's attrition on an average ranges from 38 to 58 per cent annually.

While the course - Aegis Ace - was conceptualised a year back, it has been in implementation in the company for the last six months. The initial cost that the company incurred to design the curriculum was about $1.5 million (around Rs 6 crore).

To start with, the company created a focus group that interacted with all the employees across levels and centres.

The group also asked the respective 'one-up' supervisor as to what the company could provide to make them more effective. The company designed its programme and curriculum based on the feedback the group received.

The course is unique in the sense that the modules address the employees' work-life issues.

Also, an individual does not need to spend long hours in studying the modules. The company has different curricula for each employee level.

The course duration varies from a minimum of six to nine months. Besides, an employee needs to invest just four hours a month in the course.

The results are quite evident. "In the last three months, we have seen attrition fall by 25 per cent. The level of engagement has increased. While right now its difficult to quantify efficiency and productivity, we have certainly seen an uptake in the key performance indicators of those who have enrolled," says Aparup Sengupta, managing director and chief executive, Aegis.

At present, 1,700 employees have enrolled for the course at its seven centres across India.

By March 2008, the company expects 5,500 employees to enroll. It will also launch the curricula at its US centre by then.

"By September-end, we want all our employees covered by the Ace programme," says Sengupta.

The prime reason for designing the course was to curtail attrition.

The company also realised that many a times money is not the prime reason for people to work or motivate.

The focus of Aegis Ace is to develop six capabilities across the employee base of the company - entrepreneurial, nurturing, negotiating, project management, operational excellence and customer focus.

"Aegis Ace is a micro initiative from the company. Today, there aren't any courses in the country which provide a micro module approach, which has content specific to the need and concise.

Besides, creating a curriculum also means creating an intellectual property which can be leveraged later," adds Sengupta.

The aim of the programme is not specific to Aegis or the BPO industry but for self assessment and development.