Hyderabad, Oct 23: Housewives and retired school teachers are suddenly in demand -- in call centres and business process outsourcing (BPO) facilities. Attrition rates are a major concern for these centres, with about 35-40 per cent of employees switching jobs frequently. This is resulting in a tangible loss in terms of training cost and manhours and a growing disinterest, mainly among youngsters, in jobs in such facilities.
After living with the problem till now, some call centres have found a solution: employing housewives and retired teachers as call centre agents.
"Neither age nor physical appearance is a hurdle for call centre employment. Young call centre employees are straining the companies in the process of pursuing their career. By employing housewives and retired employees, the call centres are able to get good results," a senior executive of a call centre major told The Times of India.
People who belong to higher age groups will be more committed to work and wouldn't shift jobs as frequently as youngsters. In the ITeS sector, consistency of an employee is important for the company because it spends huge sums on training them. The increasing attrition rates could be why ITeS companies prefer older employees, an industry analyst said.

The concept is slowly catching up in call centres in Hyderabad too. Some companies in north India have already gone ahead with the concept, while the south-based companies are still evaluating the idea. For instance, 8 to 10 per cent of the work force in the Noida-based EXL Service is in the forty-plus age group. "We are absolutely fine with higher age groups employees. They have proved to be more stable and steady. Though they face some technical difficulties in the beginning, the training division makes extra efforts to help them. But unlike youngsters, they will have to do some homework to get used to the system," Deepak Dhawan, HR vice-president of EXL Service said. Another MNC call centre in north India as been actively recruiting housewives for call centre jobs. "They (housewives) do not take the risk of relocating to other cities since they have their families here. This provides consistency in maintaining the work force," a HR consultant said.