EAPs for Indian BPOs
Aside from the workday turned inside out and stretched out as thin as the worker’s resistance and patience, another increasing phenomenon promoted by India’s bustling BPO industry is the beeline call center employees and software house workers are making for the doctors’ offices.
The “IT crowd”, as they are usually referred to, is afflicted with a myriad of diseases of the same nature and seemingly same cause: stress, panic attacks, depression, relationship troubles, alcoholism, and eating disorder. These complaints have drastically risen over the past years that employers have taken enough heed to consider offering Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs).
EAPs originated in the US after the end of WWI in an attempt to offer support for alcoholic workers and keep them focused on the job. These have grown ever since to serve as part of the company offerings of two-thirds of medium to large-sized companies - even helping deal with the psychological fallout of white-collar work.
PPC Worldwide, a UK-based EAP provider will be opening an office in Bangalore next month to address the needs of the BPO workers on whom the toll of taking midnight calls and assuming different identities have been manifesting. CEO Nand Gouhari says, “The strain of pretending to be ‘Bob’ or ‘Susan’ on the phone for weeks on end and keeping up with Eastenders [a UK television soap opera] and baseball can lead to questions of identity.” He points out other strains of the call center and software work, “Children are earning vastly more than their parents ever did and the new disposable income is leading to a burgeoning pub culture which is causing a lot of family tension.”
This approach at watching after employee wellbeing is not foreign, or even new to India. Companies like IBM integrate EAP into their normal functions, while others take a less conventional approach by offering a “workplace that supports fun and relaxation”.
Some have expressed hesitation though, that India may not be quite ready for EAPs. Rashmi Sharma, Convergys human resources strategy and planning director voices his apprehension, “Things are changing fast here and I would not rule it out for the future, but I think there is a timing issue. At the moment, people take their problems to friends and families.”
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