The study carried out by Bangalore-based MeritTrac has revealed that only 15% of the applicants meet industry expectations in grammar, while almost the same number has a neutral accent, a key parameter for the voice-based BPO industry. The index was arrived at by analysing the performance of 10,500 graduates across 17 cities through a spoken English test.
If you thought Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai provided the best talent pool for the BPO industry, here’s another bouncer. Applicants from eastern states have scored the highest in parameters like accent, fluency and grammar.
Accent hits south’s BPO job dreams
Bangalore: Southern states have a lot of catching up to do in the race for BPO jobs. Though they score above the industry average in terms of voice clarity, they have a long way to go when it comes to neutral accents and grammar.
“While candidates from the east did surprise us, the aim of the study was to map the calibre of applicants for the BPO industry in general. We plan to do this on a regular basis,’’ said R Pramod Harith, senior manager-strategic marketing, MeritTrac.
The industry has always voiced concerns about the lack of proficiency in Englishspeaking. Studies such as this only reiterate these concerns. Progeon, the BPO subsidiary of Infosys Technologies, has decided to go to the root cause of the problem. “We have started Project Genesis, where we are tying up with colleges to introduce BPO into their curriculum. We plan to expand this programme in order to make more candidates BPOenabled,’’ said Amitabh Chaudhry, CEO/MD, Progeon.
The NI-CS, in its quest to test the applicants, has gone right down to Tier I and II cities. The study shows that Tier II cities are below average in terms of grammar as compared to Tier I cities and the national average. They also fare poorly on acce-nt neutrality. They outperform Tier I cities in voice clarity.
