Dissertation Programme - 2020

Report on
A STUDY ON WORK LIFE BALANCE - NEED AND IMPERATIVES AS
AN HR INITIATIVE IN CANDID BPO SERVICES

BIJU PATNAIK UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, ODISHA

Submitted By:
Sohini Ghosh
University Reg. no– 1806260060
MBA: 2018-2020

Under the Supervision of

Prof. Arifa Khan
Assistant Professor, MBA, RIMS

Rourkela Institute of Management Studies

Institutional Area, Gopabandhu Nagar, Chhend,

Rourkela – 769015, Odisha

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The highly competitive globalized environment results in increase in job pressure

which lead to distract work life balance among the employees in banking industry.
Employee job satisfaction and retention linked not only with financial constraints.
Apart from that there is consequent intention in leaving the organization was
employees struggle between their work and life. Many of the organization started
realizing it and the employers were providing work life assistance programs to enrich
them further. The achievement of organizational goals and high customer satisfaction
will be ensured by employee’s perception towards achieving high work life balance.

There is increasing evidence that the work-life imbalance has direct impact towards
employee retention, job satisfaction and job stress. It is acknowledged that work life
balance policies are beneficial for employees and family members. In this study the
paper reviews the work life balance policies influence towards employees work life
balance as well as job satisfaction. Organization and employees together seek better
way of managing the tension between work and family demands, there has been an
increasing research in the work life conflict and family work conflict issues now a
days.

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 DECLARATION
I Sohini Ghosh hereby declare that this project titled “A Study On Work Life
Balance - Need And Imperatives As An Hr Initiative In Candid BPO Services”
is submitted to the Biju Pattnaik University of Technology as a partial requirement
for the award of Degree of Master of Business Administration, of Rourkela Institute
of Management Studies during the year 2018-2020.

It is the record of an original & independent study carried out by me, under the
supervision of my internal guide Prof. Arifa Khan, faculty member of Rourkela
Institute of Management Studies. This project report has not been submitted earlier
by me or by anybody else for the award of any other degree in any University in India
or abroad.

Place: Rourkela

Date: 01-06-2020 SOHINI GHOSH

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express my sincere gratitude and indebtedness to Dr. Subrat Prasad Pattnayak,

HOD (MBA), RIMS for helping me find out this opportunity. I would like to thank
Prof. Arifa Khan, Faculty Guide; RIMS for her initiative in this field of research,
valuable guidance, sympathies and kind attitude always encourage me to carry out
the present work firmly.

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 CERTIFICATE FROM THE INSTITUTE

This is to certify that this project report Entitled “A Study On Work Life
Balance - Need And Imperatives As An Hr Initiative In Candid Bpo
Services” submitted to Rourkela Institute of Management Studies is a
bonafide record of business done by Sohini Ghosh, MBA 4th Semester (2018-
20), having Regd. No. 1806260060.

Dr. Subrat Prasad Pattanayak

Prof. Arifa Khan
HOD (MBA)
Assistant Professor (MBA)
RIMS, Rourkela
RIMS, Rourkela

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 CONTENTS

CHAPTER CONTENT PAGE NO.

1 Introduction 7-12

2 Review Of literature 13-17

3 Industry Analysis 18-26

4 Company Profile 27-33

5 Challenges faced by the Companies 33-35

6 Research Methodology 36-37

7 Data Interpretation and Analysis 37-49

8 Findings and Suggestions 50-51

9 Conclusion 52

10 References 53-54

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 CHAPTER 01 INTRODUCTION
1.1 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study covers the various aspects of employee work life Balance and
measured increase in productivity accountability and commitment to better
team work with less negative organizational stress

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Lack of work flexibility, high work pressure and longer working hours are
stressing out many BPO industry workers, reducing their job performance and
productivity as well as causing broken homes. In the community, there is
growing concern that the quality of home and work life is deteriorating. These
have resulted to poor employee input and performance at their job place,
because an employee, who finds it difficult to properly balance his or her
family life, tends to also have difficulties managing tasks at his or her
workplace, therefore resulting in poor employee performance.

Moreover, there is a view, widely promoted by some management

professionals but not strongly supported by sound empirical evidence, that
workers are less willing to display unlimited commitment to the organization.
One reason offered for this is the changing nature of the psychological contract
at work; turbulence in organizations has made it less feasible to offer secure
progressive careers and therefore to justify why workers should be committed.

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 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

The objectives of the project report are as follows:

1. To find out reasons for prevailing work life balance of employees in CANDID
BPO services, Chakradharpur.

2. To gain an insight in to current work time policies and practices, as well as work
life balance issues in CANDID BPO services, Chakradharpur.

3. To find out effectiveness of work life balance of employees in CANDID BPO

services, Chakradharpur.

4. To find out how to improve work life balance of employees in CANDID BPO
services, Chakradharpur.

1.4 What is work life balance ?

A comfortable state of equilibrium achieved between an employee's primary

priorities of their employment position and their private lifestyle. Most
psychologists would agree that the demands of an employee's career should
not overwhelm the individual's ability to enjoy a satisfying personal life
outside of the business environment.
The concept of work-life balance has now become Centre of attention for
almost all companies, political institutions, research institutions, families,
individuals and trade unions at both national and international level. Work
life balance is an important topic in human resource management that means
to combine work and life in a way, that both are achievable. Work life balance

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 is generally related to role overload, time management, time pressure, job
satisfaction, job stress, organizational commitment, life satisfaction,
turnover, welfare, social security, working time, flexibility, family, fertility,
(un)employment, migration, consumption, demographic changes, leisure
time and so on. In this paper, work means paid work i.e. a person earns money
by providing his/her services to the organization. Both work family balance
and work life balance is same thing. Moreover, work life conflict and work
family conflict are used interchangeably. We will discuss some relevant
definitions, its importance in organization and in life of individual,
antecedents and consequences of work life conflict, factors which help in
creating work life balance, advantages of work life balance, cost of
implementing its policies, some findings from literature, our
recommendations and implications and in the end conclusion.

1.5 Work life balance in today’s world

A lot of people face the problem of balancing work and family life. Many
multinational companies remain open for 24hrs. Employees need to work in shifts.
Day shift and night shift. Night shift employees feel hard to cope up with family life
and health. This in turn leads to divorces and bad health. Many Mothers feel difficult
to continue work after delivery because her home becomes her first priority. She may
be a very good worker but she quits to look after her new born and family. Many
Corporates have come up with the option of Flexi time and work from home
opportunity to tap theses employees. Personal demands such as visiting school for
report card or hospital or any emergency requires attention. In that case the employee
need to take take leave and remains absent from work. Companies have introduced
flexi timings for working so that an individual employee can complete his scheduled

9
work by coming to office any time. This lessens the burden of reaching office on time
when personal life needs more attention. Yahoo India allows employees to work Flexi
time.

Working from home is also adopted to balance work and personal life. Companies
don't want to get away with hard working and result oriented employees so many
companies have introduced work from home opportunities where an employee can
work from home. There is no stress of visiting office on time. Here an employee can
adjust time to devote for work and family. Giving an employee option to work from
home helps the employer in adjusting work from a small office and managing a big
workforce.

Companies give training sessions to employees so that they are more productive.
Various seminars are organized. They call the family members of employee so that
they too cooperate with the employee in balancing work and home. When a company
gives an employee an option of balancing his work and personal life it increases
retention and lowers the turnover rate.

There are few negative side effects of allowing an employee to work from home or
practice flexi timings -

1. A productive employee turns unproductive.

2. Takes work for granted.

3. Does not completes work on time.

4. Gives more stress to personal life and personal demands.

A company needs to keep an eye on each and every employee so that the productivity
is not reduced. An Employer takes measures to retain his employees and increase

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performance. Work life balance is a good measure taken by companies. An employee
should fit in it and try to get maximum benefits.

1.6 Employee work life balance in Candid BPO

To achieve the above objectives and to facilitate HRD the following process
mechanisms or sub systems are used:

1. Performance appraisal

2. Potential appraisal and development

3. Feedback and performance coaching

4. Career planning and development

5. Induction training

6. Training

7. Job rotation

8. Organizational development

9. Rewards

10. Quality circles

11. Employee welfare and quality of work life (QWL)

All these process mechanisms are linked with the corporate plans,
particularly with human resource planning (Man power planning) .

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1.7 The contribution of these subsystems to hrd goals

Each of these sub-systems or mechanisms or instruments contributes to the

achievement of overall HRD goals. Performance appraisal focuses primarily on
helping the individual to develop his/her present role capabilities and to assume more
responsibility for that role. Potential appraisal focuses primarily on identifying the
employee‘s future likely roles within the organization. The training is the means of
developing the individual‘s personal effectiveness or developing the individual‘s
ability to perform his/her job role or future job roles. Training also can strengthen
interpersonal relationships (through training in communications, conflict resolution,
problem solving, transactional analysis, etc.) and increases team work and
collaboration.

sflhfThe growth in demand will be driven by a likely 18-20 million tonnes per annum
(MTPA) of additional production capacity during the fiscal. "For FY20, we expect a
demand growth of eight per cent and given the limited capacity addition, this is likely
to result in an improvement in the industry's utilisation to 71 percent in FY20 from
65 percent in FY18. However, a disproportionate part of the capacity addition is
grinding opposed to clinker capacity. Thus, the actual production from new capacities
could be lower. With the incremental demand of around 24-28 million tonne being
greater than the incremental supply, this is likely to translate to improved capacity
utilization.

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 Chapter-02: Literature Review

Senthil kumar et al.(2001) focused on teaching professionals with the objectives of

finding the relationship between the demographical variables (such as marital status
and partner employment status) and the level of stress in balancing work and life. The
study found that 109 (55.3%) respondents belonging to middle age category and their
level of stress in balancing work and life, High level of stress perceived is the highest
(63.5%) among the female respondents. Majority (90%) of the respondents were not
satisfied with their work-life balance due to their work load. The study concluded
that in this modern world, the role of teaching professionals are ever changing and
evolving and the new teaching learning environment puts heavy pressure on teaching
professionals. This work pressure will have an impact on their personal life and lead
to imbalance in their work and life. Hence, teaching professionals’ work life balance
is the most important aspect in the success and development of educational
institutions. It is vital for any institution to provide facilities to their staff members to
get relieved from stress for balancing their work and personal life. The further
research may determine the suitable work-life balancing programs for teaching
faculty members in higher learning institutions in India.

Lakshmi and Sujatha (1994) analyzed the Rotated component matrix it is clear that
first component has four factors with heavy loading, viz. marital status, working
hours, requirement of flexibility, additional working hours and over time. It is very
clear that it is the volume and length of working hours which distort the work life
balance. The test result indicated statistically significant relationship between marital
status and overtime work. It was also found that among these 30 married women 14
preferred to work in the weekends while the remaining were prepared to work in the
morning or evening of every working day. One more finding is that these 37% of the

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married women mainly work for financial reasons. The study concluded that above
discussion, it is reasonable to modern organizations, especially educational
institutions should address the Work Life Balance related issues among their staff,
specifically women and take a holistic approach to design and implement policies to
support the teaching staff to manage their work life balance which would add to the
performance of these staff members.

Subha (1996) concluded that modern organizations, especially educational

institutions, should address the Work Life Balance related issues among their staff,
specifically women and take a holistic approach to design and implement policies to
support the teaching staff to manage their work or life balance which would add to
the performance of these staff members. Achieving a good balance between work and
family commitments is a growing concern for contemporary employees and
organizations.

Mohammad et al. (1997) concluded that both family and job of female teachers of
Bangladesh are being affected due to work-life balance situation. women in the work
place can be blessings only when both family as well as organization will receive
proper service from them and they will be able to contribute to both family as well as
organization only when the origination will ensure flexible working hours (roistered
days off and family friendly starting and finishing times), transport facility,
residential facility, child care center, flexible work arrangements or job sharing ,
reduced working hours & workload and child schooling for the female teachers.

Venkataramanan and Abirami(2005) suggested that understanding of stress in

management teaching professionals may not only form the basis of stress analysis but
may also be useful in rationalizing stress behavior and formulating coping strategies
for the entire teaching professionals. Based on this information the working

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conditions may be improved. Information generated from this additional study of
stress has the potential to increase job satisfaction and to reduce the turnover rate for
experienced as well as the new teaching professionals.

Ashok and Ebria (2002) suggested that more time to be spent with the family
members and try to know what they need. This is a major aspect in work-life balance.
Missing the quality time with family due to work pressure leads to dispute in family.
Main concern shall be given to family by proper scheduling of work. Scheduling the
work and performing it according to time improves the quality of work-life balance.
A little break or relaxation during work can do wonders and improves the
performance. The study concluded that acts as a cycle where work pressure affects
the family life; once the family life gets affected then it leads to decline in quality of
work. Avoiding official work in personnel time and scheduling appropriate time for
work and personnel life can lead to a healthy work-life condition.

Clark ( 2000)It is also useful to point out that though inter-role conflict can occur
both when work roles interfere with non-work roles and vice versa, the focus of this
paper is on the former relationship, as it considers work-life balance in the context of
the impact of work on non-work. Thus, we could define work-life balance as
―satisfaction and good functioning at work and at home with a minimum of role
conflict.

The effective management of employees‘ work-life balance requires organisations to

recognise and account for the array of non-work roles that impact their working-lives
(Estes, 2004; Higgins & Duxbury, 2005; Howard, D‘Onofrio & Boles, 2004).
Despite the literary attention given to the ‗work-life balance‘ in recent years,
however, contemporary authors still note the concept‘s inadequacy both in terms of
its definition and administration

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(Hyman & Summers, 2004; Smithson & Stokoe, 2005). In order to explore the
definitional boundaries of contemporary ‗work-life balance‘, this project adopts an
Organisational Role Theory (ORT) perspective. In particular, this paper will
undertake an examination of ORT‘s role-taking, role-consensus, and role-conflict
assumptions, and present some strategies for preventing or remedying work-life
imbalance issues in the workplace.

In a competitive labour market, there is evidence that firms enhance their ability to
attract the best recruits if they offer flexible policies, alongside competitive
remuneration packages (Konrad and Mangel, 2000). In a strategic model, if a
critical mass of firms in an industry offer work-life balance policies, it would be
difficult for the other firms to hold out and not offer work-life balance programmes
(Dex and Scheibl, 1999).

The importance of managing an employee‘s WLB has increased markedly over the
past 20 years (De Bruin & Dupuis, 2004). Changes in the definition of ‗normal
working hours‘, the demographic make-up of the labour force (i.e. gender, ethnicity,
dual career couples, and religion), and the very nature of the employment contract
have necessitated an increased organisational concern for their employees‘ well being
(Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). In order to achieve a WLB, leading western
organisations have tended to adopt policies such as on-site child-care facilities, on-
site gymnasiums, telecommuting opportunities, and even on-site sleeping quarters for
the employee and their family (Hacker & Doolen, 2003; Hyman & Summers, 2004).
Each has attempted to increase the flexibility by which employees can effectively
enact their work-roles whilst simultaneously enabling them to enact their family-
based roles to the extent necessary. Ideally, the WLB concept requires organisations
to effectively integrate employees‘ work and non-work roles such that levels of

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multiple-role conflict, and the associated stress and job-dissatisfaction, are minimised
or avoided (De Bruin & Dupuis, 2004; Greenblatt, 2002).

As Vlems (2005) notes, when organisations decide to facilitate their employees‟

work-life balance, they choose from a wide array of options that include:

(a) Flexi-time- Flexi-time is a scheduling policy that allows full-time employees to

choose starting and ending times within guidelines specified by the organisation. It
works well for full-time office staff, but not in shift patterns or in a production line.
Flexi-time allows an employee to attend to non-work demands without having to take
time off work.

(b) Compressed working hours This is a system of a four day working week. An
employee can work his total number of agreed hours over a shorter period. For
example, an employee can work his or her hours over four days in a week instead of
five, and thus, gains a day for himself.

(c) Job-sharing- Job-sharing is a system where two people share a job. They both
have the same job, but split the hours, so that each employee has a part-time position.
Apart from splitting the hours, they also split the payments, holidays and benefits.
The idea is to afford employees ample time to attend to non-work activities so as to
be able to achieve a good measure of work-life balance.

(d) Breaks from work- By taking breaks from work once in a while, the right balance
between work and life can be achieved. These breaks should not only be about
maternity, paternity and parental leave, but also time off for career breaks and
sabbaticals.

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 Chapter-03: INDUSTRY ANALYSIS

3.1 COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES OF INDIAN BPO COMPANIES

Competitive advantage is a distinctive advantage gained over competitors by
offering customers unique value, either through low cost or by providing extra
benefits and services that may justify similar, or possibly higher than the expected
levels. A common definition of competitive advantage is not been properly agreed
upon but it can be assumed as a pre emptive inimitable offerings to improve the
market position and dominate the market due to that.
Barone & DeCarlo (2003) observed that to build a sustainable competitive
advantage it has to be around differentiating the product from the rest of the
competition along with those factors that are highly important and utmost
relevant to the customers. Li et al. (2006) viewed that competitive advantage is
the capacity of any organization to create and maintain a defensible position over
its competitors. Barney (2002) also opinionated that any such competitive
advantage obtained by the firm when its actions in an industry or market created
more economic value and few competing firms are engaging in similar activities.
Also Tracey et al. (1999) expressed that competitive advantage comprises of
distinctive competencies that sets an organisation apart from the competitors
possibly giving them an unique edge in the marketplace (Thatte, 2007). In nutshell
any competitive advantage explains about a particular choice chosen by the firm
regarding the market in which a firm would said to compete.
Michael Porters‘ view on competitive advantage can be resulting in either cost
advantage or differentiation advantage. Cost advantage is there when a company
offers the same products or services like other competitors in the industry, but
relatively at a lower cost whereas a differentiation advantage comes only when a

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company can provide greater value at the same cost or slightly lower cost than the
competitors. Competitive advantages can also be created through product or
process innovation, efficiency of operations, impeccable superior quality, and
unbelievable responsiveness.
Michael Porter asserts that Competitive strategy is about being different, means
deliberately choosing to perform activities differently or to perform different
activities than rivals to deliver a unique combination of value that is best of both
the worlds.
3.2 Creating the Competitive Advantage by Indian BPO Companies
Indian BPO companies started their successful run of BPO businesses both in
voice and non-voice processes solely based on cheap labour cost, abundant supply
of labour for low end jobs, time zone advantages especially with US, excellent
language skills of English speaking population.

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Reflecting Michael Porters‘ generic strategies framework we analyse the various
combinations the Indian BPO companies can have within the industry and the
overall attractiveness of the BPO Industry. The Figure 4.1 explains the Porters‘
generic strategy framework.
The Four generic Strategies of Indian BPO companies in India is illustrated as
below
(i) Cost Leadership quadrant formed by Scope of business activities broad
with a low degree of differentiation. This was the beginning of Indian
BPO Industry famously called as lift and shift method involving low
skilled labour or cheap labour cost which was brought to India by
Multinational Captive centers and successfully adopted by the early
entrants. Though the below average profitability was there at the
beginning Indian BPO companies were able to generate good returns
because of their unique positioning on skillsets combination of technical
and linguistic superiority over other countries .But as a rule when the
BPO Industry matured prices started declining at the same time wage
inflationary pressures highly offsetting the profitability levels hence
sustaining these levels were relatively impossible. After maintain a
margin of 40% during 2000-2012 the Indian call center industries were
reporting less than 15% In 2014 around 70% of volume of call center
business is lost to countries like Philippines and Eastern European
countries .For example in India only 12% of the graduates are
employable whereas in Philippines around 30% of the graduates are
employable with good cultural similarity with US and a well spoken

20
 English community though the salary levels are 10-15 % higher . Indian
English accent which is strong has lot of understanding problems with
US customers despite enormous training given to sharpen the
accent.MTI or Mother Tongue Influence is very very limiting factor on
accent. Maintaining cost leadership position in this basic voice support
processes were difficult because other low cost countries were cutting
down operational costs and Indian companies were not able to pull in
much investments to improve productivity rather efficiency. In the last
3-4 years around 35 Indian BPO companies have shifted their call
center base to these locations to sustain their markets.
(ii) Differentiation quadrant formed by Scope of business activities broad
with a high degree of service differentiation we have all Horizontal BPO
services. In this the differentiating factor was after learning the
processes from the client base how uniquely Indian BPO companies can
add value their processes was the major ingredient. These are like basic
payroll processing, transactions processing of banking and finance
products like credit cards, mortgaging; sales and marketing functions
involving cross selling ,up selling, customer complaints processing,
collection of feedback ,grievances and redressal; television game
shows, event management functions and all other non-voice processes
80-85% of the content and voice components are less. In this
differentiated offering Indian BPO companies have become perfect
back-office work destinations of all the global corporations with ease.
The differentiating factor being use of technology for imaging systems,
analytical processing, and technical support functions in the next level
of offerings. Here the skilled educated workforce availability at cheaper
cost was the distinctive factor. Training on new technologies and faster
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adopting to the emerging technology was the prime factor to ascertain
the leadership position. Indian workforce was enormously swift in
adopting to latest state of the technology levels in carving a dominant
position rapidly growing till 2008.Then came the Lehman scandal
which affected the global economy drastically. This was forcing Indian
BPO companies to move from the conventional FTE based pricing
model to more challenging outcome based pricing model. Not many
companies around the globe able to react favourably for this paradigm
shift. Indian BPO companies wanting to efficiently exploit these
changed scenarios where the challenge was process improvement
coupled with efficiency and to be offered in an Innovative manner.
Nearshoring, Hub and spoke model methods gave Indian BPO
companies the needed power to expand their business across the globe
making it so popular that global delivery centers became the popular
mode. Our Companies were depending 95%on US markets in the voice
processes and around 90% in the non voice transaction processes started
finding new markets in Europe, Australia,Canada and simultaneously
opening up global delivery centers in East European countries like
Czech, Hungary and also in Latin American countries like Brazil,
Argentina and Chile. For nearshore operations Mexico was the preferred
choice. All the 15 BPO companies considered in this study moved to
these destinations expanding their global presence and employing more
locals in the BPO making it as multi cultural organisations. First source
BPO was the first company to open up in Buffalo, US with 287
employees in 2004 itself and ramped up to 4000 employees now.When
cultural and compliance factors are crucial onshoring is the inevitable
one. Similarly Aegis BPO has been operating in 8 centers in US having
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 5000 people on its rolls. All the 15 top BPO companies have grown in
the same way by inorganic growth strategy of acquiring companies in
US,UK and Europe to facilitate their presence onshore. Gartner forecast
of Offshore BPO market is US$270billion whereas Onshore BPO
market is US$480billion .Even though the onshore margin levels are
nearly half of say 15% of the offshore marginlevels of 30% but the
volume of business throws up attractive opportunities in scaling up
quickly.
(iii) Then the Focus strategies to showcase for the Indian BPO companies to
prove their mettle. As indicated in Table 4.2 the third quadrant is Cost
Leadership focus in which specialised services are offered to clients
which is also called as boutique BPOs. These boutique BPOs would be
having dedicated workforce of 100-150 employees addressing to the
clients requirements with specific offerings to industries like airlines,
tourism, e-commerce, advertising companies using technology as a
source of differentiator. The technology might have been developed by
the service provider or by the client and improvised by the service
provider. This model goes well with multinational companies who are
likely to go for multi sourcing contracts that is choosing more than one
vendor for process delivery. Say automation for voice based processes
which need routine response with few options or using analytics to find
out customer response, customer traffic, validation, screening processes.
The client enjoys more privilege with such kind of boutique supplier who
offers increased flexibility on contractual terms and even renegotiation
during mid-contract periods. As the low cost based focus methods the
cost behavior of the firm will be exploited by the service providers. For
new technology applications service providers can opt for boutique
23
 BPOs then slowly scale up depending on the popularity of the offerings.
When training costs are prohibitive and service providers have to take
incremental efforts in leveraging the capabilities then this model is well
suited for the purpose.
(iii) The fourth quadrant is the focus strategy based on differentiation. All
the vertical BPO services come under this since it is unique, high growth
always looking for distinctive features to strikingly offer and win the
competitors. This is in turn industry specific and likely to change when
the growth rate of the industry slows down. During the last 10 years the
Top Indian BPO companies started to offer this since clients wanted to
win the competition based on unique skills which cannot be imitated by
their competitors at the short term. Service providers are forced to take
fast learning approach on newer and emerging technological trends to
cope up with the clients‘ expectations.

3.3 INDIAN BPO INDUSTRY MOVING AS BPM

The conventional BPO model which largely focused on customer service has been
redesigned as BPM (Business Process Management) by the software industry
apex body NASSCOM during the recent past to provide more prowess to function
like solutions providers to the global clients moving up in the value chain. As a
result Indian BPO companies started scouting for more ways to grow
inorganically by bolstering acquisitions and also venturing into new age offerings
like analytics, cloud, automation and machine language design solutions to
acquire newer markets/clients using newer technologies and to stay top on the
value added offerings.
In the traditional BPO space Indian BPO companies were more depending on US
market al.one say 60-70% of their volume of business and in the BPM model
24
traction in Europe and Latin America is more contributing their overall revenue
targeting specific verticals. Expansion in these new markets is happening by ways
of more acquisitions and begun to cater to US and Europe from these Global
delivery centres. Healthcare, Retail, logistics and Shipping are fast emerging as
more revenue generating verticals. Yet another new age is driven by e-commerce
and mobile applications which is growing extremely fast in developing countries
too offering more space of BPO/BPM companies to churn volumes of data to help
their clients to improve their customer base more uniquely generating revenue.
This unique accessing customer data can delve deep into customer insights and
how much returning customer can be helping to improve profit generation will
hold key their value propositions. Most BPO operations are fundamentally
human-centric in Nature. But when process volumes increases then the entering
of data, verification and authentication, approval, documentation and auditing
becomes more time consuming making the BPO vendors in India to go for custom
developed applications and processes. The major limiting factor here could be
longer periods for return on investment which may not make it a competitive
choice for the Indian BPO Companies. When they migrate into BPM mode then
using automation or developing a platform to automate the key query solving
method then mere data capturing is enough to drive the decision making process
faster which means higher process roll out times resulting in cost for the client
and improvement of processes.
The client in turn gets more benefits by allocation his focus on monitoring and
improvising the processes either in his own platform or new platform developed
by the vendor form the outsourcing destination. This largely reduces turnaround
time as well as increased productivity and agility for the Clients towards satisfying
and enlightening their customer. But in this mode normally the pricing would be
on outcome based only stepping up the pressure on the vendors capabilities more
25
and more. Indian BPO companies responded more in this context upgrading their
skilled labour pool and investing more on R&D on a increasingly competitive
pace to address these challenges.
From the knowledge management perspective based on the framework instituted
by Japanese researchers Nonaka and Takuechi we can easily configure the BPO
stages getting transformed in the most demanding spree from the below
mentioned groups. To understand the Indian BPO companies changing
competitive landscape owing their innovatively demonstrating high tech based
offerings to the clients aiming to reduce their capital expenditure costs leaving out
only operational expenses in improving their bottom line is from the combination
of tacit-explicit knowledge.

26
 Chapter-04: Company Profile
CANDID BPO provides specialized end to end solutions in the Acquisitions and
Marketing Services for Telecom / Real Estate and Finance Sector. We offer
Outbound, Inbound, Lead Generation, Lead fulfilment, Documentation – Pick up
& scrutiny, Backoffice management, Audit (specialized on filed audit) at a very
competitive cost with highest quality guaranteed.

Qualified Workforce
Stringent recruitment process and continous traning of our employees ensure that
you always have qualified workforce at your disposal.

Easy Scalibility
Whether you need five workstation for your business process or fifty, we assure
that the scalibility will be easy and smooth for your business needs.

Quality Service
At CANDID quality is given the highest prority. Our quality control process
enables us to provide quality service to our customer. We beleive that a Happy
Customer = Repeat Business.

LEAD MANAGEMENT
We specialised in lead generation and lead fulfilment using different channels for
acquition of quality leads for your business. Wouldn‘t it be nice if every person
you talked to was an ideal candidate for your product or service? Imagine a world
where interested consumers came to you – and you knew exactly what they

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wanted, how they got there, and that to win them over, all you had to do was
provide the right information faster than your competition.

While that sort of sales utopia may always remain a dream, modern technology is
helping to streamline the overall sales experience. Lead management is one such
feature helping businesses track and optimize the entire sales process. If you‘re
new to sales or marketing, you might not be familiar with the concept. Below, we
explain how it works and why your business needs it.
What is Lead Management?
Lead management is the process of tracking and managing prospective customers.
Sometimes referred to as customer acquisition management or contact
management, it generally encompasses the following processes:

1. Lead generation: Businesses create consumer interest and inquiry into products
or services through a range of marketing tactics. These often include blog posts,
advertisements, white papers, social media, events, and PR campaigns.

2. Customer inquiry and capture: Consumers of marketing respond with interest

and their data is recorded. This creates a sales lead.

Filtering, grading, distribution, and contact: Leads are sorted by the validity of
the request, prioritized based on likelihood of becoming a customer, and then
dispersed to sales reps to be contacted. Depending on the size of your marketing
program, a lot of work can go into defining how to accurately categorize and sort
individual leads.

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 Lead nurturing: Leads are sorted by contacted or uncontacted and scheduled
for follow-up processes. They may be put into drip-marketing campaigns, or
followed-up with on the phone by a company rep.
If the process ends with a sale, the lead has successfully traveled down the sales
funnel and emerged as a customer. But the work doesn‘t end there.

Lead management becomes more complex as companies scale – managing 200

leads is a lot different than managing 2,000 or 20,000 or even 200,000. And when
those leads turn into customers, businesses must continue to nurture those
relationships. In short, follow up is critical to maintaining high levels of customer
satisfaction and sales efficiency. Lead vs. Customer

Lead management is often mentioned as a feature when discussing customer

relationship management (CRM), so it‘s sometimes difficult to figure out the
difference between the terms. Here‘s a breakdown:
1. Prospect: person in your target demographic and market
2. Lead: person in your target demographic and market, who wants to learn more
about solutions you offer
3. Customer: a person who‘s purchased your solution

Although this seems clear, even a straight forward process can become complex
as your business begins to produce a variety of sales opportunities. Lead
management makes your sales team more effective by creating a pool of interested
consumers and then filtering out the unqualified leads.

After all, it‘s more efficient for a sales rep to call 10 qualified leads than 30
unqualified ones.
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Why You Need Lead Management
The process of managing leads helps businesses understand which tactics are
bringing in the best leads, so you can optimize your sales strategy to be both
effective and efficient. Additionally, since lead management documents a
person‘s full history of interactions and experiences with your company, you can
analyze exactly how a person was converted from a prospect, to a lead, to a
customer.
Besides the marketing benefits, it can have a huge impact on the bottom line. As
you can see in the infographic below, up to half of all leads will go with the first
vendor that responds: How lead management helps businesses

To successfully manage these sales funnels, automated databases are becoming

more and more popular. The sales process should integrate with lead management
seamlessly, which is why more and more CRM software is offering these features.
Automating the sales process means calls, demos, and meetings — and even
revenue — aren‘t falling through the cracks.

Lead management is the backbone of a successful sales operation. Without

effective leads, there‘s no need for a CRM or even a sales team in the first place.
This concept covers the first step in the sales cycle to create qualified
opportunities, and ultimately, satisfied customers.

In-bound / outbound call

Our in-bound and outbound teams are well trained in telephonic etiquitte and are
assigned for work after thorough training.

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Inbound and outbound customer service provide various forms of support to your
customers by telephone. Inbound customer service is the traditional approach to
telephone-based customer service. Here, the customer calls your company with a
service request or an inquiry. Outbound customer service represents a more
proactive approach. An agent from your call center contacts customers to follow
up on a service issue or to notify customers of new products or policy changes.

Inbound Service
An inbound customer service facility works best when it provides customers with
a single point of contact for all their service questions. Customers ring a single
number to order products, make a payment, register a purchase or obtain product
information. They can also place a support request or make an inquiry about a
product. The agents handling the incoming calls must have the product and
technical knowledge to deal with the call personally or, if necessary, transfer the
call to a specialist. Customers appreciate the convenience of a single point of
contact, provided they receive an appropriate response. Service Standards

Maintaining a consistent standard of service at all times can prove costly. The call
center must have enough agents on duty to answer calls quickly and minimize
waiting times for customers. However, incoming call volumes vary throughout
the day. Waiting times may increase at peak times, while agents may be underused
during quieter times. Call-center managers therefore aim to match staffing levels
with call volumes to maintain prompt, convenient service and control staff costs.

Outbound Service
Outbound customer service provides two important benefits. Managers can make
greater use of agents during quiet periods, improving productivity further.
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Outbound calls can also strengthen customer relationships by increasing contact
and improving the quality of customer experience. A welcome call to a new
customer, for example, reinforces the relationship and provides an opportunity to
offer additional products or services. Calling a customer for feedback after a
service visit demonstrates that you are concerned about the quality of service.

DOCUMENTATION & AUDIT

At CANDID we undertake document pick-up from your lead / customer and an
un-baised scrutiny of the documents.

BACKOFFICE MANAGEMENT
CANDID offers back office management to handle various business process
related to your business whether simple or complex.
In an environment of constant change, ever more demanding and competitive,
private and public organizations have to maximize their agility and their level of
performance by refocusing on their core expertise.

In this context, the necessary changes to optimize customer relations management

can be entrusted to a partner who is an outsourcing expert. CANDID undertakes
to improve your operational and financial performance thanks to the
systematization of your customer relations processes. Features

CANDID offers you the most suitable solutions to perform the daily management
activities in your customer contracts lifecycle:
1.Handling business processes, whether simple or complex
2. Services provided from our own skill centers or on your site

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3. Operations carried out directly on your own departmental systems or using
applications which are implemented and hosted by CANDID .

CHAPTER 05 CHALLENGES FACED BY THE COMPANY

1.Frequent Disruptions:
Poor internet and call traffic management, political instability (shutdowns and
strikes), and frequent power outages have all taken their toll on BPO firms. Since
BPO firms have to operate on a 24/7 basis, there should be no room for any
disruptions. Over the past few years, Indian BPO firms have been trying their
best to lobby the Indian government to obtain the essential services tag, so that
their operations can be carried out smoothly

2.Rise in Un-employability:
The rising un-employability of the BPO workforce is yet another challenge that
Indian BPOs have to overcome. India does have a million graduates passing out
year after year. But this is not enough and one must question as to how many of
these graduates actually qualify for employment.
To address this challenge, companies in the BPO sector are now trying to partner
with technology and management colleges. NASSCOM has also stepped in to
improve the skill set of graduates and make India's young graduates better
equipped to handle all BPO related work

3.New Entrants in the BPO Field:

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There was a time when India was the primary destination for BPO services for
most global businesses. However, this has changed with new entrants such as
Philippines, Malaysia, Canada, and China vying for a piece of the outsourcing
pie.
As a result, the Indian BPO sector needs to take urgent steps so as to overcome
the challenge of the increase in the global availability of BPO workers who are
more educated and skilled. India also needs to match the level of amenities
provided by these competing countries. For instance, the telecom facilities in
India require better infrastructure, the current cost of services need to be reduced,
new service lines need to be introduced, and operating processes need to be
improved

4.Growth in Opposition Against Outsourcing:

The BPO industry in India has been facing strong opposition from UK labor
unions and US politicians who feel that BPO operations should not be shifted to
Indian companies. BPO Outsourcing and keeping jobs within the country have
now become hot topics during the 2015 presidential campaign in the United
States.
Hence, the BPO section has to more vigilant and rebuff the charges made by
politicians in the United States. The BPO sector has to stop being complacent
and get more aggressive, especially at a time when the US and the UK are in
recession

5. Lack of Talented Workforce:

India is currently facing challenges in finding the right skilled professionals for
filling BPO vacancies. Recent statistics taken in 2014 revealed that out of all the

34
Indian students graduating every year, only a meager 25% of technical graduates
and 10 to 15% of non-technical graduates were suitable and ready to work in the
BPO industry. Indian BPOs have to make drastic improvements in their
workforce by emphasizing the importance of foreign languages. Operational
procedures also need to be more streamlined.

Indian workers also need to be more in sync with the American culture. BPO
employees from The Philippines and Japan are more familiar with the American
culture. Filipinos are also well-versed in languages like German, Spanish, and
French. This poses a huge threat to India, as Indian BPOs have to continue
maintaining a talented workforce or watch their work go to other countries

6. High Attrition Rates:

Attrition results not only in the loss of talent, but also means significant costs
have to be incurred in the training of new employees. In the Indian BPO industry,
the attrition rate has been around 35%. While a UK call center employee stays in
a BPO company for a minimum of three years, an Indian call center employee
works in a BPO center for only 11 months. A variety of factors have combined
together to make the attrition rates escalate in India, including high-stress levels,
the monotonous nature of the job, lack of career growth potential, change in
lifestyle, etc.

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 CHAPTER 06 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

6.1 Research Design

Research is the process of systematic & in- depth study or search for any
particular topic, subject or area of investigation, backed by collection,
compilation, presentation & interpretation of relevant details or data. Research
methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It may be
understood as a science of studying how research is done scientifically.
Research may develop hypothesis & test it. In it we study the various steps that
are generally adopted by the researcher in studying his research problem along
with the logic behind them. Research must be based on fact observed data from
a sound basis for research inductive investigation lead better support to research
finding for analyzing facts a scientific methodology of analysis must be
developed & result interpreted logically. It is necessary for the Researcher to
know not only the Research method or techniques but also the methodology.

6.2 Data collection:

Collection of the data is of primary importance in the research process. Data which
is collected for the purpose of research helps in proper analysis which is helpful to
conduct research effectively. The data source, which is very important in the
collection of data, is primary data and secondary data. Both primary and secondary
data are taken into consideration for the study of work life balance.

6.3 Primary Data:

Interview with HR executives and other employees

6.4 Secondary Data:

• Journal papers

36
 • Financial statements from the company
• Related online information
• Other relevant books

6.5 Sampling:
Sample will be HR executives, HR professionals and trainers in the company having
knowledge in all HR roles and responsibilities. The total samples taken for the study
are 100.

6.6 Sampling Technique:

Random sampling is used to select the individual units for better productivity of
the questionnaire.

CHAPTER 07 DATA ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

A questionnaire is circulated among the employees of Candid Pvt limited at
Chakradharpur Containing 12 questions. A sample size of 100 employees was taken
and the analysis of 12 questions is given below.

The required data has been collected by the way of questionnaire & it has been
analyzed & interpreted with the help of charts with relevant description. Appropriate
treatment has been done to the raw data & logical conclusions were drawn based on
the findings.

Q.1 How many days in a week do you normally work?

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 ATTRIBUTES NO.OF PERCENTAGE

RESPONDENTS

LESS THEN 5 DAYS 0 0

5 DAYS 0 0

6 DAYS 90 90

7 DAYS 10 10

TOTAL 100 100

Interpretation:

90% of the employees are working 6 day in a week.

10% of employees are working 7 days in a week.

38
From the above analysis we can know that most of the employees are working 6 days
in a week and 10% of employees are 7 days a week. And they need some rest, at least
2 Saturdays in a month to spend with their families.

Q.2 How many hours in a day do you normally work .

NO.OF
S.NO ATTRIBUTES RESPONDENTS PERCENTA
GE
1 7-8 HOURS 15 15
2 8-9 HOURS 45 45
3 9-10 HOURS 25 25
4 10-12 HOURS 15 15
MORE THEN 12
5 HOURS 0 0
TOTAL 100 100

Interpretation:

• 15% of employees are working 7-8 hours per day.

• 45% of employees are working 8-9 hours per day.
• 25% of employees are 9-10 hours.
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 • 15% of employees are 10-12 hours.

From the above analysis we can know that the maximum no of employees are
working more than 8 hours to reach their targets in time by setting goals and also
working more effectively and efficiently to increase the company standards in
quality.

Q.3 Do you generally feel you are able to balance your work-life?

NO.OF
S.NO ATTRIBUTES RESPONDENT PERCENT
S AGE
1 YES 74 74
2 NO 26 26
TOTAL 100 100

Interpretation:

• 37% of employees are saying yes.

• 13% of employees are saying no.

From the above analysis we can know that maximum no of employees are having the
good work life balance, and 13 percent of employees are saying no.

40
Q.4 How do you feel about the amount of the time you spend at work?

NO.OF
S.NO ATTRIBUTES RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE
1 VERY UNHAPPY 5 5
2 UNHAPPY 5 5
3 INDIFFERENT 25 25
4 HAPPY 55 55
5 VERY HAPPY 10 10
TOTAL 100 100

Interpretation:

• 5% employees feel very unhappy.

• 5% employees feel unhappy.
• 25% employees feel indifferent
• 55% employees feel happy
• 10% employees feel very happy

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From the above analysis we know that half of the employees are happy with the time
they are spending in office and 25% of employees are indifferent and rest of them is
unhappy.

Q.5 How do you manage if stress is arising from your work.

NO.OF
S.NO ATTRIBUTES RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE
1 YOGA 10 10
2 READING BOOKS 10 10
3 ENTERTAINMENT 80 80
TOTAL 100 100

Interpretation:

80% of employees are in to entertainment. 10% are doing Yoga. 10% are Reading
books. From the above analysis, we can know that 80 Percent of employees are in
to different entertainment programs to take out there stress and rest of them are
doing Yoga and reading books.

Q.6 Does your company have a separate policy for work-life balance?

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 NO.OF
S.NO ATTRIBUTES RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE

1 YES 10 10

2 NO 35 35

3 NOT AWARE 55 55

TOTAL 100 100

Interpretation:

55% of employees are not aware the separate policy for work life balance. 35% of
employees have said no. 10% of employees have said yes. From the above analysis
we can know that half of the employees are not aware of work life balance policy in
company, 35 percent have said NO and 10% have said YES.

Q.7 Does your organization provide you telephone for personal use?

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 NO.OF
S.NO ATTRIBUTES RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE

1 YES 56 56
2 NO 44 44
TOTAL 100 100

Interpretation:

1. Only 56% have got cells for personal use

2. 44% have said NO

Q.8 Does your organization provide counselling service for employees

NO.OF
S.NO ATTRIBUTES RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE

1 YES 81 81

2 NO 19 19

TOTAL 100 100

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From the sample 19% of employees have the counseling service. 31% are saying
NO they don‘t have counseling service. From the above analysis we can know that
maximum no of employees are not taking part in counseling, very less percent of
employees are going for counseling.

Q.9 Does your organization provide you Health programs?

NO.OF
S.NO ATTRIBUTES RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE

1 YES 40 40

2 NO 60 60

TOTAL 100 100

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 yes
40%

no
60%

From the sample size of 100. 40% are saying YES they have the regular health
checkup in office. 60% are saying NO. From the above analysis we can know that
there is a regular health checkup is going on in office and some of the employees are
not taking part in.

Q.10 Does your organization provide you Parenting or family support programs

NO.OF
S.NO ATTRIBUTES RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE

1 YES 70 70

2 NO 30 30

TOTAL 100 100

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 no
30%

yes
70%

From the sample size 100 . 70% of employees have agreed there are family support
programs. 30% of employees have disagreed for this. From the above analysis we
can know that very less no of employees are taking part in family day and other
programs.

Q.11 Do you loose the quality time with your family because of work pressure

NO.OF
S.NO ATTRIBUTES RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE

1 YES 35 35

2 NO 65 65

TOTAL 100 100

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 yes
35%

no
65%

35% of employees are saying YES . 65% of employees are saying NO. From the
above analysis we can know that the work pressure is moderate.

Q.12 Does your organization provide you Relocation facilities and choices?

NO.OF
S.NO ATTRIBUTES RESPONDENTS PERCENTAGE

1 YES 40 40

2 NO 60 60

TOTAL 100 100

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 yes
40%

no
60%

From the sample size 100, 40% of employees have said yes there is relocation
facility. 60% of employees have said no. From the above analysis we can know that
maximum no of employees have said there is no relocation facility and choices in
company

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 CHAPTER 08 FINDINGS AND SUGESTIONS

8.1 FINDINGS

• From the table 1&2, it is inferred that weekly most of the employees are
working more then regular timings.
• From the table 3, it shows that employee work life balance in CANDID BPO
is good, with the policies and procedures.
• From the table 4, we get to know the working environment is very good and
the employees are not feeling stress in office with that they are not feeling its
again Monday.
• From table 5, we can infer that most of the employees are going for
entertainment programs
• From table 6, we can know that there will be no separate work life balance in
any company but have to balance the employees work life with company
policies and procedures.
• From table 8, we can infer that the company has a proper counselling service
for its employees.
• From table 9 and 10 , we can infer that the also provides a good health care
programmes and family support programmes.
• From table 11, we can infer that the some employees get extra pressure due to
heavy work and looses time to spend with family
• From table 12, we can infer that the the company does not have good
relocation facilities.

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8.2 SUGGESTIONS

As a result of the data analysis and interpretation, here are some suggestions to
improve the Employee work life balance at CANDID BPO.

• An effective employee work-life balance has better organizational

commitment which leads to better production output and minimum
employee turnover.
• Continue with the environment and other facilities as the employees are
very much satisfied with them.
• Should put less workload on employees as it builds of mental pressure and
stress and hence would be able to spend quality time with families.
• Company should focus on the good relocation facilities .

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 CHAPTER 09 CONCLUSION

From the study it is clear that employee work life balance in CANDID BPO is good,
But there is a small gap from employee satisfaction to company.

Work-life balance programmes offer a win-win situation for employers and

employees. While the employee may perceive work-life balance as the dilemma of
managing work obligations and non-work responsibilities, work-life balance from the
employer‘s point of view encompasses the challenge of creating a supportive
company culture where employees can focus on their jobs while at work. In
whichever way it is viewed, the existence of effective work-life balance programmes
in an organisation will do both the employee and employer good.

For the employer, work-life initiatives create positive employer branding, promote
being an employer of choice, foster organizational citizenship, and support diversity
initiatives. For the employee, there is lesser stress, increased happiness, motivation,
and productivity, and a better chance of reaching both personal and career goals
satisfactorily. The key role of HR therefore, is to understand the critical issues of
work-life balance, integrate it into the organization‘s HR policy, and champion work-
life balance programmes.

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 REFERENCES

REFERENCE OF BOOKS:

• Aswathappa, K., (2008). Human Resource Management: TEXT AND CASES,

5th ed., McGraw-Hill Publication.
• Bhattacharyya, D.K., (2009). Human Resource Development, 1st ed., Himalaya
Publishing House.

REFERENCE OF JOURNALS:

[1] Guest, D.E. (2002). Perspectives on the study of work-life balance, Social
Science.

[2] Greenhaus, J. (2003). The relation between work-family balance and quality of
life. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63(3), 510-531. Information, 41(255), 255-
79.

[3] Kofodimos, J. R. (1993). Balancing act. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

[4] Burke, R. J. 2002. Organizational values, job experiences and satisfaction among
managerial and professional women and men: Advantage men? Women in
Management Review 17 (5): 5–6

[5] Fisher, K., and M. Layte. 2002–2003. Measuring work-life balance and degrees
of sociability: A focus on the value of time use data in the assessment of quality of
life. Working Paper of the European Panel Analysis Group 32.

[6] Wallace, C., and C. Cousins. 2004. Households, work and flexibility (hwf).
Http://www.hwf.at/downloads/open_area/publications/ forum_publications_04.pdf.

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[7] Emslie, Carol (2009). "Live to work or work to live?” Harvard Educational
Review 16 (1): 151–172.

[8] Bettina-Johanna, Krings, (2009). “Working Time, Gender and Work-Life

Balance”, et al., Leuven, Belgium.

REFERENCE OF WEBSITES:

• https://issuu.com/sanjaykumarguptaa/docs/worklifebalance
• https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/197/1/012057/

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