The document provides a recruitment strategy for a Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) firm. It outlines assumptions about the firm's staffing needs and discusses both internal and external recruitment methods. For frontline roles, the strategy recommends external recruitment through job portals and consultants to access a large candidate pool. Internal promotion and external hiring through consultants are suggested for supervisor roles. The document also provides sample job descriptions for frontline and manager roles at the KPO firm. It discusses utilizing both internal referrals and external sources like headhunters to fill manager positions.

1. RECRUITMENT STRATEGY FOR A KPO FIRM
24/7SOLUTIONS
By
Siva Priya S (2011012)
Niraj Singh (2011013)
Pawan Bhati (2011014)
Prashant Mishra (2011015)
Ridhima Chopra (2011016)
Submitted to:
Prof. Nitika Sharma
Indus World School of Business
Greater Noida 02/04/2012
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2. S. No TABLE OF CONTENT Pages
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 03
2. INTRODUCTION 04
3. ASSUMPTION 05
5. RECRUITMENT STRATEGY 06
6. JD & JS FOR FRONTLINERS 07
7. JD & JS FOR MANAGERS 08
9. SOURCES OF RECRUITMENT 09
10. EXTERNAL RECRUITMENT 10
11. CONCLUSION 13
12. REFERENCES 13
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3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) are the firms who provide technical solutions to the
IT companies and for electrical companies. Knowledge Processing Outsourcing (popularly
known as a KPO), calls for the application of specialized domain pertinent knowledge of a
high level. The KPO typically involves a component of Business Processing Outsourcing
(BPO), Research Process Outsourcing (RPO) and Analysis Proves Outsourcing (APO). KPO
business entities provide typical domain-based processes, advanced analytical skills and
business expertise, rather than just process expertise. KPO Industry is handling more amount
of high skilled work other than the BPO Industry. While KPO derives its strength from the
depth of knowledge, experience and judgment factor; BPO in contrast is more about size,
volume and efficiency. In this paper we are going to formulate a strategy for Human Resource
department.
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4. I N T R O D U C T ION
The popularity and maturity over time of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector led
to the evolution of yet another form of global outsourcing known as Knowledge Process
Outsourcing (KPO). BPOs aimed at managing the most critical and/or non-critical processes
of an organization through technology and specialized approaches. On the other hand, KPO
refers to the outsourcing of knowledge intensive tasks and functions to outside experts.
Unlike BPOs (which nowadays have become more like a commodity business), KPOs offer
domain based expert services to various investment and equity research firms, market
research companies, etc.
The Indian KPO services industry is estimated to be around USD5.7 billion currently and
grew by 15-17% in the recent past. Even though the Indian KPO industry is facing stiff
competition from Philippines, Russia, China, Poland and Hungary, Indian KPOs have their
own competitive advantages in terms of low-cost offerings, skilled manpower with sales and
marketing capabilities and domain expertise and knowledge of regulatory compliances
amongst others. The Indian KPO providers offer a range of solutions to diverse industry
segments such as FMCG, engineering, automobile, telecom, R&D, banking and financial
services, insurance, etc. In the coming years, the volume and complexity of work being
outsourced to the Indian KPOs is expected to increase tremendously, due to the competitive
advantages mentioned above.
Another factor fuelling the growth of the KPO sector in India is the scarcity of skilled and
qualified knowledge professionals in developed economies like US, UK, especially in
knowledge-intensive areas such as R&D in Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI), engineering
design, IT, financial risk management, etc.
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5. ASSUMPTIONS
A KPO Company for an IT company
1. 50 Front line call attenders (M/F Ratio: 7:3)
2. 5 Supervisors (Call Transferor – No Females)
3. 1 Manager
4. CEO
About External Environment and others
1. Operating in India.
2. Company is already existing and reputed.
3. No night shifts for female employees.
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6. MERITS AND REQUIREMENTS OF MODES OF RECRUITMENT
Front Line Call Attainders
External Recruitment – Consultants, Job Portals
 Less Cost & Time (for 50 candidates)
 Huge Candidate pool with expected skill set
 Short listing can be done quickly
 Less training for “Experienced” candidates
 For fresher (Induction Training)
 Stress Management Training
Supervisor – Call Director
Internal & External Recruitment
Internal – Internal Job posting, Employee Reference, Promotion
 Less Cost ( Possibly no cost )
 Less Time
 No need for induction training (Promotion)
 Motivation (Promotion)
 Increased Loyalty & Morale
If not available by Internal sources, External - Consultants
 Less Time
 “New Blood” – „New Ideas”
Middle Level Managers
Internal & External Sources
Internal –
 Employee Referrals
External –
 Head Hunting
 Preference for Employee Referrals
 If not – Head Hunting through Consultants
So with above references & facts it is very clear that a KPO firm needs internal as well as
external recruitment methods.
RECRUITMENT STRATEGY FOR KPO
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8. JOB DESCRIPTION & JOB SPECIFICATION FOR FRONTLINE CALLERS
KPO Job Description and Profile
KPO professionals basically work for the companies, which receive the knowledge-based
projects or work from various other companies. It is knowledge outsourcing of intensive
business processes, which require specialized domain proficiency and it involves processes like
research, valuation, investment researches, insurance and legal claim, patent filing etc…the
other responsibilities are viewing the overall performance of staff as well as planning a better
training for them.
Duties and Responsibilities
There are a number of duties and responsibilities which have to be fulfilled by a KPO and they
are as follows:
 The person has to monitor the random calls daily for the reduction of number of
mistakes or errors and for better performance as well.
 He or she has to carry out many professional services, like legal services, business
research, management consulting and financial analysis.
 He or she needs to handle all the complex customer queries, complaints, issues and
questions calmly.
 It will be the responsibility to improve the quality, escalating sales, efficiency, and high
speed.
 It will be needed to inspire and motivate the staff by providing the bonus, rewarding
schemes, etc…
 He or she has the responsibility to maintain the coordination with supervisors, team
leaders, people in charge, and other individuals to collect information.
 He or she has to oversee the performances of the employees perfectly so has to make an
examination of the performance statistically.
 The duty includes managing the daily tasks and work of the KPO perfectly.
Skills and Specifications
There are a number of skills and specifications which are needed in a candidate to do the job of
a KPO and they are as follows:
 Excellent communication skills – Verbal, Written.
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9.  Basic computer Knowledge
 Ability to adapt to perpetual changes in KPO sector.
 Should be very patient and motivated towards the work.
 Should be very clear about the concepts of the business.
 Very clear understanding of technical skills.
 Should have the knowledge regarding the current market setting and trends.
Education and Qualifications
 Diploma degree in CSE / IT from an accredited institution with minimum 60 %.
 Bachelor‟s degree in science, engineering, or commerce, or any related field from an
accredited institution can also apply.
 Experience in KPO sector for minimum 1 year is preferable.
Salary: INR 1,00,000 – 1,50,000 P.A
Education: Diploma in CSE/ IT
Experience: Preferred / Fresher also can apply
Industry: IT Industry
Functional Area: Knowledge Process Outsourcing
Role Category: Giving solutions to customers
JOB DESCRIPTION & JOB SPECIFICATION FOR MANAGERS
Roles and Responsibilities:
• Coordinating with Finance and Corporate Strategy on budgeting, forecasting and
scorecard development.
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10. • Serving as the main interface with the Law Department and ensure organizational
compliance with state, federal and client requirements, in addition oversee the
organization‟s required licensing;
• Collaborating with Six Sigma and Human Resources to develop work force management
solutions such as incentive compensation plans, staffing models, capacity planning and
schedule adherence systems;
• Leading organization's BOP efforts and Quality efforts
• Developing monitoring and reporting capability to effectively track the performance of
each functional area.
• Developing decision and reporting tools to minimize variability, improve quality and
maximize profitability of the business.
• Providing recommendations during implementation of process improvement,
automation and other special projects
Key Result Areas:
• Real time communication of project updates and timely completion of projects.
• Accurate and timely reporting to Operations, Senior Management and customers.
Qualifications:
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills ( English, Local & Hindi )
with the business sense to recognize both departmental and company priorities.
• Excellent in Microsoft Office applications.
• Proficiency in data base management system (Microsoft Access or SQL).
• Ability to analyze data statistically and provide meaningful and relevant summary.
Salary: INR 2,50,000 – 4,00,000 P.A
Education: UG - Any Graduate, B.Tech / B.E. AND PG - MBA/PGDM
Experience: 3 to 5 years is mandatory.
Industry: IT Industry
Functional Area: Knowledge Process Outsourcing
Role Category: Business Development Manager
Key skills: Business Development Executive, IT Sales Executive, Operations Manager
Corporate Strategy, Process Improvement, Business planning, Six sigma.
SOURCES OF RECRUITMENT
The sources of recruitment may be broadly divided into two categories: internal sources and
external sources. Both have their own merits and demerits. Let‟s examine these.
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11. Internal Sources - Persons who are already working in an organization constitute the internal
sources. Retrenched employees, retired employees, dependents of deceased employees may also
constitute the internal sources. Whenever any vacancy arises, someone from within the
organization is upgraded, transferred, promoted or even demoted.
External Sources - External sources lie outside an organization. Here the organization can have
the services of:
(a) Employees working in other organizations;
(b) Jobs aspirants registered with employment exchanges;
(c) Students from reputed educational institutions;
(d) Candidates referred by unions, friends, relatives and existing employees;
(e) Candidates forwarded by search firms and contractors;
(f) Candidates responding to the advertisements, issued by the organization;
(g) Unsolicited applications/ walk-ins.
The following are the most commonly used methods of recruiting people.
INTERNAL METHODS
1. Promotions and Transfers
This is a method of filling vacancies from within through transfers and promotions. Transfer is
a lateral movement within the same grade, from one job to another. It may lead to changes in
duties and responsibilities, working conditions, etc., but not necessarily salary. Promotion, on
the other hand, involves movement of employee from a lower level position to a higher-level
position accompanied by (usually) changes in duties, responsibilities, status and value.
Organizations generally prepare lists or a central pool of persons from which vacancies can be
filled for manual jobs. Such persons are usually passed on to various departments, depending on
internal requirements. If a person remains on such rolls for 240 days or more, he gets the status
of a permanent employee as per the Industrial Disputes Act and is therefore entitled to all
relevant benefits, including provident fund, gratuity, retrenchment compensation.
2.Job Posting
Job posting is another way of hiring people from within. In this method, the organization
publicizes job opening on bulletin boards, electronic method and similar outlets. One of the
important advantages of this method is that it offers a chance to highly qualified applicants
working within the company to look for growth opportunities within the company to look for
growth opportunities within the company without looking for greener pastures outside.
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12. 3. Employee Referrals
Employee referral means using personal contacts to locate job opportunities. It is a
recommendation from a current employee regarding a job applicant. The logic behind employee
referral is that “it takes one to know one”. Employees working in the organization, in this case,
are encouraged to recommend the names of their friends, working in other organizations for a
possible vacancy in the near future. In fact, this has become a popular way of recruiting people
in the highly competitive Information Technology industry nowadays. Companies offer rich
rewards also to employees whose recommendations are accepted – after the routine screening
and examining process is over – and job offers extended to the suggested candidates. As a
goodwill gestures, companies also consider the names recommended by unions from time to
time.
4. Advertisements
These include advertisements in newspapers; trade, professional and technical journals; radio
and television; etc. in recent times, this medium has become just as colorful, lively and
imaginative as consumer advertising. The ads generally give a brief outline of the job
responsibilities, compensation package, prospects in organizations, etc. this method is
appropriate when,
(a) The organization intends to reach a large target group.
(b) The organizations want a fairly good number of talented people – who are geographically
spread out.
To apply for advertised vacancies let‟s briefly examine the wide variety of alternatives
available to a company – as far as ads are concerned.
EXTERNAL RECRUITMENT
We have taken following ways to externally recruit Front line call attainders-
1. Campus Recruitment
It is a method of recruiting by visiting and participating in college campuses and their
placement centers. Here the recruiters visit reputed educational institutions such as IITs, IIMs,
colleges and universities with a view to pick up job aspirants having requisite technical or
professional skills. Job seekers are provided information about the jobs and the recruiters, in
turn, get a snapshot of job seekers through constant interchange of information with respective
institutions. A preliminary screening is done within the campus and the short listed students are
then subjected to the remainder of the selection process.
Advantages of this method include: the placement center helps locate applicants and provides
resumes to organizations; applicants can be prescreened; applicants will not have to be lured
away from a current job and lower salary expectations. On the negative front, campus recruiting
means hiring people with little or no work experience. The organizations will have to offer
some kind of training to the applicants, almost immediately after hiring. It demands careful
advance planning, looking into the placement weeks of various institutions indifferent parts of
the country. Further, campus recruiting can be costly for organizations situated in another city
(airfare, boarding and lodging expenses of recruiters, site visit of applicants if allowed, etc.).
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13. If campus recruitment is used, steps should be taken by human resource department to ensure
that recruiters are knowledgeable concerning the jobs that are to be filled and the organizations
and understand and employ effective interviewing skills.
RECRUITMENT YIELD PYRAMID
We are using a recruiting yield pyramid to calculate the number of applicants they must
generate to hire the required number of new employees. The company knows it needs 50 new
entry-level accountants next year. From experience, the firm also knows the ratio of offers made
to actual new hires is 2 to 1; about half the people to whom it makes offers accept them.
Similarly, the firm knows that the ratio of candidates interviewed to offers made is 3 to 2, while
the ratio of candidates invited for interviews to candidates actually interviewed is about 4 to 3.
Finally, the firm knows that of six leads that come in from all its recruiting efforts, only one
applicant typically gets an interview a 4:1 ratio. Given these ratios, the firm knows it must
generate 800 leads to be able to invite 200 viable candidates to its offices for interview. The
firm will then get to interview about 150 of those invited, and from these it will make 100
offers. Of those 100 offers, about 50 will accept. Recruiting may bring to mind employment
agencies and classified ads, but current employees are often the best source of candidates.
CURRENT SCENARIO & ATTRITION RATE:
Today, the Indian KPO industry faces the challenge of adequate talent availability and high
attrition rate among young professionals. A higher education degree and an experience within
the sector most often becomes a prerequisite to getting employed with a KPO company.
Furthermore, continuous training of business-related skills is essential in the outsourcing
services sector. This is because, unlike the BPO industry, which is process oriented, the KPO
market demands professionals with decision-making, problem solving and analytical skills.
Other essential abilities like stress management and time management training will be given to
employees to keep them physically well and process oriented. As far as the KPO sector
considered the attrition rate is very high as compared to its related field IT. As of 2011
December it was 55%. So our company will take care of the employee benefits and welfare
activities in order to retain the employees. At the same time will be doing man power planning
in order to maintain the equilibrium within the company for human resources.
CONCLUSION
In the future, it is envisaged that KPO has a high potential as it is not restricted only to
Information Technology (IT) or Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) sectors, and
includes other sectors like Intellectual Property related services, Business Research and
Analytics, Legal Research, Clinical Research, Publishing, Market Research (Market research
KPO), etc.
A research shows that over the past year or two, the outsourcing industry has been throwing up
jobs for Doctors, Engineers, CAs, and Architects. "Unlike the first wave which was more about
entering data and answering phone calls, these jobs involve skill and expertise."
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14. REFERENCES
 http://www.sganalytics.com/blog/kpo/indian-kpo-industry-–-evolution-and-the-
essential-skill-set-requirements/
 http://www.india-reports.com/reports/Knowledge-12.aspx
 http://www.slideshare.net/preetidaga/kpo-market-analysis-in-india
 http://www.kpoexperts.com/kpo-india/what-is-kpo.htm
 http://jobsearch.naukri.com/mynaukri/mn_newsmartsearch.php
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