India Graduates Millions, but Too Few Are Fit to Hire

[The Straight Story]

India Graduates Millions, but Too Few Are Fit to Hire

BANGALORE, India—Call-center company 24/7 Customer Pvt. Ltd. is desperate to find new recruits who can answer questions by phone and email. It wants to hire 3,000 people this year. Yet in this country of 1.2 billion people, that is beginning to look like an impossible goal.

So few of the high school and college graduates who come through the door can communicate effectively in English, and so many lack a grasp of educational basics such as reading comprehension, that the company can hire just three out of every 100 applicants.

India projects an image of a nation churning out hundreds of thousands of students every year who are well educated, a looming threat to the better-paid middle-class workers of the West. Their abilities in math have been cited by President Barack Obama as a reason why the U.S. is facing competitive challenges.

Yet 24/7 Customer's experience tells a very different story. Its increasing difficulty finding competent employees in India has forced the company to expand its search to the Philippines and Nicaragua. Most of its 8,000 employees are now based outside of India.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703515504576142092863219826.html

[MadHound]

1. Or wait, you could bring those call centers back to America, with native speakers,

And at least a high school education. Wow, what an idea.

[cutlassmama]

7. They would have to pay us more than $2.00/day like they do them though

[LynneSin]

11. How much business have these companies lost from poor customer service

I've dealt with overseas phone desks. Many of them work from a script and if they can't answer your question they are at a lost with how to help you. It's not their fault, they are setup to be a cheap method of providing basic help - I do recognize these folks are trying their best.

Yet when I get a stateside desk I never seem to have issues with resolving my issues.

The simple thing to keep costs down - move your call centers to the rural part of this country where income expectations aren't as high.

[LynneSin]

10. You took the words right from my mouth

:D

[Newest Reality]

2. Globalization

sucks big balls!

Our power, (their power, and the rest of power) is in re-localization. There is still time to bring it home.

[MichiganVote]

3. I never did buy this whole amazing global education ruse. If it sounds too good to be true...

[DeSwiss]

4. K&R n/t

[Horse with no Name]

5. I REALLLY REALLLY REALLLY hate to say this

but I have worked with MANY nurses from India.

There is a definite comprehension problem...and many are very unsafe nurses.:(

There are some that are good--but in my personal experience, not so much.

[ljm2002]

6. It is frustrating to deal with people from another country...

...when you are trying to sort out a problem.

However, I am disturbed by the way people are so quick to say "Oh, those Indians are all sub-standard and uneducated compared to us." I've worked with many Indians in the software industry, and most of the ones I worked with were very high caliber; many of them had better English grammar than their US-born counterparts. Also many of them were superlative engineers, so I don't think we can pat ourselves on the back and assume that our education is always better.

I don't know: I also get frustrated. I certainly resent it when I make a support call and a young man with a thick Indian accent says "Hi, my name is David. How may I help you?" I don't blame the individuals, they are only trying to better their situation, as we all do. But the idiot management teams who make their workers lie like that are demeaning them while at the same time insulting us. And of course there is the jobs issue. It just makes no sense to farm some things out. Any job that is customer-facing, you would think it makes sense to have mostly native speakers doing that job. But the bean counters, as always, prevail and we end up with a system that frustrates everyone (but the companies think they are making more money).

Don't even get me started on the automated systems. My local cable provider and ISP uses a bot to try and troubleshoot system problems like network connection problems. They use a recorded voice that tries oh, so hard to sound human. It's aggravating as hell, and not only that, it can never resolve my issue because I never call with standard problems since we can troubleshoot those ourselves. I just keep hitting "0" until it gives up trying to get me to talk to it and lets me through to a technician.

It is a strange world we have created with all of our so-called "advanced" technology. We are devaluing our culture at every turn, making it less human, or where there is still human contact, making it more frustrating. What a shame.

[LooseWilly]

8. 3 out of 100, when graduating millions, will generally fill the office... cheaply.

3% of 1,000,000 is 30,000... how many new office jobs are we talking about?... and how many millions?

Obviously, it might be easier to hire native speakers... but CEOs who can save 10-20K in labor costs can probably expect to get a $1-2 million bonus... who cares if it 'works'?, the point is that it sells well to the bonus granting assholes...

[HopeHoops]

9. Some companies have qualified workers in India - most don't.

You can tell when you have one of the "we'll hire anybody" call centers because as soon as the questions become difficult you get disconnected. The next better level is the group that simply repeats the same shit over and over (which is of no help at all). And then there's the answer to "let me speak with your supervisor" of "I don't have a supervisor" or "there's no supervisor in the building" - both of which are bullshit.

The really good call centers in India are every bit as helpful as US-based call centers. My only complaint with them is that the jobs aren't US-based. We've got more than enough qualified people who need jobs, but companies would rather pay pennies on the dollar by outsourcing.

[Le Taz Hot]

12. One could say that

about so many of our own college graduates. Those who have taught college within the last 15-20 years know exactly what I'm talking about.

"So few of the high school and college graduates who come through the door can communicate effectively in English, and so many lack a grasp of educational basics such as reading comprehension, that the company can hire just three out of every 100 applicants."