BPO sector woos Tiruchi’s talent pool

The worldwide tech boom has helped to generate IT jobs in Tier 2 cities like Tiruchi

The presence of a large number of higher educational institutions in Tiruchi has worked in the city’s favour especially in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sectors, despite the challenges thrown up by the pandemic-induced lockdown, say industry players.

As the country reopens, the enterprise spending on BPO services in India is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.8% to reach $8.8 billion by 2025, driven by a push for outsourcing knowledge-based and vertical-specific processes, according to analytics company GlobalData’s report in October 2021.

This has been a boon for Indian IT companies seeking to leverage their talent pool against competition from the Philippines, Malaysia, Mexico, and Canada.

“The pandemic has blurred the lines of work regions, with remote work becoming normal. Tier 2 cities like Tiruchi and the BPO segment, in particular, gained more job opportunities thanks to this,” P.V. Guruvayurappan, Chief Human Resource Officer, Omega Healthcare, told The Hindu.

The 18-year-old company offers knowledge- and business process outsourcing services to healthcare companies in the United States, and is a major employer of life science graduates drawn from Tiruchi and the surrounding regions.

The introduction of work-from-home (WFH) during lockdown led to a drastic change in the regular office routine.

This has, however been a positive development for many IT companies, said Mr. Guruvayurappan. “The pandemic has improved the dynamics of the employer-employee relationship. The Gig Economy (of short-term contractual or freelance work) was already catching up with several industries much before COVID-19. But with the pandemic, the playing field has levelled out, with every single industry or organisation forced to adapt to remote work just to survive,” he said.