Projects-specific Skills:

This training is customized to the project that an employee is going to be associated with. It could range from learning about several financial products to technical skills. This enables the employees to build domain-specific skill sets which could be leveraged across sectors in the long run. Employees also learn sales and customer service skills during this phase that could come in handy for jobs in the service industry at a later stage.
“I used to sell credit cards over the phone and learnt the nuances of the credit card industry which helped me find a job with a local bank,” says Rohit Ahluwalia an ex-BPO employee. By virtue of these skills, BPOs have become popular poaching grounds for the airline and the hospitality industries.
Companies sponsor executive education for employees. Premier management institutes like the Indian Institutes of Management; Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies; XLRI, Jamshedpur; and Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad among others have tied up with leading BPOs and offer employees MBA programmes.
Employees are encouraged to apply for these courses, which are generally sponsored by the company. Employees also have the option of pursuing technical certifications like MCSE and CCNA to gain domain-specific skills in the technology sector.
Employees are cross trained on multiple domains and are provided opportunities to work in various departments. Individual action plans are put in place based on the employee’s aspirations and strengths. OD interventions are also arranged for on a need basis. Many BPOs have in-house counselling teams which assess the employees skill sets and identify training needs. This can result in astute career planning.