The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is termed as the Sunshine Industry and is on an upward swing for the last couple of years. Today this sector is providing viable options with numerous career opportunities for young professionals.

Offshoring is the order of the day, most multinational companies; especially those in the United States and Europe are looking at other countries to handle their back-end operations.

These operations are labour intensive, expensive and are the non-core business operations. The primary reason for this shift is to get workforce that is less expensive but delivers quality.

BPO companies recruit different types of people based on their skill sets. The bulk consists of those who will be directly in production or operations - incumbents that will be involved in actual servicing of clients and customers. While the rest of the professionals are hired for various support and managerial functions.

Before understanding the skill sets required to make a career in BPO, it is pertinent to understand the broad structure of the Industry.

BPO sector can be categorized into industry verticals; some of these are Healthcare, Insurance, Financial Services, Telecommunications, Manufacturing, Retail and Travel.

Most offshore operations look at various aspects of the business that ranges from transaction to processing – Including simple to complex transaction processing that leverages technology and leading practices including automated business rules and adjudication processes to Contact centre Inbound and outbound customer care capabilities delivered as a component of the customers’ business process solution, such as collections and policy administration.

Business Process Outsourcing covers a gamut of areas, which require specific skill sets, for non-technical hires a graduation degree in commerce, arts or sciences is a pre- requisite.

For entry-level hires, the skill levels targeted are:

• English comprehension ability
• Spoken English ability for Call Center associates
• Mathematical, analytical, and reasoning skills
• Typing skills (speed and accuracy)

Career opportunities for entry-level hires:

• Transaction Processing Executives
  • Transaction processing in Medical billing / Claims processing / Insurance / Facilities & Administration
• Claims Adjudication Executives
  • Health insurance claims adjudication/Claims entry for the US clients
• Call Center Executives
• Medical Coding Executives
  • Graduate in Life Sciences
• Process / Accent Trainers

For managerial hires, companies look at experience in similar processes, performance/ achievement history/client communication/program management/relationship management and a master’s degree.

The qualifications and experience in delivering to customer’s expectations in managing large programmes is a pre-requisite.