HOW do you keep 6,462 youngsters who collectively answer 3 million calls a month - trouble-shooting, listening to complaints, or even getting abused - happy?

WiproSpectramind (WSM) chairman-cum-managing director Raman Roy and vice-president (talent engagement and development) S. Varadarajan (or Raja) need new answers quickly. But then so do other BPO offices across the country. The industry employs close to 170,000 people, but annual attrition rates continue to hover around 30%. Roy says: "Why would fresh graduates like to toil at night in our company, something that even their parents disapprove of?"

Fortunately, some answers are already coming in. For starters, WSM is relying on a simple precept: open communication. "We are learning to listen to our people. It's the culture that allows people to talk that makes WSM the place to be in. If we start punishing the messenger, people will clam up," says Roy.

Now listen to Priscilla Easow, a customer care associate: "For individual problems we are free to approach anyone. Even for a sensitive issue like career planning, we can go one level higher and approach a superior. For instance, though agents typically want to become team leaders, not everyone can be accommodated. So the company allows employees who have put in a year to move to a new process, where they can learn new things."

Then there are 'Town Hall' meetings, where employees meet senior managers to sort out problems. Online complaints are resolved within two days. Employees are also encouraged to name WSM's new schemes to create a sense of ownership. Raja cites STEP, SEED and CONTACT as examples. The first is a WSM Talent Engagement Programme, started in late 2001, where employees can take up vacancies within the company. SEED, started in April 2002, is the WSM Educational Enhancement and Development initiative, where employees can enrol for distance learning classes. CONTACT (started late 2000), Culling Out New Talent Actively, is the employee referral programme.

WSM also tries to retain a sense of fun at work. This is an objective that is not just verbalised, but also written down. The assumption is that an enjoyable workplace breaks the monotony associated with BPO outfits. Recently, a bunch of people put WSM's coffee vending machines through a six-sigma drill. It actually helped reduce wastage and improve quality.

While a caring workplace does lessen the tedium of being in a call centre, financial incentives, direct or otherwise, also help. For example, WSM has a budget of Rs 150-200 per employee per month to have a party, either on the premises or outside at a disc or a weekend getaway. Then Rs 25,000-30,000 a month is spent on 500 watches, pens, caps and T-shirts, travel bags, that are given away as on-the-spot awards. Dubbed the Pragati initiative, it was kicked off in early 2001.

But all this doesn't make WSM completely attrition-free. Last quarter, 10.3% of the employees quit. Given that the company spends roughly Rs 30,000 per employee on training and development alone, an attrition rate like this does pinch. Clearly, while HR managers like Raja have found some of the answers, they haven't found all of them yet.