Mumbai: Call centres employees that in both Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Information Technology-enabled Services (IteS), are in for a big surprise! A windfall in the form of a hike in salaries are on their way. A shortage in trained manpower has been pushing wages by around 10 per cent to 40 per cent during the last couple of years, and the trend is likely to continue for the next few years.

However, the salary jumps are not through the conventional route of promotions, but due to professionals shifting jobs more frequently, according to global research and advisory firm Gartner Inc.

"While there is abundance of trainable human resources, a dearth in skilled manpower is being experienced across the industry, from call centres to solution providers, and this has resulted in an increase in salaries," according to Gartner India principal analyst (IT-services) Ravindra S Datar.

The increase in salaries varies from job to job, and ranks highest among call centre employees, who get a hike of over 40 per cent when they join a new establishment.

A trained junior level professional gets around 25 per cent to 40 per cent hike in a new job.

Up the corporate ladder, that is at the middle-level position, the percentage change in salaries when the professional moves to a new firm is lower at around 15 per cent to 25 per cent, he said, adding, this is due to a higher base salary to compare with that at junior levels.

At middle level, other drivers like higher position, better perquisites and responsibilities are considered while shifting jobs, Datar said.

While there is a larger supply of entry-level human resources, the most severe shortage is felt in the middle-level positions. But this has not helped in a quantum rise in salaries at these levels, he said.

According to Datar, many new captive and third party offshore facilities being set up in the country have led to a competition for skilled human resources that are already scarce in availability.

This is also leading to an ever widening demand-supply gap and rise in average salary levels for all positions, apart from pushing up attrition in existing facilities, he opines.

A dearth in manpower is being felt in call centre and BPO operations, software and services sector and maintenance and support services among others.

A new trend of employees moving from Indian companies to MNC jobs for higher salaries and international experience and returning back to Indian firms, but for a higher pay and position, is also emerging.

This leads to local vendors getting access to professionals trained on global best practices, while the increase in salary levels is pushing up costs and putting pressure on margins.

The constant churn of human resources also pushes up training costs and may affect quality of output.

A higher churn in human resources, especially if it is visible at the middle and senior levels, also causes apprehension amongst clients about the security and privacy of their information and about the ability of the service providers to maintain the quality of work.

"There is an urgent need to find a long-term solution to this challenge, by way of ensuring sustainable flow of large numbers of adequately trained human resources. One of the ways to do this is to ramp up the educational infrastructure through joint industry-government initiatives" added Datar.