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Celine`s friend called up from Delhi to tell about her recent success in getting a job in a call center. Her friend also mentioned that it was only a part time position and since she was doing her degree through correspondence it would be easy to juggle both education and work. "After getting my degree though I will switch to a non voice BPO," Sameera informed her. Celine was not sure about the difference between a voice BPO and a non voice and set about to find out more.

Voice vs. Non Voice Jobs

Dr. Sarika Kulkarni, author of the book titled Business Process Outsourcing explains the difference, "Voice jobs are those in call centers where people answer calls or make marketing or service information related calls. Non voice jobs involve table jobs such as transcription, insurance, finance."

• Call center jobs require good communication skills and a basic understanding of computers. Training is provided to candidates to update skills and for voice neutralization and accents
• Pay is higher for the voice jobs since these require verbal interaction with clients and cannot be automated
• But there are inherent difficulties related to most voice jobs like odd working hours, security concerns while traveling to and fro from work. The health impact and safety factors hinder people from looking at it with a long term career perspective.
• While voice jobs call for interaction with clients over phone, non voice jobs could call for dealings with customers through email or chat
• Non voice jobs involve applications across industries like airlines and transportation, securities, human resources, litigation and financial services, insurance, data processing and healthcare. Avenues for long term career advancements are higher in this sector.
• These jobs also offer work at home possibilities making it more attractive to those who would prefer to have the flexibility to decide on their working atmosphere.
• Specialized qualification in areas like finance, law, healthcare, provide a wide scope for career advancement in related non voice BPO service providers

BPO in India through the years

The BPO market started out in India offering call center jobs to youngsters. In the early days a majority of the outsourced jobs were voice related and accounted for nearly eighty five percent of the jobs in the BPO industry. Today the share of the voice jobs in the BPO outsourcing sector has fallen to thirty five percent of the services.

Gradually the focus of the BPOs in India have shifted from consumer support to consulting in areas ranging from insurance claim processes, medical support, mortgage loans and others. The thrust of BPO services has moved from just customer service jobs to being strategic partners of clients offering business critical solutions, thereby opening out a field of opportunities to highly qualified professionals.