The idea of delivering business value as an outsourcing partner to corporates – together with building social value on the edifice of creating rural livelihood – in itself is unique in that it pushes creation of more social enterprises like B2R – and thereby fosters further a new kind of ‘conscious capitalism’ – possibly a more powerful model than its predecessor with the potential to change the business and social landscape of how tremendous value can be created for all stakeholders. The manner in which we have implemented this idea further differentiates us – Some key levers help us differentiate and create a more compelling value proposition viz.:

The innovative service delivery model which, by design, delivers high-quality services at a low-cost footprint. The clusters of rural delivery centers in a hub-and-spoke model are of relatively smaller size built on the principle of decentralized self-reliant service centers and centralized work distribution and aggregation. The size of a center has been designed keeping in mind the opportunities and limitations of rural infrastructure and the location of centers is planned such that employees can walk to his or her place of work. This model has been made possible because of the learnings and extensive experience of the core team in setting up and running third-party BPO delivery centers in their previous work lives. The total BPO experience of this team exceeds 30 person-years and their experience overall in relevant industries is 100 person-years.

Appropriate elements of technology for power backup, internet connectivity and data security have been put together to create technology infrastructure in line with customers’ expectations and comparable to urban centers without the exorbitant costs that come from infrastructure components of urban delivery centers. Scaling up will leverage a robust and secure technology-based central nervous system which seamlessly connects the ‘small centers to build an ‘intelligently-connected large-scale service capability’.

A robust set of people processes, comprising recruitment, and processes for people practices, has been created, keeping in view the local context. The talent pool is rich and vast in terms of potential. Being fresh, however, they need to be molded to the mindset of the clients they service. The design includes leveraging local partners like specific NGOs to be able to create the appropriate reach to potential candidates as well as to create an effective interview process. We are also in the process of developing mechanisms to encourage skill development in these candidates based on the outcome of the recruitment process, even if a particular candidate is not immediately offered a job. This will facilitate skill development in a broader context within the region.

A traditional focus towards education has helped create the foundation of good literacy levels in Uttarakhand (72%) which are better than the national average – a rigorous training & development process has been designed on this foundation to accelerate learning & achieve performance excellence. A holistic approach to training has been taken which starts with building the need-to-learn and addressing that need in a practical manner.

The operational design has being done keeping the social objectives in mind, e.g. we see ourselves moving significantly over to a 3-hour shift based work. This would provide an individual the framework and flexibility to earn in a manner that is non-disruptive since s/he could continue with other obligations or family responsibilities.

The key elements of the B2R Value Proposition that address the triple bottom line are:

• Technology comparable with Urban centers at the low-cost footprint.
• Information protection through the adoption of security standards.
• Business Continuity Plan which is robust, reliable and tailored to clients requirements.
• Highly committed workforce resulting in service excellence and quality delivery.
• Scalable and sustainable, innovative service delivery model.
• Robust operations and quality management practices with continuous improvement of infrastructure.
• Flexibility to start at client’s preferred size and ability to quickly ramp-up with the growing requirements.
• Direct benefit in terms of reduction in operating costs, Cost-benefit to the client achieved due to B2R’s lower costs of salaries, rentals, running costs and low attrition.
• In addition to generating business value for the organization, the client also shares in co-creation of lasting social and financial impact on rural communities.

B2R’s overall recruitment, training & development methodology along with process-specific training & quality management system ensures detailed process understanding, knowledge transfer, smooth transition and achievement of the expected results.

The recruitment process has been created keeping in view the local context – the initial screening is done using written tests to verify intelligence levels (IQ test), English reading/comprehension ability and attention to detail.. A minimum threshold has been set statistically using percentile levels and candidates who clear these three key filters then go through a personality assessment (using WPS test) followed by a face-to-face interview. To keep in view local & skill aspects, each interview panel comprises of a representative from B2R and a local NGO (in the current location, the NGO is CHIRAG, an established NGO operating in the Central Himalayan region for over 22 years).

The Learning and development specialist understands the needs of the process and designs modules in line with the process and client requirement. Some of the modules are mandatory while some are specific to the process and role.

The training & development process has been designed keeping in view the learning objectives. The training process at B2R is divided into 4 parts:

1. Diagnosis or Training Needs Identification: The training needs for each role holder is determined in two phases. The first part is accomplished during the process transition stage when the minimum skill requirement for each role is documented. Based on this minimum skill list the Learning and Development team would determine the specific training curriculum. The team would also prepare tools/tests/interview questions to measure the skills and competencies required for the project. An IJP would then be announced along with the dates, skills required (to enable the people to take an informed decision- while applying), tests and durations and the identified site (if applicable- where the project would be based). Applicants clearing the tests and consequently the interview – will undergo the Process Training.
2. Designing: Designing is much more than putting a presentation together- All our designs incorporate Mature Learning Principles, the training sessions/activities are experiential in nature.
3. Intervention: If your design and diagnostics are spot on then 80% of the job is already done- however, we take care of our 20% by making our sessions interesting by facilitating the learners to learn rather than training or teaching them- by following IGNITE principles of facilitation. All our trainers are trained on IGNITE principles by our L&D specialist.
4. Sustenance: Sustenance comes in the form of Coaching – wherein coaches and TL’s and GL’s are able to use reference points from intervention to support the Team Members to be able to incorporate the learning’s. We measure this month on month basis and data is published- which either keeps people in or move them out of our Dynamic Quality Pool system.
5. Focus on people development – A key principle from a learning & development perspective has been embedded in the operations: the 1-in-6 principle; by virtue of this principle, out of every six units of time spent working, one unit will be invested in an individuals’ development. This principle is vital to drive an individual and thereby the organization to deliver work higher up in the value chain. To ensure focused & serious efforts from the individual during the training period, a nominal fee is charged by B2R; this amount is kept with the organization as a deposit & is refunded to the individual upon successful completion of training & meeting the predefined threshold criteria. Post training, the individual gets an appointment letter & joins the company as an employee, eligible to draw a salary thereafter. Individuals who do not clear the threshold criteria at the first attempt are given specific feedback and coached into developing further in respect of their areas of improvement – they are given a specific timeframe to improve & take re-assessments after that