Suggestions: After analyzing the data, checking the ‘’Limitations’’ of the project and checking the ‘’Key Findings’’ of the entire project, here are a few suggestions we would like to make to the employees of the ITES industry:

1. We feel that since the higher education policy is very good in the BPO industry (Please refer to point no. 2 in ‘’Trend Analysis’’), all the employees should avail it. Instead of complaining that the salaries are lower in the ITES industry compared to the IT industry, they should avail the courses of their choice. All the companies give 50-100% concession in the course fees and the management gives full support (like the employee is not engaged in work during the class hours, some companies provide transport if the classes happen in the Univ. Campus, leaves for preparation for the exams etc.). They should look at the cost of these courses in the market and the concession they are getting because of being an employee of such MNCs. Also most of the companies give promotion and progression/ role change to the employees who go for higher education through the company’s HEP/Exec MBA programs. These are all ‘’Learn while you Earn’’.

2. Employees should not only look at vertical growth, but also should look at lateral movements. Many a times vertical growth is not possible But ideally any ITES company has pre-sales/ solution design, operations, HR functions, Training and Development, Finance, Quality and facilities. Within operations- there are so many horizontals like F & A, S & P, HRO, Customer Service etc. And so many verticals like CME, MFG, BFSI etc. Within quality there is Transactional Quality, Six sigma/lean, Quality Control (COPC, CMM etc certifications). Employees should look at learning more and should move to different verticals and horizontals as per their expertise, experience, likings and opportunities. It always helps in a longer run and increases employability in the market.

3. The employees should look at certifications like ITIL, PMP, CCNA, MCSE, S & P specialist etc. Some companies give it in house like Infosys BPO and the rest can be done from outside. These not only increase the knowledge of the employee, but also make him/her more employable. Employees should come out of their comfort zone and follow Steve Jobs principle of ‘’stay hungry stay foolish’’.

4. The employees who are young, and who still do not have the responsibilities of their families, and due to financial constraints had joined the BPO and could not go for further education should even look at the option of full time MBA from good institutes. A few employees whom we had interviewed had quit their ITES jobs for full time MBA/ PGDBA and now are better placed in the ITES industry. Hence along with exec MBA, employees should look at that option. A few employees had gone to the UK/ Australia to do their MBA. A few even had gone to do their MS from the US and had moved to IT and other industries.

5. Employees who joined the different verticals of the ITES industry should look for opportunity to move within the same company to a process where their skill sets match. For e.g. M. SC (Bio-tech/ Bio-medical/ bio-chemistry), B.Tech (Biotech) etc. should move to healthcare vertical of the BPO industry. MBAs should move to business analytics, Pre-sales, Project Management. Lawyers should move to LPOs. Many a times when they join, they are not aware of all these options, however within the company it is lot easier to move than to join as a fresher in that department as recruitments happen as per requirements and it is a possibility that when one has applied as a fresher, there were no vacancies in that process/ vertical.

6. Employees should not look at ITES as a stop gap arrangement and a stepping stone to a better career. ITES is an ever growing pie and in the last 15 years it has grown into many geographies and the complexity of work has increased year on year. Today we do not do a lift and drop job in

the ITES, we give solutions to the clients and help them do better business and have become a profit gainer for them.

7. Women should not leave their jobs completely during child birth. They should look at taking a sabbatical for 1-2 years and join back once the child grows up a bit. They should involve the family support in child care. Some BPOs are opening crèches to take care of this problem which is a positive trend. There are a miniscule percentage of women in the upper echelon. Hence women should grab management positions and should not only stick to workforce. That will help in their personal growth, give them financial stability and dual income families are always more stable than single income ones.

8. Employees should look at buying a separate life insurance the moment they start earning. They can look at tern insurance where the premiums are low, but the returns are very high in case of the unfortunate death of the employee. This gives a huge security to the family, especially if s/he is the only bread earner.

9. Employees should look at health insurance for sure. Many employees shared their unfortunate experience of losing their savings or selling their assets during any major illness of self/ family. Many employees had not added their parents in the health insurance policy and had to pay huge sums during hospitalization. Employees should not depend only on the health insurance through office, but should take separate health insurance for the entire family. During emergencies/ job changes etc. both come handy. And since the premiums are low at young age, employees should look at that option. It saves tax under 80C/CC/CCC.

10. All the employees should save from their first paycheck. They may look at the option of RD or PPF and make small investments there. By the power of compounding, it will grow over the years.

11. Employees should never withdraw the PF amount when they change companies. PF is a forced investment which the Govt. makes an employee to do and every employee should safeguard it. And they should not even look at the option of taking a loan against PF unless there is any emergency.

12. Employees should get into the habit of making small FDs every year and as the income increases should increase the FD amount too. Again FDs give tax benefits. Hence that is a good option.

13. Every employee should submit the medical bills (up to Rs. 15000 is tax exempted) and LTA bills as they are exempted from tax. We observed that most of the young employees are not aware of it and are not depositing it and paying tax unnecessarily.

14. Employees should submit the rent receipt and rent agreement to claim the tax submission on a year on year basis. We found that most of the employees whom we interviewed were doing it.

15. After the first 2-3 years of the job, and after having some savings and investments as FDs and PPF (Which cannot be withdrawn before 15 years), Insurance (Do not break the insurance midway- it does not give good returns and the whole idea of insurance fails if done), the employees can look at other investment options like Govt. Bonds, Bullions, MFs.

16. Employees should look at investing in property at a young age. It is ok if they do not buy a very good flat/ house. It is ok to buy a plot/ house in an upcoming area at a cheaper rate and avail the tax benefit as the property costs go up with time. Also if we do the calculations, we will see that rent+ some more money= EMI. Even if we do not stay in that house, we can put it on rent and have a second income.

17. Employees, who buy a home, should buy an insurance to protect the home loan. It should cover any natural calamity and damage to the property, job loss, disability etc. so that your loved ones

should inherit your property, not your loan in case of death or diability.

18. Employees should do thorough research before buying a property, MFs or exposing themselves to the Equity market. The risks are high and the returns too are high. However incorrect moves can incur a lot of losses. Also when an employee is young (below 35) s/he can do aggressive investment as s/he can make up for the losses. Most of the employees in their 30s mentioned that as of now they are at ‘’Medium Risk Medium Return stage’’, however after a few years they will take lesser risks as they will be nearing retirement.

19. In the 20s, all the employees should concentrate on their careers fully as they can reap the benefits when they grow older. There is no harm in ‘’work hard party harder principle’’ as long as they know their limits. Also they should not get into the debt trap as many of the ITES employees we interviewed had got into. The credit cards are easily given to this young group as the salaries are high and in big cities the avenues of spending money are high. And the culture in the ITES industry is quite westernized, and the young employees easily fall for the partying, movies, shopping mode using credit cards and personal loans. They should avoid taking car/bike loans as all the ITES companies provide transport and vehicle is a depreciating asset. Also the habit of balance transfer in credit cards should be avoided and if one needs to use the CC, then should pay off the entire balance every month. There should be no evolving credit. Using the credit card judiciously and using the 45 day credit period is good. But not otherwise.

20. Families during festivals should buy gold and silver. Gold has given more than 150% return in the last 4 years. Silver too has given more than 160% returns. In fact diamonds and platinum does not have much of resale value. Hence employees should buy it for personal use, and not think that it is an investment. Also ornaments are not exactly an investment as while selling, due to wastage, making charge etc. a lot of money is wasted. Employees should look at bullions or ETFs.

21. Employees should remember than every rupee saved in every rupee earned. Hence should minimize wastage. Every employee should make a budget and document the expenses on a regular basis. They should look at reducing wastages and stick to a budget. We observed that the employees who had saved prudently had managed to save, invest and enjoy all at the same time as the stuck to their budgets.

22. We observed that the employees who did not save in their 20s had to face problems and hence had to save and invest aggressively in their 30s. They had to curb their desires a lot in their 30s as they had to make up for the losses in their 20s. Hence we suggest the employees to save from their first pay check.

23. Every employee should look at a second income source. There are many part-time jobs which they can do over the weekends (Freelance training, web designing, modeling, music or any other vocational training, tuitions etc.). There are a lot of works from home options which employees can do if they have a PC and internet connection at home / cyber café. Every employee should look at such options.

24. Women employees when they take breaks from career during child birth or to take care of old parents or in-laws should look at the option of work from home. They will be in touch with the industry and leverage their knowledge, as well as earn money too. We interviewed a few single mothers who were using this option.

25. We suggest the employees not to spend more than 50% of their salaries in their maintenance and save and invest the rest. In the initial years of the career it is a little difficult specially if one has to pay rent etc., however if one manages by staying in shared accommodation etc. at a young age, then the later years become easy for them. And the ones who live lavishly in their 20s on credit face challenges later. Hence we suggest every employee to think before spending and not spend

and then think.

26. Employees who are young should plan before getting married. Because we observed that employees with single income families were struggling in Bangalore with the expenses. The wives can take up some teaching jobs or any other less hectic jobs and contribute to the families. In Bangalore there are ample job opportunities in every field. They can also look at work from home options and contribute to the family income as much as possible. They should also look at curbing their expenses if the income of the husband is less. They should never spend on CCs after marriage just to enjoy life. We observed many respondents doing that mistake.

27. Employees should plan properly before having children. They should have a good corpus, and preferably should buy a house before planning for children. They should stick to one-two children as per their ability as the education and child maintenance is going very high day by day. Also after the child is born they should take a health insurance, education insurance for the child and secure his/her future completely.

28. Employees who are young should save for their weddings and should not put the burden on their families. Also employees in the late 30s and 40s should keep aside some money for their children’s weddings if they have children.

29. Every employee should have at least 6 months maintenance expense in their bank accounts. This is for any contingency like sudden illness, job loss etc. Employees who have regular EMIs should always keep aside 6 months EMI to mitigate any contingency.

30. Every employee should look at tax saving options and invest enough to save tax. Every year minimum 1 lakh should be saved for those employees who fall under the tax bracket. And the young employees who have just joined and their salaries are not taxable should also save prudently.

31. Employees should look at tax saving options like NSC, NSS, Child education, investment under pension scheme, infrastructure bonds. Every employee should check with the finance team of the company and make investments accordingly.

32. After doing a little bit of market research, we found that Mannapuram, ITIL, HDFC, Muthoot Finance etc. give personal loan against gold deposits. The ROI they were charging was between 12-14%. Hence if we need money for any occasion, the employees instead of taking personal loan where the banks charge 16 – 18 % ROI, it is better to go for the first optio.

33. When we checked the tax savings options of our company portal- we found that if we have parents who are disabled/ permanently immobile, then the money spent on their medical expenses are not taxable. The employees who have such situations should avail it.

34. One of the golden rules of investment is ‘’As and when our salary increases, we should increase our investments’’. All the ITES employees should follow that.

35. Another golden rule is , ‘’Never keep all your eggs in one basket’’. Employees should follow that principle and invest in debt and equity. Also they should invest in high risk instruments like property, bullion, equity and MFs and should have safe options like PPF, FD, NSC, Govt Bonds etc. More the portfolio is diversified; the better it is for any employee.

36. Also the employees should never keep all their money in one bank account. They should have a mix of nationalized banks and private banks and should only invest with banks which have a good reputation. Not with private co-operative banks as the money might be lost if the banks goes in losses.

37. Also while taking insurance, employees should have a mix of Govt. agencies like LIC, and private players like ICICI Prudential, Bajaj Allianz, Bharti AXA, HDFC Life etc.

38. The moment your salary a/c is opened in one bank, you should open another account in another bank preferably nationalized bank, and start transferring money to that account every month. They should forget about that money and should invest in FDs within a short span of time. Now days we have short FDs for 15-45 days. So the liquidity is very high and the money earns good returns. Many of the respondents have opened accounts in Kotak Bank and Yes Bank and are earning good investments. However we do not advise to keep all the money in one bank and again we should scatter and look at tax saving 5 year FDs too which yield lesser returns, but the money is secured for 5 years and is saving tax too.

39. Many ITES employees do the mistake of not including the names of their parents/spouses as nominees for their life insurance. In the situation of an unfortunate death, the company has to go through the hassles of allocating the money to the next of kin. Every employee should do that mandatorily when they join the company and should contact the HR team if there are any changes in the details.

40. Also for their insurance policies, bank accounts, bank lockers and all other financial matters, every employee should either have a joint account holder or a nominee as the situation demands. We interviewed a few ITES employees and found that they faced a lot of issues in an unfortunate situation of the death of their parents. The employees whose families live in other cities face more problems in such situations. We had spoken to one employee whose father has a house in Kolkata. He is the only son who works with HP- Bangalore. His father died in Sep 2010, and till date he has not been able to do a name transfer of the property and put the property on rent as he is unable to take too many leaves and go to Kolkata for all these paper work. We interviewed another employee whose mother did not declare any nominee for her locker and died suddenly in Nov 2008 in Kolkata. Her father who lives in West Bengal since then is trying to take the possession of the locker, however has not been successful. The employee works with Infosys Bangalore and cannot visit Kolkata too often.