Infosys BPO has started hiring again. For the past few months, the company was

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not on any kind of hiring mode, but that’s changing. Vacancies are propping up again, and the BPO has about 200 vacancies coming up on a month on month basis.

“These vacancies are at the entry level and we are recruiting for various processes across all service offerings,” said Infosys BPO vice-president and HR head K Raghavendra. “We are recruiting for both voice and non-voice offerings,” he said.

The company has cited business needs and new projects being signed as two important reasons why it is hiring again. “In addition new positions are being created and in certain other cases back fills are happening on account of normal attrition,” Raghavendra added.

Infosys BPO had earlier in the year terminated the services of over 600 contract workers according to people in the recruitment industry, though company officials did not admit to it. Infosys BPO today has a headcount of 17,238 employees.

The company’s attrition rates have steadily declined over the last couple of years from 43 per cent in 2006 to about 32 per cent in the second half of this year. It is still looking to reduce attrition further down to around 20 per cent. The number of job-hopping employees in the BPO sector has plummeted in the face of job-security fears thanks to the global economic crisis. But at the entry level attrition is still on the higher side, leading to openings.

“One cannot really stop attrition at lower levels especially on the voice side of the business,” said Nasscom president Som Mittal. “The good thing is we have enough personnel coming through to replace these outgoing employees,” he added.

Infosys BPO has been focusing on the telecom space, revenue enhanc-ement and assurance solutions, and network financial management which includes inventory management and access cost management. The company is said to be on the lookout for acquisition opportunities in traditional BPOs focusing on banking and financial services, telecom and manufacturing verticals.