Everybody knows that the attrition levels in the IT industry are horrendous, especially in the call centre business. Industry estimates that the level is 40 percent, which means that 40 in every 100 employees in the ITES/BPO/call centre business are going to be leaving their jobs, after getting trained on their company's dime. The industry tried to stem the flow by informally banding together to ensure that employees don't keep jumping from company to company looking for advancement or more money or both. But that has been an iffy exercise, because nobody wants to lose the opportunity of poaching a good employee.

24/7 Customer, a BPO company with facilities in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai has gone a step forward to ensure that valued employees stick around. One of the principal jobs of its co-founder and COO and now chief mentor, Shanmugam Nagarajan, is to chat with the employees, do a bit of handholding, hear their grievances and press the flesh. In short, Nagarajan, or Nags as he is called by 24/7 Customer's employees, is the company's rabbi. "Nags now comes for work in the evening and stays till early into the morning, meeting with groups of employees to discuss their grievances, if any, or just for some bracing talk," says somebody who has seen Nagarajan at work. "The groups range from 150-200 employees, and sometimes the meetings take place at 2 am." Nags also flies down to the company's centres in Hyderabad and Chennai to deliver pep talks to the troops.