University after University?

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

Training is a necessary element across KPO segments. The Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) industry is no different. Service providers require their employees to be trained across a variety of service areas translating to better employee performance. Although most LPO vendors offer on the job training a number of them now offer it as a separate business unit altogether.

The trend of LPO service providers offering on-the-job University styled education has been growing in the last couple of years. The primary reason is to ensure that employees are trained consistently across the board, in a variety of competencies, ranging from soft skills to client management services.

Unitedlex uses their university as a key differentiator in the marketplace as do some other LPOs. Daniel Reed, CEO of UnitedLex stated in a press release, that the USD 6 million they received as funding in 2008 would help play a pivotal role in the continuing expansion of the university. Mindcrest has a similar facility named ‘Mindcrest University’. Their teams of lawyers offer new employees legal, technical and other client related training. This ensures that employees have the tools and skills to progress through the ranks to managerial positions while successfully assessing and addressing client needs.

Training usually falls under two categories illustrated in the table below:

General Training	Project Training
Substantive training in a number of areas, conducted by fellow peers	Training given to employees specifically based the project they are going to work on
Employees need to attend a mandatory number of training modules in a year	Conducted usually by the project manager or client themselves
Sessions can involve instruction in :- * The different legal service areas * US & UK style writing/speaking * Client interaction and presentation * Personal development

This, in itself, is not a new trend. Some of the large IT/BPO companies have created massive training and learning centers for new and lateral hires. The most famous is arguably Infosys’ USD 60 million training center at Mysore, which is responsible for training 15,000 employees yearly.

This initiative of university styled developmental centers is primarily to address the concerns of buyers. Though the capability is there, substantive all around training is required in order to satisfy the needs of clients. In almost all our conversations with vendors and buyers, training has consistently come up as a challenge. As a result, service providers offer this as a unique sales proposition to their clients. The perceived benefit is an assurance that employees have undergone training in a variety of areas specifically for project related work.

Going forward this trend will continue. Interestingly enough I wonder if the increase of such facilities has indeed helped convince clients that Indian LPOs are ready to take on more complex legal work. Will more LPO service providers also introduce a dedicated arm for training as their peers?

- Vineet Ramachandran, Analyst, Sourcing Practice

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