Other BPO firms that have actuarial departments pursued a slightly different tactic. Genpact Ltd, which started its group in 2003 at the behest of several clients, hired both statisticians and actuarial students in its first run with 20 staffers. The company then set up an in-house programme to cultivate talent, focused on guiding students through the exam process. The programme provides study leave and relies on actuarial mentors from their clients to advise the student-cum-employees, who now number 75, and make sure they are getting the right kind of experience.
“Could we have done this on our own? No,” says Mohit Thukral, a senior vice-president at Genpact who leads the company’s insurance business. “Only because we were able to partner with a customer” was it possible, he says.
The market for actuarial outsourcers isn’t a huge one. “It’s a niche area,” says Thukral, “the numbers are not in the thousands; they are more in the hundreds.” But it’s growing. Genpact plans to double its practice in the next two years, and Kapur expects Patni’s business to grow by 70- 80% this year.
For the market to grow substantially, says Thukral, it’s up to India’s colleges to invest in building an actuarial talent pool so that BPO firms aren’t poaching for recruits. He adds: “We need to build a programme where we’re not pinching each other.”
Tags - Find More Articles On: