The call center employees in India are the most frequent job-hoppers among their Asian peers with an average job tenure of as low as nine months, a new survey says.

According to an annual report for the Asian contact center industry released by call centers, the average job tenure of call center agents in India is the lowest at 11 months, while it is even lower at nine months for those having left their jobs in the past one year.

Identifying attrition and hiring as their top challenges for 2008, call centers in the country are now focusing on financial incentives and other rewards in their bid to retain the right talent, said callcentres.Net, a leading Asian research firm focused on contact centers and outsourcing industries.

The study found that absenteeism or sick leave in the Indian call centers has declined to an average of nine days per annum this year from 15 days in 2007, but employee tenure is still a major issue.

Stating that the average tenure of nine months in India is the lowest in the region for those having left jobs in past one year, the report said that comparable figures at other places are 22 months in Philippines, 20 months in Malaysia, 18 months for Singapore, 17 months for Thailand and 12 months for China.

The study also found that smaller call centers in India, or those having less than 100 seats, have a lower average agent tenure of 10 months, as compared to the larger centers where the tenure is close to 15 months

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