September 25, 2013 / 15:59 IST
India's IT outsourcing industry conjures an image of bespectacled male computer nerds, hammering away at keyboards in the software parks of Bangalore. But Saudi Arabia promises something different: the world's first business processing outsourcing centre staffed entirely by women.
Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software developer by sales, on Tuesday unveiled its debut "all-female services centre" in the capital, Riyadh, part of plans to access a largely untapped pool of workers in the gender-segregated Middle Eastern nation.
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Conservative social mores and strict rules on gender separation limit female employment in Saudi Arabia. While most banks and some factories have women-only sections, exclusively female operations are rare.
"This is the first time to our understanding that anyone has done this, because this [Saudi Arabia] is a unique market," Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chief executive of TCS, said.
"In India, there has been huge opportunity for our industry to liberate underused talent and, while Saudi isn't on the same scale, there is still a big opportunity to help people, especially women, find good professional jobs," he said.
The new centre aims eventually to employ about 3000 Saudi women, although it will open with an initial staff of 400 in the second quarter of 2014.
Although it will not offer call-centre services - a step that could risk startling conservative male customers with the voice of a female operator - it will provide a range of back-office functions, including human resources and finance.
Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil exporting nation, wants more private-sector employment as part of a wider attempt to increase economic activity that is not related to the energy sector.
Jeffrey Immelt, GE's chief executive, said: "Saudi Arabia is placing high emphasis on creating jobs for its youth and women and we are proud to be supporting female employment opportunities in the kingdom."
Female staff were permitted last year to work in women's clothing stores, replacing previously all-male employees, while women have also been allowed to work as cashiers in major grocery stores, despite sometimes fierce opposition from Saudi clerics.
But Mr Chandrasekaran says he is not worried about similar criticism for his new venture. "No, not at all. This has got the full support of the government, and lots of businesses too," he says. "Our [business processing outsourcing] model for this market is a perfect fit."
