BCI’s birth was an upshot of the birth of the Human Competence Master Standards (HCMS) a little more than a decade back. That was Release 1.0 of the Human Competence Master Standards (HCMS) for Agents and call center executives. The advent of BCI HCMS heralded a new era in international BPO service provider industry as it was the world’s very first set of service-provider dedicated competence standards/ benchmarks for Agents who were working on even non-voice-based services like transaction processing and Finance and Accounting. The approval of HCMS as a credentialing base by the BPO Professional Certifications Council at the turn of the millennium, spurred HCMS to establish the world’s very first universal pre-certification assessment system under an independent examination body – the Human Competence Examination Board, popular as HCEB among BCI partners. Needless to say, HCMS has kept evolving at a pace as scorching as the pace at which the BPO industry has cataclasmed over the years.
Starting off with 14 competence and professional capability parameters for only the Agent/ Associate level operatives in late nineties, the HCMS today enunciates professional standards across 21 competence attributes and professional pre-requisites (and hence HCMS21) and covers all six levels of BPO operatives and functionaries – from business & functional leaders and mangers to team leaders, senior associates and fresh, young service officers and agents.
Here’s a run-down on how the HCMS 1.0 has evolved into HCMS21 Release 3.1:
| HCMS Version |
Year of Launch/ Introduction |
Professional Levels covered/ Added |
| HCMS14 - Release - 1.0 (codenamed BigLeap Standards in 1999) |
1999 |
For Senior Associates working on inbound voice-based customer service processes as well as on non-voice transaction and back-office processes. |
| HCMS14 - Release 2.0 |
2000 |
ADDED: for Senior Associates working on voice-based tele-sales/ marketing processes. |
| HCMS14 - Release 2.1 - HCMS14 - Release 2.3 |
2001 |
ADDED: for Senior Associates working on non-voice finance & accounting and technical helpdesk processes; Team Leaders; Operations Manager. |
| HCMS14 - Release 2.4 |
2003 |
ADDED: for Training Manager, Quality Manager and People Manager; pan-domain applicability. |
| HCMS14 - Release 2.5 |
2005 |
ADDED: FOUR new standards added for Manager-Level Certifications |
| HCMS14 - Release 2.6 |
2006 |
ADDED: FOUR new standards added for fresher level; non-voice-based for technical support services; pan-domain applicability. |
| HCMS14 - Release 2.7 |
2007 |
ADDED: for Operations Leader; pan-domain applicability. |
| HCMS18 - Release 2.8 |
2007 |
ADDED: for Quality Leader and People Leader; pan-domain applicability |
| HCMS18 - Release 2.9 |
2007 |
ADDED: TWO new standards added for People Leader |
| HCMS20 - Release 3.0 |
2007 |
ADDED: for Business Leader; pan-domain applicability |
| HCMS21 - Release 3.1 |
2008 |
ADDED: ONE new standard added for Business Leader |
So that’s how the BCI Human Competence Master Standards evolved over the years. This latest version has 6 sets of professional/ human competence standards corresponding to one each for Business Leader, Functional Leaders, Managers, Team Leaders, Sr. Associates, and Fresh, entry level associates/ agents. Each of these sets has standards spelt across 21 role-critical knowledge- and competence- attributes and the HCEB has structured methodologies for pre-credentialing assessments for these levels..
To know more about HCMS21, please write at:
standards@bpocertifications.com or hcms@bpocertifications.com
