Bangalore: The scare among women employees working in BPOs/call centres has abated; the tragic murder of a woman employee four months ago has become just a bad memory.

For various reasons women continue to be preferred by recruiters. "They are willing to work longer hours, may not take long breaks and get along better with customers," are some reasons HR managers cite.

"In the IT-enabled services sector, 50 per cent of employees are women, and in call centres/BPOs the proportion is 30 to 35 per cent and managements have good reasons to employ more women," says Kris Lakshmikanth, founder-chairman of The Head Hunters India Pvt. Ltd.

Women are preferred by their immediate supervisors because they exhibit more commitment to work and once settled in a job are reluctant to move out unless there are compelling reasons like marriage or the transfer of spouse, says one corporate HR head. "The anxieties about night shift work, both among women and their families, have abated with travel arrangements made more secure now," she explains.

"Women who prefer to work during the day because they have children to look after or for other reasons are finding plenty of jobs in hotels, travel agencies and with telecom companies. They are able to better balance career and family needs," says Mr. Lakshmikanth.

Managements in these sectors too find their women staff "more stable, more productive and likely to last longer with one employer" remarks HR consultant M.K. Rao.

One factor behind more women crowding the job market is because they want to build a career they can go back to later.

"Once the children are old enough to be in school and they are ready to work, many women in their 30s find earlier job skills useful. Managements also prefer them because of the work experience they already possess," he says.

Are women themselves more comfortable in the workplace than say, five or ten years ago, when they were still a novelty? "Now that women are no longer confined to traditional sectors like hospitality, travel or airlines, men colleagues and supervisors have started accepting them as equals ... perhaps a bit reluctantly," says Kavita Raj, working for a private telecom service provider. The eagerness of women employees to prove their worth is noticed by the managements, she adds.

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