Monday, April 07, 2008 Editorial: Here comes the sun
ONE cannot argue with the US$4.8 billion that the Philippine business process outsourcing (BPO) industry pulled in as revenues in 2007. Among the top performers, call centers emerge as a major dollar earner and employer.
Since contact centers—outsourced operations providing services to large firms overseas—opened in Cebu in 2002, many college undergraduates, graduates and even dropouts have found high-paying jobs at the 19 call centers and 34 non-voice BPO and IT firms in Cebu.
The economic windfall has spilled over into real estate, construction and retailing. Thus, call centers deserve the tag, “sunshine industry.”
However, key issues overshadow the industry’s prospects for growth. Last April 1-3, Sun.Star Cebu ran a three-part special report, “Call waiting: what’s testing call centers?” Sun.Star Cebu editors guided Mass Communication students of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas Cebu College (UPVCC) to document the challenges confronting stakeholders through a civic journalism project funded by The Coca-Cola Company and the Philippine Press Institute.
Paradoxical vulnerability
The first part of the special report—researched and written by UPVCC’s Albe Victoria B. Alimurung, Ana Coritha J. Desamparado and Maria Armie Shiela B. Garde—uncovers the factors behind Cebu’s edge as a call center and BPO destination. “Demonstrated capability and track record, good infrastructure and amenities, cost advantage and quality lifestyle” make Cebu emerge as a major industry player, according to Cebu Investment Promotions Center managing director Joel Mari Yu.
Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) executive director Mitch Locsin zeroes in on the Filipinos’ facility with English and culture: “very friendly, accommodating, very patient, very helpful.”
But the human factor that catapults the country into the top position globally for voice operations outsourcing is also the root of its paradoxical vulnerability. Yu and Locsin concur that the labor pool is hampering the growth of call centers.
Tyranny of numbers
In the second part of the special report, produced by the UPVCC team of Nesreen C. AbdulRauf, Crischellyn D. Abayon, Brigette D. Hilongo, Julie Ann A. Canonigo and Sarah Jane A. Nengasca, call centers deal with the tyranny of numbers: recruit the skilled workers needed for operations, and prevent the exodus of employees due to work burnout, poaching by other call centers and outmigration.
A considerable package of salary, benefits and other incentives does not make contact center agents invulnerable to burnout. According to the April 2 special report, physical, psychosomatic and even moral ills afflict workers due to lifestyle excesses, job discrimination of locals by expatriates, exposure to street crime, and other work conditions.
The high turnover rate has, for one, promoted the poaching of skilled workers from other call centers and other industries, like media, which cannot offer competitive compensation.
On the other hand, some initiatives seek to address long-term growth. Some firms review salaries and other internal factors affecting job satisfaction and career paths. BPA/P, government and the media promote call center work as a career option for fresh graduates, college dropouts and the mature workforce.
Learning conundrum
It may be through industry tie-ups with the academe and training institutions that the industry can ensure that there will be always a pool of skilled workers. In the last part and conclusion of the special report, UPVCC’s Jeshelene T. Diolan, Joy Eva A. Bohol and Lorna E. Jabuen present the public and private investments in education.
From the Cebu City Government- and academe-initiated Academic Consortium for English Proficiency to academic programs, training centers offering short-term courses, and in-house “bridge” trainings offered for free by call centers, these partnerships seek to harness the country’s “strong non-voice potentials.”
Synergy of government and the private sector may yet clear the clouds dimming the sunshine industry.
