THE business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the country aims to earn $13 billion in revenues and generate one million jobs by 2010.
If this will be achieved, this would mean a total of $6.7 billion in annual salaries that can be distributed through spending in various sectors of the country’s economy, said lawyer Jamea Garcia, executive director for talent development of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP).
Garcia was in Cebu last Tuesday as one of the panelists during the business forum hosted by JobsDB.com at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel.
Cebu, said Garcia, is known as the second biggest home of BPO companies, after Metro Manila. She said that as of BPAP’s last count, BPO companies in Cebu employ a total of 16,400 workers.
Based on data from BPAP, 30 percent of the projected combined annual salaries for 2010 would be spent on food while 10 percent will go to housing-related expenses, and five percent for transportation and communication. BPAP also said 20 percent will go to taxes and the rest would go to other expenditures.
“Achievable”
Garcia said the targeted revenue in the next two years is “achievable,” considering the 50 percent growth in the BPO industry in the last three years. BPAP has laid out a roadmap that will help the industry achieve its goals. The roadmap considers the supply of qualified personnel as the “most important” factor in the BPO industry’s continued growth.
“Talent will drive the growth of the industry,” said Garcia.
Majority of BPO companies in Cebu, and in the country in general, are contact centers while the rest provide non-voice services that include back office management, animation, transcription and software development.
But the lack of suitable talent to fill up positions in BPO companies is becoming a problem.
Garcia said not all applicants for BPO jobs are hired because of lack of qualifications on the part of the applicants.
The present hiring rate in the BPO industry is four percent, compared to six percent in 2006.
Education
Garcia blamed lack of education. “Out of 100 students, only 40 go to high school,” she said, adding that among those who go to high school only 60 percent will proceed to college; and only 60 percent will eventually graduate.
She said applicants are no longer proficient in the English language.
To address these concerns, BPAP has come up with short- and long-term intervention programs.
BPO companies are encouraged to partner with different schools and develop English proficiency programs both for students and faculty.
The government has also allocated P350 million-worth of vouchers this year under the PGMA Training for Work Scholarship Program for Near Hires.
“Near hires” is a term used by the industry to refer to those who were almost hired by the companies, if not for their lack of communication or technical skills.
“With (the budget), we aim to train 54,000 individuals and convert 40,000 of them as employees,” Garcia said.
Eric Concepcion, Human Resource director for E-telecare, confirmed that there is “a lot of intervention needed (for)
additional English training.”
Also, with the high attrition rate in contact centers, Concepcion said 60 to 70 percent of those hired are merely to replace employees who have resigned.
“Only 30 to 40 percent are hired for expansion,” he added.
Attrition, at an annual rate of 18 percent, is blamed on the “absence of a clear career path” for BPO employees.
But Garcia dismissed the notion that BPO employees have nowhere to go in the company.
“BPO professionals are provided with the fastest career track in the country,” she said, adding that an entry-level agent can get promoted in three years.
BPAP, she said, is working on correcting this perception through various awareness programs. (DME)
