Thursday, August 21, 2008 Wrong notion about BPO result of ad glamorizing industry jobs
AN EXECUTIVE of a business process outsourcing (BPO) company admitted that the companies in the industry are partly to blame for misconceptions about the kind of work in a BPO company.
Yogesh Malhotra, lead for Accenture’s Philippine Delivery Center Network for BPO, said “glamorizing” the work of a BPO employee is one of the reasons that many leave the industry.
Most of the recruitment advertisements posted by BPO companies usually highlight “fun at work.”
“Fun at work is just icing on the cake. The cake is that, (the work) is stressful, it’s demanding,” he said in a parallel session that followed a talk he gave during the Sun.Star Economic Forum 2008.
“People should know that this is not the primary focus of contact center work,” he added.
Value-added
But Malhotra said that although the work in the BPO industry might be stressful, there are value-added propositions that are made available to employees.
He said Accenture invests heavily in development and training programs for employees with a budget of nearly $800 million a year. “These value propositions should be articulated,” he added.
Malhotra also said that most of the negative perceptions about the industry are mainly caused by ignorance.
“It’s not true that (contact center work) is a job nobody wants that is why some companies are into outsourcing,” Malhotra said. “We either make it or break it for our clients,” he added.
He also dismissed speculations that the contact center is not an industry that will stay in the country for the long term.
Customer service
“Customer service will not disappear since customer service will always need a touchpoint,” he said.
He added that the global outsourcing market is also looking at investing in the Philippines because of the quality of customer service delivered by Filipino agents.
He agrees that it is “critical” for the industry, as well as the government, to step in and create awareness about the kind of work and the different value propositions that await a contact center employee.
On the other hand, Malhotra said there is also a need to educate young people, who mostly compose the BPO labor force. He said many have made immature decisions and do not treat their first years in a company as an investment.
He said, though, that the industry is still new but it will mature in time. (DME)
