Saturday, June 23, 2007 Ledesma: Call centers boom in Davao By Jun Ledesma
BELIEVE it or not, Davao City has now six Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) establishments, all of them is into Call Center Operations. (Call centers are now more appropriately contact centers.-publisher). One of these six is contemplating to increase its capacities to 1,000 more terminals which means we are looking at exactly the same number of new jobs for Dabawenyos. But we are talking of only one firm here. With the business climate in Davao and the quality of graduates that we have, expect more call centers to locate or relocate here. The happy note about this is that local entrepreneurs are now investing in this admittedly profitable business.
Davao by the way has been a good hunting ground for call center operators based in Cebu and Manila. Our graduates can easily be trained to speak with American twang, so they say. The other hunting ground is Dumaguete City. We had been losing our graduates to Cebu and Manila operators but with the number of call centers cropping out, we will be able to stave off further drain from our employable pools.
The Davao advantage aside from what I already said, is that for a salary of P10,000 for a starter, the need for manpower can easily be met. However, call center operators are apprehensive that they might encounter the same fate as in Cebu and Manila, where newcomers in the business and those who had been there and are expanding, have resorted to the practice of poaching from their manpower pool by offering a few pesos more to salary. This practice of dubious propriety can paralyze their operations. They do not mind losing their employees for as long as they stay with them for at least 18 months. They said that they conduct training for new recruits and that translates to a substantial amount of money. Training is an investment and they need to recoup their expenses within the period of 18 months.
This is the kind of pleasant problem that we are looking for. The operators said that recently they already brought down their requirement for new recruits from college graduate to at least 2nd year college. What is important is that the applicants have to be at least 23 years old. At this age they consider a person emotionally stable and patient and not confrontational. In Manila, some call center operators already accepts high school graduates provided they are trainable.
I talked to an operator about their experience with communications line provider. Joji Ilagan had earlier complained having experienced a 7-hour downtime from her provider. I think that the best way to avert this problem is to have a redundant system. It is good to be getting from competing firms. Just be sure that wherever you get your communications highway from, they have the capability. There are internet link providers in the city who do not have their own backbone of communications and are just leasing from other firms and farm out the capacities to other subscribers for profit. Do not be fooled by advertisements.
To allay piracy, some operators have linked up with the Department of Trade and Industry and the City government and have asked some members of the City Council to intercede and avoid the piracy of employees in call centers. Vice Mayor Louie Bonguyan (who is eyeing the BPO accountancy business) and the Council Committee Chair for Trade, Pete Lavina, were there to give an ear to their plaint. Pete promised he will study the matter while Louie said he will look at the prospects. I say accept the reality of piracy and be prepared to lose some and keep some. And continue recruiting and training, improve on working conditions, amenities and perks. I am sure that employees will stick to the company whom they think are looking after their welfare and not only for their profits.
