Call Center Hub in Asia

Transcription

1 Call Center Hub in Asia Marjorie Darunday/ University of Philippines, Philippines Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is a world s growing industry. It is outsourcing of business functions generally performed by white collar and clerical employees in order for them to achieve various benefits such as cost savings, better quality and ability to focus on core competence. The process includes customer service, payroll processing, inventory management, etc. It is also the latest trend in the Philippines service sector which leads to a lot of call center infrastructures around the country. It is estimated that as of year 2005, there are more than 100 call center offices in the country with its core in Ortigas, Makati, Eastwood and Fort Bonifacio. However, due to its booming demand, foreign investors extend its offices in places outside Metro Manila such as Cebu, Baguio, Cagayan, Zamboanga and other regions in the southern part of the country ( Below is the list of BPO and call centers places. Numbers in parenthesis are the number of call centers within the vicinity. ( Baguio (5) Cagayan De Oro (3) Cebu (31) Davao (8) Eastwood City-Libis (26) Iloilo (5) La Union (1) Laguna (7) Las Pinas (8) Makati (244) Mandaluyong (26) Manila (34) Muntinlupa (23) Ortigas Center (127) Pampanga (14) Pasig (17) San Juan (11) Philippines is the top rank call center offshore in Asia which places India in the next spot.(asian Call Center Review) The Board of Investments (BOI) of the Philippines estimates growth rate of this industry since 2001 to 100 percent annually with less than 1000 seats in 2000 to more than 69,000 at the end of 2004.(Wikipedia). The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) said that the call center industry experienced a growth rate of 70 percent in 2005 which makes the most dynamic of all sectors in the Philippine information technology industry. By February 2006 there are 130,000 people working in the industry, as estimated. And it has been predicted that the rate would continue to rise year after year. Augusto Santos, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary believes the industry's growth will be faster than what the local government thinks which remarking that many cases of business process outsourcing goes 1

2 unrecorded. The Philippines then hopes to capture about five percent of business process outsourcing globally by 2010, amounting to as much as 10 billion dollars. What is then is a call center? Call center is an office, a large office design to handle large volume of telephone request. Services like customer service, technical support, and help desk are being offered to customers. It is often operated through an extensive open workspace, with work stations that include a computer, a telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch. It uses variety of new technologies which would help them manage things. The marriage of computer and telecommunication technology makes the call center possible nowadays, reaching people in different parts of the world. ( Year 2000, the call center phenomenon in the Philippines started. It started as plain providers of response, and service management. It ranges from customer relations then to travel services to customer care to financial services to online business (customer and business support). The country is considered as one of the top English speaking countries of the world. Because call center industry mainly caters USA, Australia and Europe, agents are trained to neutralize their accent which is not hard enough for Filipinos because as former US colonized nation, we inherited the colonizers Education System. It uses English as the medium of teaching in different schools all over the country. Foreign companies don t need to spend a lot of money to train the agents in order for them to take on the floor. Another reason that makes the country attractive to many foreign call center companies is the cost of expenses. Good office spaces and quality of labor are cheaper compare to other English speaking countries. A study by the Swiss International Institute for Management Development in 2004 found that among Asian countries, the Philippines was the number one in the availability of the skilled labor. Moreover, the ease of training Filipinos to take over jobs requiring greater competencies and responsibilities was cited as another reason. Filipinos are known to be customer friendly people. It is within the culture to empathize customers which are in this case is really one of the good qualities to be an agent good thing, many Filipinos have it. According to the undersecretary for industry and investments, Gregorio Domingo, the Philippines produces 380,000 graduates annually. Many of these graduates consider a call center as an option. The researcher found out that many of the call center agents land on this kind of job because of the high salary and other great benefit that the industry has offered. An agent s basic salary is about 11,000 pesos-13,000 pesos per month which is much higher than the minimum wage of the other sectors in the Philippines which is only about 8,000 pesos monthly. Some call center companies offer some food and transportation allowance. Others give some 2

3 bonus to those hard working agents who perform well in their job. Aside from these, agents also receive benefits such as SSS, health insurance, Pag-ibig and even salary loans. Agents also have the chance to be promoted and get into the higher position in just a matter of two to three months from the day he is hired. Michelle (not her real name) a call center supervisor says that she s been working in a call center for 5 months. She started as an agent. The company trained her for a month to neutralize her accent and to know some technical aspect to prepare her to be a technical support agent. After a month of training, she started to engage calls. Two weeks after, she was promoted as floor walker. Floor walkers are people in the call center who manage the agents while they are in the production floor taking some calls. Floor walkers are important in the industry especially for those newly hired agents who need some assistance while engage on some calls. After one week of working as a floor walker, an opportunity knocked again. The company needs some supervisors. She then applied for the position and luckily got the job. In two months, she became a supervisor which means more salary and incentives. It is though these benefits that that attracts the industry to many Filipinos. Old and new graduates from different field of studies (back in college) are into the business education, engineering, film, accounting, management, advertising, mass communication, political science, economics, pre-law graduates, etc. All have similar reason the benefits. Local sector cannot compete with the benefits that call center companies are giving to their employees. The industry helps a lot in the Philippine economy. It reduces the number of unemployed Filipinos. They are unemployed not because they do not qualify but because there is no enough space for them in the corporate world. Many Filipinos get a job! It would only take one to two day two get hired in the industry. English proficiency is the most important factor for an applicant to get hired. Proficiency means to able to use English as a tool for communication. It doesn t mean that we have to talk like a native speaker. Call center industry does not only reduce the unemployment rate in the country. It also helps some establishment particularly those who are in the line of food services. Telecommunication Infrastructures are built in the city of Manila and in other places to accommodate the spaces demand of the foreign investors. It starts in 2000 and the number continues to grow. Food establishments start to open 24 hours a day to cater call center agents who work on night shifts. McDonalds and Jollibee, to mention a few. The government believes that the industry would pave us Filipinos) to a brighter future. Due to its massive expansion not just in Metro Manila but also to the other cities of the country, they then hope that the industry would be a bright spot in the country s ailing economy. President Arroyo said in her speech during the annual State of the Nation Address that the ICT is a key growth sector. They aim of placing the country in the call center map of the world thus 3

4 putting more than 96 special economic zones that offer tax breaks and other incentives to foreign investors (Ava Danlog of Bulalat) Due to the booming demand, the President instructs the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to speed up the creation of call center finishing school. She even instructs the Tesda Chairman to offer a scholarship program for call center school which would benefit lots of Filipinos. Many of the call center agents who work in top call centers in the country are graduates from the top Universities in the Philippines like UP, Ateneo and La Salle. Of course there are exceptions from other universities; there are students who can speak well in English. Ateneo and La Salle have students who use English in and outside the classroom as a medium for communication. These people are in the higher class of the Philippine society, people who can afford to pay more for their education. It is easy for them to enter the job since their English command is above average. These people normally land on the top call centers in the country like Convergys and PeopleSupport. These call centers screen applicants more than the others. In the Philippines, the ability to command English is a way of identifying your social status. Most people who belong to a higher social class speak English well. It is an advantage, not just in the Philippines to be in the higher class, people tend to look you up and pay some respect. Because of these, using the language is one way of getting some respect and attention. Albina Fernandez, a professor from the University of the Philippines said that it is her way of getting an attention especially when she goes to places such as the bank, department stores and some public markets. However, contrary to what many Filipinos believe, some call centers also accept applicants who are not that fluent in their English command. All they need is some confidence during the interview and the ability to communicate using the English language. They don t need to speak like most Atenista and La Sallites do. Because of this belief, others don t even want to try to have an interview because of the fear of rejection which would degrade their personality. Many people associate the ability to command English as a measure of intelligence and social class. English for most Filipinos (especially those in the lower class) it as a measure of intelligence. In relation to this, people who are working in a call center receive compliments from the people around them which boost their confidence. Annette, a graduate from the University of the Philippines and a call center supervisor said that people around her tend to praise her for being in the industry. She then says that ordinary people think that call center employees are smart which is not necessarily true. The report that only 3% out of 380,000 graduates annually are qualified is not accurate enough. Philippines produces 380,000 graduates annually but this doesn t mean that all graduates consider a call center job upon graduation. 4

5 There are several and different reasons why some people don t consider or do not land on a call center job even though it would make them unemployed or employed but with lesser salary that is not enough for their living expenses. Even though call centers are everywhere in the country, there are still many people who do not enter into the business. First reason is that, even though Philippines is considered an English speaking country, there are individuals who are not fluent in the language, and that makes them unqualified for the call center job which basically requires English proficiency. Since the country doesn t have enough establishments to cater all the jobless citizens, who are in the labor force, unemployment still exists and is one of it s major problems. The government is aware of the situation. This made President Arroyo to order TESDA to establish a call center finishing school. The government also instructs schools to enhance more the English skills of the students. (INQ7) Another reason is the lack of self confidence. As mentioned awhile ago, some call centers in the country doesn t need a fluent English speaker. They only need agents who can communicate and can relay the message to their customer on the other line. Some of the companies believe that the one month training could help improve the communication skills. In the case of Charisse, a graduate who really wants to land a job in a call center for her to support her family, but still working in a department store with a salary of 7,000 per month says that she is afraid because she is not that good enough in English conversation. Due to curiosity in this kind of job, I spent my summer 2006 applying as call center agent not because I wanted to land on a job but to know the recruitment process of different call centers in Manila which would determine if I am qualified as an agent. Being nervous was still there even though I had a different purpose from the other applicants. However, it was only during the few minutes of the process. It was not difficult as expected. Before my application, I heard that call centers really wanted an agent who could speak good English. The application process is divided into four stages; initial interview where human resource personnel just asked some questions base on the information that is in the resume, after that is the written exam about English grammar and vocabulary. Once an applicant passed the written examination, he can then proceed to the next stage which is the test of the English command. Situational questions are often asked for them to determine the applicant s capacity in handling stressful situation which is possible in the job. The last stage is actually what Charisse and other applicants are afraid of. Before the last stage, many of the applicants asked some of their friends who are already in the company about the possible situational questions that the interviewer would ask. This situation happened in all the application process that I had been with during the summer. Applicants tend to think for an answer of the possible questions that the interviewer would ask. Some even have the printed 5

6 copy of the questions together with their answers. They tend to memorize it while waiting for their turn. Charisse asked about the process not just once but many times. She s been telling me that she ll try to apply but until now, she still in her current job, a saleslady in department store in Makati. She didn t even try just for once. Charisse s fear of failing the interview is a proof that she s not confident at all. Like every individual, she is afraid of rejection. The third and still the cause of call center debate is that many graduates prefer to land on a job that is related to the four year or five year course that they took up in the university. Nowadays, it is very hard to land on a job that is in the field of studies with great compensation as call center companies give. Locally owned businesses cannot give salaries for new graduates as big as the call center agents could get. Dollar is way far from the Philippine currency. With increasing outsourcing, call center is a good way for employment not just for the newly graduates but also to the old graduates who want to earn more. A debate of whether this kind of job would enhance the value of the people who are in the industry is still on going. This is what many students particularly the students from the University of the Philippines are concerned about. Students in the university are trained to give importance to education. Education cannot only be acquired in school since it is a continuous process. And answering the phone, doing the same job day after day is not a good way of acquiring knowledge. According to Melvir Buela, an engineering student from the University of the Philippines, call center then is a good option for those students who want to work to support their studies or for those undergraduates who stop studying to earn enough money for their studies. But for graduates, he does not approve it (call center) to be a place for a job. But, there are only few call centers that hire students (Bulalat). They want their agents to be focused in their job. This is the reason that only few of the call centers in the country accept part-time agents who would only work for 4 hours a day. This means that call centers could not accommodate all students who want to finish their studies by supporting themselves to cope up with the increasing tuition fee and living expenses. The chairman of the congressional oversight committee on the Electronic Commerce Law, Senator Manuel Roxas urged call centers to hire part-timers (Erwin Lemuel Oliva of INQ7.net). President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said in her SONA that she believes that knowledge is the greatest creator of wealth in the global economy today. Does being an agent make you a knowledgeable individual? In the survey that I distributed to some call center agents, the first few months of the job taught them new things. Call center technical support agents learn a lot of things about computer as well as telecommunication technology. Aside from this, they also develop their English skills. But after few months of doing the same things, like answering the phone and answering the same questions from the customers in the other part of the world, 6

7 agents could get tired. Like every human, we tend to seek for new experiences, a kind of experience that would make you grow as a person. Current survey says that the average length a Filipino agent to stay in the industry is just two years. However, this is much longer compared to an American agent which is only in a matter of seven to eight months. This answers my next inquiry of whether call center agents consider their job as a career. Many of the agents consider the job as temporary. Only few of them consider it as a career. For those who view the job as temporary, they said that it is just their stepping stone towards their future. The money that they could get from the job is of great help while waiting for a job that is in line with their major. Joel, an agent in a call center in Ortigas, Pasig was asked about his field of expertise which the industry has helped him to realize/improve. He said that it helps him to be a good and effective liar. His answer really surprised me which lead to some follow-up questions. He and the other informant say that their job as agents focuses more on marketing research. They re aim is to get some information from different companies in the US. However, getting information from any company makes the job harder for them. Any company personnel on his good mind would not give the information easily. Agents would tell the personnel that they are from the government office. Jeraiza, an agent in the same company thinks that she had done all strategy of lying in just a matter of 4 months. A telemarketer from Makati also said that her job is not that easy. They are required to reach a certain number of sales everyday which gives her some pressure. Constant pressure at work leads to stress. Stress varies from different people. One person s cause of stress may not be stressful to the other. However, in a job were a person is pressured to do something, and in a job were you couldn t have enough sleep which is what call center is, people would really get stressed. According to Rebecca Stoll, an analyst for US research group Gartner, there are some concerns regarding the health of the agents especially those who are working on graveyard shifts. Since most of the industry cater USA, night shift is necessary. Filipinos are not used to this kind of practice. Sleeping during day time has different effect than sleeping on the night time which the body system is used to. On the other hand, agents are also subject to racial discrimination, and verbal abuse. What makes it worst is that, despite from these, agents are required stay calm. When you ll take a look on some call centers in the Philippines, you ll see groups of people smoking together in the lobby and even outside the building. Most of them if not all are call center employees. Most of the agents that I had encountered learn to smoke or if they already smoke before they got a job, they re smoking habit is more active than before. Smoking is unhealthy. It causes disease such as lung cancer and heart problem. In fact, smoking is banned in many public places. According to Neil Izenberg, Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine and the Editor-in-Chief and Founder of KidsHealth, one of the reasons why peoples smoke is their belief that smoking helps them relax which is actually the exact opposite of the truth. Smoking 7

8 makes the heart beats faster than the normal. The cultural difference between the company, agents and the customers is also a cause of problem. Accent neutralization and geography familiarity is not enough. And even though call center trainers would tell the agents about the culture of the people is not enough to make these two different people blend together. Individualist (USA) and Collectivists like the Philippines have different set of minds. Since Americans normally manage call centers, the approach is quite different. Persons are expected to act according to their interest; workers are expected to act as economic men (Geert Hofstede). Business is business. They don t encourage personal attachment. However, in a collectivist society like the Philippines, people expect the work place as a venue for new friendship. The relationship between the employee and employer is expected to be in moral term. But since in the case of call center, the employer is within the individualist culture, it goes without saying that their interest will be followed. They, the employers look their employee s individual work, when they see an employee whose work is not that good for them, it is easy for them to terminate. Some agents call their work as hire and fire it s either you do well in your job or got fired the next day, another reason why agents are more pressure. Attitude conflict between customers and agents is also due to its cultural differences. European Americans emphasize directness or confrontation (Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck). They tell what s on their mind no matter how painful it maybe to the other person. Unlike Asian culture who finds confrontation as catastrophic. To confront someone, may it be personal or through telephone is a harsh way and a sign of misconduct. Callers who are not satisfied with the agents service usually say what they think and feel on the service. Because Filipinos are not used to the kind of communication, agents most especially those who are new in the job would feel depress and consider such comment as something against them and not against the company. Going back to Agnes case, when she was promoted as supervisor, she s glad because aside from the higher salary and other great incentives, it also means that she will not handle calls anymore. Taking calls is stressful, that is why when I heard that a supervisor position is in need, I didn t hesitate to have a try. I had an agent in my team who left the job after a week in the production floor. The Philippines has been in many crises; political as well as economic. Government is trying to overcome this. It has been years that the country is suffering from economic crisis, unemployment, expensive cost of living, homeless people, street children, etc. Inviting investors particularly BPO investors are one of the solutions that they think is of help. The flocking of many graduates from different field of studies just means that there is no enough descent (related to their field) jobs being offered. Year after year, we hear a speech from our President telling us (the public) about the plan for the country. All is sum up into one broad word DEVELOPMENT. 8

9 Development maybe define as modernization. It is often associated with productivity which is measured through monetary currency. Our tendency to measure development/value through monetary terms is not new for us at all. In fact, money is what most of us work for. But many theoreticians and practitioners of development believe that material product is a wrong goal and measure (Jan Knippers Black). They believe that socioeconomic change is not a form of development not unless it is fulfilling to the individual. Our peso rises and the employment rate slows down. The country seems doing good in climbing to a ladder of success. And we cannot hide the fact that call center is one if not the only reason why this thing happens. But for individual person, is call center job means success? For most Filipinos, success is not measured by any monetary system. Measured of enhanced value must be in the quality of life, which not only includes the productivity and comforts (in terms of wealth) but of self-reliance (Knippers). Having a quality life means having time with the family, good interaction to society, and living in a healthy lifestyle. And call centers don t have all those things. It just offers the monetary fulfillment for most agents. Working during night time when everyone is asleep, and sleeping during day time when all members of the family are awake does not contribute towards a better relationship. Career is a matter of choice. And choosing a career means staying in the field and being stable. Through call centers, many Filipinos got a high paying job; many establishments were open to cater workers but on the other hand, there are lots of graduates working on a job that isn t on their line of expertise. We all have needs; food, shelter, clothes and water. In all these things, we all need money to acquire those. Money is the key for us to live. Without this, we won t be able to get what we want (physically). However, once this thing is already with us, we tend to look for something more. We tend t o question the essence of what we are doing. Is the job fulfilling? Fulfillment gives us the feeling of self importance. Some may find call center as a fulfilling job but for most agents, call center is just for people who are financially challenged. As Atom Araullo, a student leader from the University of the Philippines had said, government should not just focus on the call center growth. The government should find ways by all means in localizing industries that would generate a stable job for more than 31 million unemployed Filipinos. People are designed to do well in different fields. Government should find ways to provide us those fields. It is a sad reality for Filipinos. Our greatest export is labor and then today- call center industry is invading the country, giving no option to the graduates to land in their field of choice. What then is the purpose of going to university for four or five long years and get a degree if all we need is an English skill to land on a job that is available in the country? If we are not in the other countries working for survival, here we are, in a call center serving for 9

10 the other countries, suffering from pressure, stress, and sometimes discrimination. Call center industry has long way to go. As long as we can not create a new picture here, graduates would still continue to patronize the job. The Philippines would still be the favorite spots for foreign investors because of its cheap capital and labor. Students in different universities would still consider call center as an option after they graduate in the university. Filipinos English proficiency is a problem according to some call center companies which threatens the government. They are afraid that investors will find another place because of the possibility that the country can no longer handle the demand. But this problem is easier than creating new industries locally to provide jobs for the people. The government would definitely find a solution of this problem first than to build infrastructures and persuade investors to do business in the country other than call center. Government should not blame the education system for not qualifying into the call center job. Poor English command does not necessarily mean that the system is poor. English is not and would never be a way of measuring a person s intellect. It is just their (government) defense mechanism. They re blaming the schools for not producing English speaking graduates instead of asking themselves why there are lots of unemployed professionals. Filipinos are Filipinos! Tagalog is the language that most of the people are using. If they expect graduates to speak well in English as good as the first language, why not change the language at all. This action of the government just proves that foreign investors dominated the country in terms of its economic affair. If BPO and call centers didn t arrive here, where would be the 380,000 graduates per year would go? They may be part of the frustrated jobless in the country waiting for a miracle to happen, waiting for their parents to give them some allowance. Or lining up in the Department of Foreign Affairs to get their passport and go abroad (which would actually take time). Or be employed in an inconvenient place with salary that is just enough for food expenses. Now our country has no enough local industries that could provide the graduates the jobs that are in their field, we should still take customer service job a consideration. There is nothing to be ashamed of. All we could do as of now is to maximize things that we have in the present. This would not certainly mean that we are accepting the current circumstances. As what Atom Araullo says, we should always remember that we have the capacity to initiate positive changes for the future. We have the right to push our government. We are here for a purpose. We should not let our any single leader remain in their wishful thinking. References: 10

11 Books: Development in Theory and Practice, Bridging the Gap by: Jan Knippers Black Cultural Differences in Communication by: Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck Article: I, We, and They by: Geert Hofstede Online resources: Report on Business Process Outsourcing ( Stressbusting.co.uk Kidshealth.com INQ7.net Burlalat 11