Cebu Is Safe Haven For Bpo Growth

[Mr Lee]

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudaily...-for-BPO-growthCebu is safe haven for BPO growth Cebu Daily NewsFirst Posted 11:01:00 12/12/2008A MAJOR international real estate company has decided to open a full-service office in Cebu as part of its confidence in the investment potential of the metropolis for tourism and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).

[TheMason]

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudaily...-for-BPO-growthCebu is safe haven for BPO growth

I worked in the BPO industry for the past 10 years or so. Evaluating vendors and locations for the launch of the company's Philippines outsourcing efforts is what first brought me to the Philippines. Unfortunately, we did all our business meetings in in Manila and my area of the company decided to base operations there, so I never got to visit Cebu.The BPO industry is broken up into contact centers and non-customer facing business processes. The company I was with decided to base their call center (customer facing) jobs in the Manila area and the back office and chat/email customer contacts in Cebu. The primary reason for this was the difference between the Visayan and Tagalog accents. The Tagalog accent is easier on the American ear. All the focus groups we ran showed our customers had a more difficult time understanding Visayan natives. In addition, if there is a strong mother tongue influence (MTI) on an employee's spoken English it is much easier and quicker to mitigate the influence with Tagalog speakers. The Filipino accent, whether Tagalog or Visayan, won hands down over the Indian accent. The average Filipino is also much more in tune with American culture than the average Indian. Filipinos relate to American customers on the phone much better because they have a better understanding of where Americans are coming from and what they expect. That is why so many Indian companies are rushing to launch Philippines based offices. The Indian BPOs know that they can't compete with the RP when it comes to voice and language skills. On the other hand, the Indian companies are far cheaper than the RP and have a deeper talent pool to draw from, so I don't see one market suffering at the expense of the other any time soon.The only thing that concerns me about the future of the Philippines BPO industry is the ability to provide skilled workers. The education system here just doesn't produce enough appropriately skilled people that want the job. When I was involved with the hiring and staffing aspect of the business, we rejected 94% of the applicants. That is an astonishing number when you consider that you had to be a college graduate to apply. As in many other fields, the best and the brightest want to go OFW rather than work locally. Coupled with the difficult hours and high stress levels associated with BPO work it makes it difficult to staff quality people.

[Jollygoodfellow]

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudaily...-for-BPO-growthCebu is safe haven for BPO growth

I worked in the BPO industry for the past 10 years or so. Evaluating vendors and locations for the launch of the company's Philippines outsourcing efforts is what first brought me to the Philippines. Unfortunately, we did all our business meetings in in Manila and my area of the company decided to base operations there, so I never got to visit Cebu.The BPO industry is broken up into contact centers and non-customer facing business processes. The company I was with decided to base their call center (customer facing) jobs in the Manila area and the back office and chat/email customer contacts in Cebu. The primary reason for this was the difference between the Visayan and Tagalog accents. The Tagalog accent is easier on the American ear. All the focus groups we ran showed our customers had a more difficult time understanding Visayan natives. In addition, if there is a strong mother tongue influence (MTI) on an employee's spoken English it is much easier and quicker to mitigate the influence with Tagalog speakers. The Filipino accent, whether Tagalog or Visayan, won hands down over the Indian accent. The average Filipino is also much more in tune with American culture than the average Indian. Filipinos relate to American customers on the phone much better because they have a better understanding of where Americans are coming from and what they expect. That is why so many Indian companies are rushing to launch Philippines based offices. The Indian BPOs know that they can't compete with the RP when it comes to voice and language skills. On the other hand, the Indian companies are far cheaper than the RP and have a deeper talent pool to draw from, so I don't see one market suffering at the expense of the other any time soon.The only thing that concerns me about the future of the Philippines BPO industry is the ability to provide skilled workers. The education system here just doesn't produce enough appropriately skilled people that want the job. When I was involved with the hiring and staffing aspect of the business, we rejected 94% of the applicants. That is an astonishing number when you consider that you had to be a college graduate to apply. As in many other fields, the best and the brightest want to go OFW rather than work locally. Coupled with the difficult hours and high stress levels associated with BPO work it makes it difficult to staff quality people.

There have been times that I were answered from a call center in India, I find it hard to understand what they are saying even though its English. Makes sense that the best accents are required for calls made from western countries.Did your company offer training for those applicants that were rejected? seems to be the answer for ongoing employee sources. :th_unfair:

[TheMason]

There have been times that I were answered from a call center in India, I find it hard to understand what they are saying even though its English. Makes sense that the best accents are required for calls made from western countries.Did your company offer training for those applicants that were rejected? seems to be the answer for ongoing employee sources. :th_unfair:

We offered training in some cases, but not all. All voice agents received accent neutralization classes. If an employee did not meet spoken English requirements, but passed the deductive reasoning, technical knowlege, and other screening tests they would be offered a position handling chat and email contacts. They could retake the voice certification test every 6 months provided they were in good standing with the company. Agents were highly motivated to get certified for handling phone calls. The base pay is higher for voice agents and there were also sales commission opportunities for voice agents.They did not receive any organized voice training while handling chat and email contacts but almost all contact centers have 'English Only' zones. The only time employees are allowed to speak their native language is on breaks when they are away from the normal work area. The English only environment forces agents to practice their language skills. If the BPO company is diligent about maintaining the English only environment their agents improve or acquire voice sills much more quickly. There is also a strong correlation between written and spoken language skills. As their written skills improved, their voice skills almost always improved at the same time.I worked for the US client company, not the local BPO company. It was up to the BPO to locate enough qualified agents to handle the business called for in the contract. Ongoing training is a good idea, but it's a huge incremental expense for BPOs. Only the largest BPO companies will take the chance on this sort of investment. Companies like IBM, eTelecare, Wipro, and Convergys had the most willingness to invest in growing the talent pool. The smaller players tend to rely on poaching talent from the big companies.