Philippines "favored" for Call Centers
MANILA – If the recent Pacquiao-Morales war was seen by some as a one-on-one between the Philippines and Mexico, then the ongoing battle for call center jobs is also some kind of showdown, this time between India and our homeland.
The good news is the country that produced Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao is also winning this face-off in a big way.
A survey by global staffing firm Kelly Services, Inc., a Troy, Michigan-based Fortune 500 company, shows that the Philippines has been grabbing a growing share of call center jobs from traditional provider India.
India is no longer the first choice for U.S. companies looking to set up some of their backroom operations abroad. More and more, they are eyeing the Philippines as the better site because Filipinos are proving to be better workers.
Filipinos, according to the study, are superior to their Indian counterparts in three areas:
* They are “healthier” as the average Filipino call center worker only uses eight days of sick leave per year, compared to 15 days for Indians;
* They are more loyal to their employers, as Filipino call center workers spend an average of 19 months with their firms, as compared to only 11 months for their Indian counterparts; and,
* They have better language skills, with 64 percent of Filipino call center agents able to speak more than two languages, whereas only 40 percent of Indians have multilingual skills.
“Our call center workers, mostly young women, are outsmarting and outperforming their Indian counterparts,” according to Trade Union Congress of the Philippines secretary-general and former senator Ernesto Herrera. The TUCP is the country’s largest labor organization.
The Kelly Services study was done in partnership with Singapore-based ACA Research, Inc., a market research agency.
The study also found that Filipinos take less time to train, meaning foreign-based employers have to spend less for training.
“The survey clearly shows that Filipinos are more cost-effective call center personnel,” said Herrera, “At the end of the day, worker productivity and overall cost-efficiency are the factors that matter most, in order for a labor-intensive, technology-enabled service operation to succeed financially.”
In an earlier interview with Philippine News, Damian Domingo Mapa, head of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), confirmed that the Philippines was grabbing market share from India, due to other unquantifiables.
“Generally, Filipinos’ spoken English is better understood by Americans,” he said.
It is the CICT’s job to unify all government agencies involved in IT and offer incentives to companies involved in call center operations.
Forecast: more than one million jobs by 2010
Both Herrera and Mapa cited a forecast by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines that by 2010, more than a million Filipinos would be employed in the call center industry, generating more than $12 billion in revenues.
At present, there are an estimated 130,000 call center jobs in the country.
Already, call centers are moving out of the Makati Central Business District, to such areas as Alabang and Ortigas, said Mapa. Some are even locating in Cebu, and looking at Davao.
Just how successful is the Philippines in grabbing jobs away from Indian companies?
A recent Asia Wall St. Journal article said that Indian call centers had started to veer away from that part of operations where a local had to take incoming – or in some cases, outgoing – calls, in favor of technical support.
Indians, it must be noted, are schooled in the “British” style of English, as against Filipinos who are more well-versed in the American or international style of English.
(“It’s the only kind of English!” the Indians insist. “It came from England!”)
Formally known as transnational business process outsourcing, call center jobs involve locals answering incoming calls from the clients of foreign-based companies. The U.S. is the biggest source of call center jobs for India and the Philippines, although there has been a growing trend for other countries to farm out such jobs elsewhere.
Of late, Japanese, Arab and Chinese companies have been taking their first steps with outsourcing, the hitch being their use of their own languages rather than the international language of English.
If the forecast of one million call center jobs by 2010 is realized, this would mean that one out of every 100 Filipinos would be employed in the industry. More importantly, this would translate to greater economic stability, which in turn would spell political stability.
While pitifully small by American standards, the average pay of $250 to $300 a month for a call center agent – who comprises the bulk of call center workers – is considered more than decent by present Philippine standards.
The per capita income in the Philippines is still below $1,000 per annum, although this was once breached in the mid-‘90s.
Meanwhile, the TUCP is endorsing the reinstatement of English as the medium of instruction in all school levels.
The good news is the country that produced Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao is also winning this face-off in a big way.
A survey by global staffing firm Kelly Services, Inc., a Troy, Michigan-based Fortune 500 company, shows that the Philippines has been grabbing a growing share of call center jobs from traditional provider India.
India is no longer the first choice for U.S. companies looking to set up some of their backroom operations abroad. More and more, they are eyeing the Philippines as the better site because Filipinos are proving to be better workers.
Filipinos, according to the study, are superior to their Indian counterparts in three areas:
* They are “healthier” as the average Filipino call center worker only uses eight days of sick leave per year, compared to 15 days for Indians;
* They are more loyal to their employers, as Filipino call center workers spend an average of 19 months with their firms, as compared to only 11 months for their Indian counterparts; and,
* They have better language skills, with 64 percent of Filipino call center agents able to speak more than two languages, whereas only 40 percent of Indians have multilingual skills.
“Our call center workers, mostly young women, are outsmarting and outperforming their Indian counterparts,” according to Trade Union Congress of the Philippines secretary-general and former senator Ernesto Herrera. The TUCP is the country’s largest labor organization.
The Kelly Services study was done in partnership with Singapore-based ACA Research, Inc., a market research agency.
The study also found that Filipinos take less time to train, meaning foreign-based employers have to spend less for training.
“The survey clearly shows that Filipinos are more cost-effective call center personnel,” said Herrera, “At the end of the day, worker productivity and overall cost-efficiency are the factors that matter most, in order for a labor-intensive, technology-enabled service operation to succeed financially.”
In an earlier interview with Philippine News, Damian Domingo Mapa, head of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), confirmed that the Philippines was grabbing market share from India, due to other unquantifiables.
“Generally, Filipinos’ spoken English is better understood by Americans,” he said.
It is the CICT’s job to unify all government agencies involved in IT and offer incentives to companies involved in call center operations.
Forecast: more than one million jobs by 2010
Both Herrera and Mapa cited a forecast by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines that by 2010, more than a million Filipinos would be employed in the call center industry, generating more than $12 billion in revenues.
At present, there are an estimated 130,000 call center jobs in the country.
Already, call centers are moving out of the Makati Central Business District, to such areas as Alabang and Ortigas, said Mapa. Some are even locating in Cebu, and looking at Davao.
Just how successful is the Philippines in grabbing jobs away from Indian companies?
A recent Asia Wall St. Journal article said that Indian call centers had started to veer away from that part of operations where a local had to take incoming – or in some cases, outgoing – calls, in favor of technical support.
Indians, it must be noted, are schooled in the “British” style of English, as against Filipinos who are more well-versed in the American or international style of English.
(“It’s the only kind of English!” the Indians insist. “It came from England!”)
Formally known as transnational business process outsourcing, call center jobs involve locals answering incoming calls from the clients of foreign-based companies. The U.S. is the biggest source of call center jobs for India and the Philippines, although there has been a growing trend for other countries to farm out such jobs elsewhere.
Of late, Japanese, Arab and Chinese companies have been taking their first steps with outsourcing, the hitch being their use of their own languages rather than the international language of English.
If the forecast of one million call center jobs by 2010 is realized, this would mean that one out of every 100 Filipinos would be employed in the industry. More importantly, this would translate to greater economic stability, which in turn would spell political stability.
While pitifully small by American standards, the average pay of $250 to $300 a month for a call center agent – who comprises the bulk of call center workers – is considered more than decent by present Philippine standards.
The per capita income in the Philippines is still below $1,000 per annum, although this was once breached in the mid-‘90s.
Meanwhile, the TUCP is endorsing the reinstatement of English as the medium of instruction in all school levels.
posted by Lou D at 12:39 AM
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