BPO

 

The Business Process Outsourcing Industry

– The Sojourn We Hate To Love

-by Ronnie R. Reyes

When the pandemic curse hit last March 2020, everyone was hopeful it would end in a happy note. Two things: It has not ended yet and sorrow was the ‘key’ substance in all households and business entities. Everywhere, the uproar was (and still is) against this ‘silent-killer’, ‘sanity-taker’, ‘household-wrecker’ and ‘business-headache’.

The Pandemic

The last known recorded pandemic was the H1N1 virus or as the newspapers dubbed it at that time ‘The Spanish Flu’. Although, Spain has nothing to do with this pandemic early on the onset of the 20^th century, the moniker stuck and is call as such, just to come up with the name. Spain, at that time, has no censorship on any level of information. It was actually believed that, the ‘virus’ emanated from China. Depending on the source you are reading from, a second version of the story says, the ‘virus’ was carried by soldiers coming from the World War I in ships, which they spend considerable time to travel to going home. In any case, it took more than three years to quell the virus to a grinding halt and made the appropriate vaccine for it. And it took a further five years to completely eradicate this ‘virus’. One factor that aggravated the situation was the lack of communication platform during those tumultuous times. People would rely heavily on the newspaper and ‘words of mouth’, so to speak. Another compounding factor, that contributed to the spread of this virus, was the lack of medical facility and the people’s basic ‘know-how’ on how to combat such magnanimous feat. It was well into the first year, when most people knew what was even happening to them, much less, knew what to do or not to do. Overall, this world-wide killer claimed one-third of the population of the people (not to mention the domesticated, wild and farm animals directly and indirectly affected by this virus) at that time (1918) or 50 million. 700,000 from it came from USA alone.

Local Employment/Businesses

Locally, many businesses, especially the SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) were the most affected. The conglomerates and established businesses all received but a small chink in their armor. The ambulant vendors were directly hit by this happenstance; especially their meager income is virtually a ‘hand-in-mouth’ situation. Savings were relinquished, investments were withdrawn nonchalantly, and debts were foregone, in other words ‘financial meltdown’ is in our midst. Having witnessed many tragedies before and at times lived it, Filipinos’ have instinctive zealousness coupled with an uncanny ability to get back from the dead and display resiliency. With many not believing the virus, and to some extent, considered it as a hoax, the Philippine populace is nonetheless affected by this pandemic, health-wise and finance-wise. One aspect of the economy that is gravely affected is the tourism. With all intents and purpose, this was the first business that was hit hard the most. Some other business cluster followed suit afterwards. Eller Obias, A Filipino Entertainer Host/Fun Squad at Carnival Cruise Line, an international cruise ship, have this to tell after the pandemic hit the news. “We were all told to go home first and will be called upon as soon as tourism resumes. With no guests to serve and entertain, we'll all have our thumbs in our mouth and do nothing if we stay”, laments Eller. The cruise ship that Eller works for cruised along the South America route and is the best cruise company in the world. “So I went home in the Philippines, and practically wait for a miracle”, muses Eller. Being a devout Christian is one thing, but being practical is another, so thought Eller. Since, Eller’s savings are waning down and bills are mounting up by the minute, this 30-year old single Bulakeño native, considered BPO as an alternative work and billeted himself on it. Not being worried for himself on being discriminated due to his sexual preference and gender orientation, he went on to work with a US-based Telecommunication company, as an off-shore agent. “It was a rewarding experience, considering I get to use my communication skill, which I use extensively during my stay in the cruise ships, I get to meet a lot of people and get to know them from all  walks of life”, says Eller. (Side note: Eller could actually mimic an African/American lady with a dab of Southern accent to boot. Which is why, he was asked once too many to pose as one in as many 'mock call' as possible during his stay in this BPO company.)

The BPO Industry

The BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry started way back in 1992 in the Philippines. At that time, it was considered a minority in the business world. Not known to many, this dark horse will have 15% of the global BPO market here in the Philippines alone. Conservative estimates show that by 2022, this continuously blooming business would have earned $60.0 Billion. And that is only in the Philippines. The BPO industry may well be the coup de grace, for the Philippines. What started as a modest number of BPO in the Philippines at 40 last 1992, it has ballooned significantly by 700 as of this year.  There are many types of BPO services, namely Technical Support, Service Desk Analyst, Data Entry, Customer Support, Marketing, Sales and many more.

The industry is supported by the government. Because of the BPO's impact on the country's economy, the industry receives great support from the government, providing perks such as tax holidays and exemptions, among many others. One great example of this relationship is the creation of the Data Privacy Act. Filipinos have top notch communication skills and are skilled on a myriad of industries. We provide high-quality services such as voice, non-voice, and back office to a great number of verticals, encouraging more businesses to explore outsourcing opportunities in the country. Additionally, we have a wide knowledge of Western culture, giving us an edge on providing efficient and effective services.

There are two types of Business Process Outsourcing; the onshore account and the offshore account. When one is working in the Philippines, and the origin of the business is located in United States of America, that means the type of account is an offshore account. An offshore account happens when the 'mother' company hires a local company to fulfill certain work requirements. One example is company based in the United States outsourcing to the Philippines. Ergo, when PLDT hires a call center agent, this accounts is automatically an onshore account because, the origin of business is here in the Philippines. Outsourcing will ultimately reduce costs of operation, because the onshore company no longer needs to pay in-house employees to handle the business processing tasks. In addition, the outsourcing company is responsible for any maintenance and upkeep expenses that go along with these business processes.  It is more efficient, improves vendor relationships, security is heightened and will experience better coverage.

The local BPO industry, requires skilled communications skill, and in some accounts advanced communication skills is actually required. There are also, non-voice agents that are required by the company. On these occasions, exceptional writing skills and an aptly speed in typing is required. One very good thing about this industry is that, it does not discriminate the agents’ religion, age, ethnicity and sexual orientation/preferences. As Eller Obias’ experience eloquently puts it, his experience is exceptionally nice. “After working for that company for five months, I ventured into a different account, which is an HMO account. I stayed there for another 5 months and transferred again to a Telecommunication account, not to my liking though, the company that hired me felt that a transition is in order”, chuckles Eller.

The Philippines having been a Catholic country after being colonized by the Spaniards more than 350 years ago has traditions and established cliché when it comes to being a devout and religious. One company I used to work for, requires a ‘novena’ to be recited every start of our shift and a canonical prayer at the end of the shift. The same company would not accept employees with ties to Islam. In the BPO industry, there is an air of animosity whenever these topics are touched. That is why, on almost BPO offices, expressly relayed to all employees to refrain from asking one’s race, age, religion and sexual orientation. Not unless the employee is a willing participant on this conversation. Hence, one is not cognitively obliged to answer any queries pertaining to this sensitive topic.

Most companies would hire ‘new’ employee not older than 28 years old. But all of these factors are a considered a non-relevant for the BPO industry. For as long as long one will meet the education requirements (which is usually high school graduate), you are a shoe-in for the BPO industry. Also, there are quite a number of accounts that you could work under the ‘work from home’ setup. That is why; the BPO is considered today a ‘go-to’ sector in the employment sector.

(As of this writing, Eller has since reported back to his old duty as an Entertainment Host for this cruise line, and as of late has been assigned on Pier Duty in Belize to welcome guests and guide them aboard altogether, of course, which much fanfare as he could possible apply. Way to go Eller).