BPO sector to hire more employees - survey

MANILA, Philippines - More employees will be hired by the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry despite the slowdown in the global economy, based on a survey conducted by the Business Process Association of the Philippines. 

The survey showed that 49 percent of the companies said they will be increasing their work force by 11 percent to 200 percent while 51 percent said they will expand the number of employees by at least 10 percent.

On the other hand, a mere six percent said they will be downsizing the size of their workforce for this year.

BPAP CEO Oscar Sañez explained that the results suggest that whatever impact the global financial crisis is having on the industry, it doesn’t seem to affect their expansion plans. 

“It’s encouraging that although the industry has been growing rapidly for several years, almost 40 percent of the respondents indicated that their firms will still grow between 16 percent and 200 percent this year,” he said.

Meanwhile, 83 percent of the respondents said the global economic crisis has had at least some impact on their firms

Introducing new services was the most prevalent response to the global financial crisis, with almost 60 percent of respondents indicating that their firms have expanded their service offerings.

Only two percent of respondents indicated that they have reduced the number of services they offer clients while more respondents or 33 percent said they are accelerating their expansion than the 26 percent who said they are postponing expansion.

Recent developments in the industry support the results of the survey. StarTek, a mid-size value-added BPO announced that it is ramping up its Makati facility to full capacity to meet expanding demand for complex services.

Convergys opened three new call centers in Cebu, Santa Rosa, and Quezon City in April which will provide almost 3,000 new jobs and increase the company’s headcount to 16,000 in the Philippines.

Miguel Garcia, CEO of industry supplier DTSI and a member of the BPAP board, forecasts that the Philippine BPO industry will grow overall by about 20 percent this year.

The survey did provide some signs of concern. It said that more respondents or 36 percent, indicated that their firms are decreasing their capital investments rather than increase their capital spending.

The impact of the crisis is being felt primarily in demand according to 66 percent of respondents, but the large number of respondents whose firms have introduced new services suggests that an interesting shift in the kind of services desired by clients is taking place.

The suggestion that a shift in the kinds of services provided by the industry is supported by the large number of respondents that say their firms are providing high or very high value-added services, according to Frank Holz, CEO of Outsource2Philippines (O2P).

“The fact that 69 percent of respondents said their firms are providing high and very high value-added services is actually staggering,” Holz said. This means that the industry is providing much more complex services overall than it did in the early years of its development.”

The survey was conducted online by BPA/P and O2P. It was in the field from March 31 to April 29. Invitations were sent to 571 BPO executives and 160 completed the survey, providing a 28 percent response rate.