Flight to quality

When Convergys Phils recently held a two-day in-house job fair, about 500 walk-in applicants showed up each day.

"We’re the mainstay name. Only companies which have grown over a period of time can offer career development," said John Freker, president of the Customer Management Group of Ohio-based Convergys Corp. "Seventy percent of management in our Philippine operations started out at entry level. We have a 100% Filipino workforce here."

Those who make the cut-off undergo three week of in-house training, which focuses on getting the right American accent and on understanding why Americans behave the way they do.

"With Filipinos, we concentrate on the accent rather than on the culture. Filipinos are also generally very customer-oriented but need further training in other skills and motivation such as how to be more assertive," said Freker.

Since August this year, Convergys Phils. has opened three call centers, each center requiring an investment estimated at between $7 million and $10 million. From an initial workforce of 500, the company expects to hire an additional 2,500 in the near term or the equivalent of 1,500 work stations operating two shifts.

In comparison, the company started its Indian operation last year with five call centers, employing 300 workers. Today, the Indian operation has a workforce of 5,000.

Big Picture

Based on Yankee Group Research data, the call center industry is currently valued at $180 billion and is expected to grow at an annual rate of 12.3% worldwide.

Only 10% of the US business is outsourced outside the United States. Of this total, the Philippines hopes to get 15% of total call center investments in the region, largely due to two factors:

• a skilled English-speaking labor force with a 94% literacy rate, which has a US-patterned education system and has a customer service orientation; and

• one of the world’s lowest telecom connectivity rates at about $7,000 per E1 2MB international private leased circuit.

Right now, the Department of Trade and Industry places the number of call centers in the country at 200, all of which are provided the standard tax incentives by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

"We are the largest outsourced contact center provider in the world and the global leader in integrated billing, employee care, and customer care service," said Freker. "Through our web-enabled multi-channel contact centers, we offer a wide range of state-of-the-art speech solutions–everything from telephone response to advanced services such as automated response and interactive chat."

Last year, Convergys generated revenues of $2.3 billion, 53% higher than the figure in 1998 (its first year as a merged company). In the coming years, the company expects to generate 30% of its revenues outside the United States.

"We have about 400 clients. We have top clients who have been with us for nine years (before the merger of two US companies), an indication of our long-term commitment to the business," said Freker. "By using our services, our clients have been able to bring down their costs by 50%. If they include the cost of putting up the infrastructure, their savings can go up as high as 75%."

For the last three years, Convergys has been included among Fortune magazine’s "Most Admired Companies". It is also a member of Forbes magazine’s Platinum 400 and Standard & Poor’s 500.

Future

Because it sees its employees as the raw materials of its business, Convergys makes sure that its entry level salary is fairly big.

"We see a flight to quality because we offer more than just a job. Employees can migrate to other centers locally or globally where we have a presence in 23 countries. We have a philosophy of promoting from within. We will search externally only when the talent is not available within the organization," said Freker.

To that, Convergys Phils. country manager Marife Zamora cannot help but nod in agreement.