PSE urges BPOs to make workers as stockholders

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies, especially the call centers, can curtail the problem on speedy turnover if they allow their employees to own stocks of the company they are working for.

This is a suggestion made by Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) vice president and head for capital market development division Melchor C. Guerrero during his recent visit in Cebu.

Guerrero said employers especially the BPO operators can encourage a strong loyalty within the company, if they (employees) were to be given attractive incentives such as owning a company's shares of stocks.

The way to keep good people nowadays is to give them ownership privilege of the company they are working for, he stressed.

In this way, employees are motivated to work harder, and stay longer with the company, as they are one of the stockholders.

Aside from the problem on scarce qualified call center agents, BPOs in the Philippines are also suffering from the fast turnover rate of manpower. Some are jumping from one company to the other, while good number is getting employment abroad.

Because of this, Guerrero urged companies, especially BPOs to be listed in the stock exchange, and let the public, significantly the employees to invest in the company.

PSE, together with the First Metro Investment Corporation (FAMI), an investment banking arm of Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company (Metrobank), have jointly held a "Cebu Stock Market Roadshow" recently, at the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel.

According to Guerrero, stock offering for employees is now one of the more effective ways to sustain human resource pool, not only for call center or BPO firms, but also for other sectors.

On the other hand, a BPO firm had already announced similar initiative in order to tie their employees to stay in long term duration through giving out mutual fund investment incentive.

Calltek Center Int'l,. Inc. invested about P800,000 early this year, to introduce an investment or saving culture to its employees through mutual funds.

Calltek Center is the first company in Cebu to provide a performance bonus to employees via investment or mutual fund savings.

Calltek Center has inked a deal with PhilAm Asset Management Inc. (PAMI) to manage the small-ticket investment for its employees.

PAMI is a fund management company that manages the Philam Family of funds. By providing a wide array of Mutual Fund choices to investors, PAMI creates investment solutions capable of meeting investment goals within acceptable risk standards.

Mutual fund investment is one of the popular investment instruments in developed countries like United States, Europe, among others. In the Philippines, although this instrument had been there for a long time now, the mainstream market still has to appreciate this high yielding investment channel.