DEFINITELY, the outsourcing industry was one of the hardest-hit business sectors in the country, and even in the whole world, amid the onslaught of the lingering Covid-19 pandemic.
Many of the business-process outsourcing (BPO) players in the Philippines were forced to improvise so as not to disrupt services to clients.
Most provided transportation to employees who will work onsite. Extensive coordination was done with concerned government Covid-19 response authorities to secure permits for employees so they can go out of their homes and work onsite.
Many even provided accommodations at nearby hotels or dormitories, or even inside company premises, complete with board and lodging, all at company expense.
But the work-from-home (WFH) concept came up, as long as employees can put up decent work areas—strong Internet connectivity, quiet surroundings—to ensure that service remains topnotch and will hit their productivity targets. Some companies even provided Internet and electricity allowance so that service continues.
Challenges, challenges and more challenges
ACCORDING to Albert Mitchell Locsin, president of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) and also first vice president and Enterprise Revenue Group head at PLDT Enterprise, the pandemic brought a lot of challenges to them. However, despite these upheavals, pandemic and all, the industry still grew by 2 percent in 2020.
“Finally, the WFH methodology was proven that indeed, it worked just as long as good Internet connectivity and working environment, and compliance by WFH agents to cybersecurity and data privacy is met. And in 2021, this WFH was proven further because we grew by 9 percent. Actually, a handful of the big players even grew by 14 percent,” Locsin said.
He said that if you average the numbers, starting from the small and medium enterprises, the mid-and big-tier BPOs, the industry grew by 9 percent last year. Despite the WFH setup, the information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) industry earned $29.5 billion in revenues last year, with 1.44 million full-time employees, and many are still hiring.
However, Locsin said their major challenge last year was the challenge posed by the government, which told BPO firms they will lose their incentives if they don’t go back to work onsite this year. A “hybrid” work setup was then floated as a compromise, where a percentage of workers will work onsite and some will go the WFH route.
A few months ago, the government, through the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB), told BPO companies to require their workers to return to on-site work by April 1, 2022, at the risk of losing their fiscal incentives. A deadline was given up to September 12, but the industry was granted a 70-30 setup, where 70 percent will work onsite and 30 percent on WFH arrangement.
“But the BPO industry is still looking at a lot of flexibility around that because it’s been proven to work where they still continue to receive their incentives, and that’s our new action items for this year with the new administration, and also for CCAP coming into a six-year roadmap, which is in the same timeline as a new six-year administration so we can measure it properly,” Locsin explained.
The roadmap, Locsin continues, will be launched during the Contact Islands, CCAP’s biggest one yet to be held in Boracay, from October 19 to 22, 2022. This will be the first time the event will be held on a face-to-face basis, and officials from the new administration were also invited so that they will see the roadmap first hand.
“One of the topics to be discussed is a study done by McKinsey on employee preference, which we hope the government can also hear because there is really this strong preference of working from home,” Locsin said.
He added that they will not just tackle the WFH issue, but also a lot of global macroeconomic issues like the Russia-Ukraine war, high fuel prices and transportation costs, and more. Locsin said that with the new administration, they are hoping to get more flexibility and finality, no deadlines and stick to a year or two-year type of engagement, whether 50-50, 60-40 so everybody can start complying and not waiting for a deadline to happen.
Locsin also exuded excitement and hope, and believes the new administration will be good to the industry, “but we just have to do a lot of work from our end to show some numbers.”
He said the government has to create that balance with real estate and retail, and showing some numbers, a country case or business case on the balance that will still benefit the retail and real-estate industry, and the BPO industry as a whole, he continued.
Employee morale with WFH
LOCSIN said they’ve been doing a top-level meeting with the country directors of 10 BPOs in the country for the past month and a half, sort of a brainstorming session.
They reported that attrition rates have gone up, mainly because employees will ask to be allowed to work from home and if not, will find another company that will allow them, adding also what he called an “unregistered” industry that’s also growing, yet untaxed: those that offer English “training” for other countries, and also the “virtual assistant,” a secretary assisting an executive.
“It’s affecting us now and contact-center agents prefer that because pay is higher and they are not taxed. But they haven’t really looked at the bigger picture, like they don’t have medical benefits. There are so many things around it that they don’t understand, but that’s also part of the attrition,” Locsin said.
Although a large portion wants to work from home, mainly because of concerns such as high transportation cost and commuting time, a small percentage of agents would like to work at the office. These are people who do not have good working conditions at home and fear they will not hit their service level agreements (SLA) when working at home.
High hopes
ACCORDING to Locsin, they have never grown this big and the WFH or probably the hybrid setup does work, but the question now, he continued, is this: will the new government provide the industry some flexibility and finality on how many percent will be allowed to work onsite and at home? “We’re glad they’re open to suggestions and they are asking for numbers, so that’s where the collaboration starts,” Locsin said, referring to the Marcos administration.
As for the planned lifting of the National State of Health Emergency, Locsin expressed caution on whether the country is indeed ready for a facemask-less society. “I believe wearing of face masks should still be retained. Cases are rising lately so probably give it a few more months, say, November or December, to assess it further. But it’s better to get finality as early as now rather than announcing it later in September and everybody is scrambling. That’s one of our goals, to be given time. The lift and shift of people, powering up the offices, will take time for the BPOs,” he concluded.
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