The Philippines will be more competitive in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry if Manila will support the work-from-home (WFH) scheme, according to the chief executive of Concentrix Philippines.
Concentrix President and CEO Chris Caldwell said he is optimistic that the Philippine government is now more receptive to WFH as a main setup for the Filipino workforce.
“The Philippine government must seriously consider the implementation of WFH to be able to compete aggressively on a global scale,” Caldwell told reporters in an interview last Thursday, following the simultaneous launch of its sites nationwide.
“We have a feeling the different secretaries of the different departments are working together to solve this problem before September 12.”
Caldwell said India, Latin America and Central America–where lockdowns were imposed—have achieved exponential growth during the pandemic. “In fact, India is aggressively supporting WFH.”
He said the country’s BPO industry will still achieve growth even if it adopts either a hybrid or a 100 percent onsite setup.
“The industry will grow but not as much as expected,” Caldwell said. “As an industry, you need to be competitive to employ more people.”
He said improvements in the broadband connectivity by local telecom companies has enabled the staff of Concentrix and other BPO firms to be productive in the WFH notwithstanding the challenge posed by the Covid-19. Moreover, a lot of BPO workers said the horrendous traffic situation in Metro Manila is a major drawback to reverting to the onsite arrangement.
Caldwell noted the Philippines has a lot of potential in the BPO industry. He said Concentrix plans to bring “complex” jobs to the Philippines, such as data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence as long as there are a substantial pool of skilled workers, strong intellectual property policies and consistent business regulations and policies.
He said Concentrix’s expansion has boosted the company’s position as the Philippines’s largest private employer with approximately 100,000 staff, and brings the company’s total sites in the Philippines to 50. Its brick-and-mortar operations are currently in 20 cities.
