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| Reference Material |
| Filipino Call Center Agents Outclass Indians By Ernesto F. Herrera, General Secretary, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines January 26, 2006 Filipino call center employees work harder, are easier to train, have better language skills and are more devoted than their counterparts in India, according to a survey cited by the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP). Based on a survey by a global staffing firm and a market research outfit, TUCP general secretary and former Sen. Ernesto Herrera said transnational business process outsourcing (BPO) providers prefer Filipinos call center employees because of their superior work ethics and higher language skills. Herrera enumerated the findings of the survey: � Filipino employees average only eight days of sick leave each year, while Indian workers report sick for 15 days; � Filipino agents are also considered more loyal, spending an average of 19 months with their firms, while Indians spend only 11 months; � Filipino personnel need only 19 days to fully train, whereas Indian staff take 24 days to train, thus forcing employers to spend more money for training; and, � Filipinos have better language skills, with 64 percent of Filipino agents able to speak more than two languages, while only 40 percent of Indians have multilingual skills. Michigan-based Kelly Services Inc.* and Singapore-based ACA Research Inc.** conducted the survey. "There is no question our call center workers, mostly young women, are outsmarting and outperforming their Indian counterparts," Herrera said. "More important, the survey clearly shows that Filipinos are more cost-effective call center personnel. At the end of the day, worker productivity and overall cost-efficiency are the factors that matter most, in order for a labor-intensive, technology-enabled service operation to succeed financially," Herrera added. Herrera, meanwhile, said TUCP is endorsing initiatives to reinstate English as the medium of instruction in all school levels. "English proficiency is a core human resource competency that we have to strengthen if we are to attract more BPO providers, particularly call center operators that deal with the customers of large American firms," Herrera pointed out. "In order to stay competitive, it is absolutely imperative for us to reinforce the English skills of young Filipinos joining the labor force each year," he said Even citizens of highly developed and technologically advanced countries such as South Korea are "passionately studying English," according to Herrera. "In fact, thousands of young Koreans visit the Philippines to get either formal or informal crash courses in English. This is why South Korea is now our biggest source of foreign tourists," he added. India and the Philippines are fierce competitors in the global BPO market, particularly in call center operations. Earlier this week, Amsterdam-based ING Group N.V., a global financial services company that provides an array of banking, insurance and asset management services in over 50 countries, bared plans to establish a major back-office operation in Asia. The company said it would choose either India or the Philippines as the location. The local BPO industry, which currently employs 233,000 workers, is expected to generate 103,000 new jobs this year, mainly in call centers, according to a Business Processing Association of the Philippines forecast. The booming industry expects to generate $3.8 billion in revenues this year, 52 percent higher than last year�s revenues of $2.5 billion. By 2010, the industry is expected to fully employ some 1.2 million Filipinos and generate up to $12.4 billion in annual revenues.***** *Kelly Services Inc. is a Troy, Michigan-based Fortune 500 company that globally provides staffing solutions. **ACA Research Inc. is a full service market research agency that conducts a wide range of projects across a broad range of industries. |