Even the most successful business ever turned its
spotlight brighter than it used to be still has a
thing or two to improve.
The Philippine call center boom has been tagged
as one of Philippines’ key to economic growth,
and it has been proven by the apparent
generation of 100,000 jobs in the call center
industry today. Known to be the most proficient
in the English language in Asia, having the
closest affinity with the western culture,
having workers with perseverance toward work and
having the ability to deal with different
nationalities in a convincing way, and being on
the verge of being the best among all the
offshore destinations in the world, do you
believe that the Philippines, still, has a lot
to build up and improve when it comes to all
areas of the outsourcing industry?
Offshoring has been a big part of Philippines’
business industry.
In the past years,
Philippines has generated $1.7 billion worth of
offshore services to the Philippine economy as
well as to the world economy. Low employment cost
is the primary factor why Philippines became one
of the offshore destinations here in Asia.
According to surveys conducted by different
researchers, Philippines has the second-lowest
hourly salary for offshoring companies which is
only 13 percent of the wages being given in the
United States, while India ranked with the lowest
salary with 12 percent.
Despite the small population of 88 million of the
Philippines, it has comparatively a bigger
number of bands of workers suitable for
transnational companies that the population would
suggest. In the statistics rendered by the
researchers, for every 100 fresh college
graduates with economics and finance degrees from
the offshore destinations, executives of the
transnational companies said they would hire 30
in the Philippines versus with just 15 from
India; the equivalent statistics from other
researchers, correspondingly, were 25 of the
Philippines over just 10 of India and 20 over 15
on the other researches.
The Philippines as well
compares satisfactorily on the suitability of its
graduates of engineering for employment with the
multinationals – a precise strength for India.
However, a bigger percentage of the Philippines
population has earned a degree in college than of
India’s.
However, Philippiner crashes behind other competent offshore
destinations on five other criteria that
transnational companies look for when choosing an
offshore site. And an all the countries that has
been surveyed, the Philippines landed as the
nation with the weakest risk profile which
includes threats in security, unpredictable
natural calamities and stealing of data plus the
very few number of third-party salesmen. In
addition, the Philippines only allure just a
fraction of the interests India generates as a
competent domestic market for services.
The Philippines not very balanced business
surroundings experience and suffer meticulous
labor laws, continuous corruption of national
budget by sinister in the government, and a
surfeit system of government. It takes as much as
double the time in Malaysia and India consumed in
obtaining an approval to open a contact center in
the Philippines. Another disadvantage is a
scarcity of direct flights from the Philippines
to the far markets like the United States.
Another drawback is the scarcity of management
talent in the Philippines partially due to the
fact that the Philippines is still in the early
level of enhancing and developing the industry
and potential managers are still on the process
of being trained constantly. Moreover, it is
apparent that the Philippine economy is mostly
owned and managed by either small or medium-sized
companies that are often owned by well-known
families and don’t produce that much talent in
management. Actually, the Philippines has a huge
number of diaspora that could be competent
managers, but these emigrants tend to take
nonmanagerial jobs like contract workers or
nurses abroad, so they go back home without
suitable experience.
Although transnational companies see Philippines
as an ideal offshore destination, it will still
depend on the way they weigh and consider the
Philippines’ risk against its other advantages.
Indeed, Philippines though tagged as an
eye-catching destination for offshore
outsourcing, still has a lot to improve and
enhance to be more competent in the field of
outsourcing not just with how well the agents
speak, deal with the clients and persuade but
also by means of advanced infrastructure,
well-established labor law and peace stability
that will make the foreign companies comfortable
to build an offshore destination here.
