Agent shortage hits call centers

29.08.2005
Von Lawrence Casiraya

As the market matures, Philippines call center industry is now shifting its efforts from promoting the country abroad to ensuring it produces enough highly-skilled agents.

The Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), an industry group composed of some 30 companies providing call center and other outsourced services, is shifting its focus this year from promotion to human resources.

CCAP was formed around four years ago and has kept itself busy in the past promoting the country in trade shows abroad. But as the local call center industry continues to grow rapidly, the organization is trying to address the oft-repeated need to produce enough skilled workers.

?The issue now is labor supply,? Raffy David, CCAP director, stressed in an interview during last week? s CCAP Expo and Conference.

According to David, the contact center industry currently employs around 75,000 workers, from around 20,000 last year. He said the industry would need 75,000 more workers this year alone, which just proves how large the demand is for outsourced services.

Aside from a lack of skilled workers, call centers also deal with a high attrition rate among agents. On the contrary, David noted that call centers are not losing agents to other industries; rather, agents seek new opportunities in other call centers.

An agreement is currently being worked on among CCAP members not to deliberately ?poach? agents from each other. ?From a corporate standpoint, this means a member company cannot pirate agents from other companies,? David said.

Skills matching

CCAP is also embarking on a nationwide skills assessment program designed to provide its members with workers that are not only English-proficient, but whose skills are exactly appropriate for the type of accounts they can handle.

?An applicant can be fluent in English but his or her skills and even personality may not be adequate for an outbound sales position,? David explained.

CCAP is currently looking at ?assessment software? from three solution providers, namely, Icarus Inc., TeleDevelopment, and Careers Universe, which has provided similar solutions to India? s National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM). Essentially, what CCAP intends to do is organize exams which applicants can take, and then create a database of those who passed. The database can be accessed by member companies.

David said the organization is still exploring how to deliver these exams although he noted that applicants can take the exams online. ?What we envision is a system that can give the applicant recommendations on which areas they can improve on,? he said.

Target EU

CCAP? s shift in focus also extends to the industry?s target market. David said CCAP, as a group, will be actively targeting the E.U. countries in the next few months. CCAP sent a contingent to Outsource World London held last June.

Although lagging behind the U.S. in terms of outsourcing as a practice, David said E.U. countries are now realizing the value of outsourcing because of economic pressure from China and the U.S.

?The E.U. is composed of 26 countries, each with its own standards like accounting, for example, and culture,? he said. ?We need to study each country in order to know their respective requirements.?