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can get a job overseas by computer
( by Don A. Herrington )
Call Centers:
Boon or Bane for New Graduates?
With the country "high
unemployment rate, new graduates and
other new entrants to the labor force
are grateful for the presence of call
centers which take in thousands of them
every week, regardless of the course
taken. Concerned voices however raise
the issue of government molding the
education system to churn out graduates
suited to the needs of the call center
industry. By: AVA DANLOG Bulatlat
Under the subject Advanced Communication
for International Business or Comm 400
in the University of the East in Manila,
students are taught marketing, finance
and public speaking. Topics such as
English proficiency and American
geography are tackled.
Call center representatives
Lara (not her real name), a graduating
engineering student, is taking such a
subject. Although completely unrelated
to her course, she took up the
communications course as an elective to
equip her with the skills needed for
employment after graduation.
Ironically, Lara knows she would most
likely end up not practicing her chosen
profession. She plans to apply as a call
center agent in Makati right after
graduation. Doubting she will even pass
the licensure exams, she knows it would
be difficult for her to compete for the
few decent job openings available to
inexperienced engineering graduates like
her. In addition, she "more than happy
with the comparatively high basic salary
offered in the call center industry.
"Mecca" for new graduates
Alarmingly, more and more graduating
students are looking at call centers as
an option for employment. Regardless of
degree taken, thousands of fresh and old
graduates are hired by the call center
industry every week.
A call center is a communications-based
company which serves as a support system
for larger companies in first world
countries like the United States. Call
or contact centers handle customer
complaints and inquiries and provide
technical support for a wide array of
products and services like electronics,
e-mail management, mortgage, insurance,
advertising, telecommunications and even
volunteer and charity work.
Basically, the work is to receive from
and make calls to foreign countries.
There are two categories of call
centers: inbound and outbound calls. And
there are three types of accounts:
telemarketing, customer service and
technical support. Telemarketing belongs
to the inbound category. However,
customer service centers also engage in
up selling, which means offering or
selling services.
Debts and the need to lower cost
structures caused by a troubled stock
market, unstable economic conditions and
declining expenditure on Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) have
made off shoring appealing to U.S.
companies. ICT advances have enabled
multinational and transnational
corporations to decentralize certain
operational areas like the handling of
inbound and outbound calls.
Years ago, the Philippines was unknown
in the provision of e-services in the
world. However, the improving technology
and the deregulation of the
telecommunications industry in the
country during the mid-1990s paved the
way for the launching of the call center
industry. The Department of Trade and
Industry lists at least 37 call center
companies in the country and the number
is growing. Major players include
Converges, People Support and Aftercare.
The Filipinos' Edge
Since the industry mainly caters to
markets from the United States, United
Kingdom and Australia, call center
agents are obliged to acquire the
foreign accent and study the geography
and cultural mores of these foreign
countries and work on a graveyard shift.
Being the third largest English speaking
country in the world and with a high
literacy rate, the Philippines is
considered as one of the most
competitive call center destinations in
the world.
Other factors that make the country
attractive to foreign companies are the
cheap class A office spaces, better
power and telecommunications
infrastructure, good quality but cheap
labor force and the support the
government is all too willing to extend
to these foreign investors.
Graduates and even undergraduates who
pass the preliminary exams undergo a
six-day English skills training and
product training for three weeks. After
which the agent trainee will be placed
on the floor to attend to mock calls for
assessment. Agents are supposed to be
able to type at least 25 words per
minute.
The basic pay for call center agents
ranges from P11,000 (US$200.98 at
US$1=PhP54.73) to P13,000 a month. In
ICT Philippines, a call center that
operates in the Philippines, agents
enjoy a monthly P2,500 food and
transportation allowance and a
performance appraisal bonus amounting to
P4,000. Often, they are also offered
spiffs like appliances, cellular phone
loads and gift checks to boost the sales
per hour capacity of the employees. For
example, whoever first gets five sales
per hour for the night wins a prize. And
an agent who hits the target quota sales
gets an additional P11,500 commission
plus a 30-50 percent night differential.
All in all, a well-performing agent gets
a gross monthly income of more than
P31,000. This, as opposed to the P8,000
entry level salary generally offered in
other sectors.
Yet, these are not all. Call center
agents receive benefits like SSS, health
insurance, Pag-ibig and salary loans. It
is not a dead-end job either. Agents get
the chance to climb the corporate ladder
in just a matter of three months. Some
call centers offer perks like free
shuttle rides, free meals and coffee and
sleeping rooms and even karaoke rooms.
Most people find the job easy. According
to Wing, a Philosophy graduate and who
has been working for a call center
selling mortgage services in Ortega's for
14 months now, I find the job easy. When
I go home, I go home. I don't have any
paperwork. When I'm in the office, I
work my brains out because I'm already a
team leader. But when I get home, I'm
home. I don't have anything else to do.
"Sunshine Industry"
The call center industry is tagged as
the "sunshine industry" by the
government because of its massive
expansion, thus generating thousands of
employment. It is the fastest growing
sector within the IT software and
services industry. It is not only
sprouting in Metro Manila, but in other
metropolitan areas as well like Cebu,
Bangui, Davao and Pampanga. With an
unemployment rate at 13 percent, the
highest in Southeast Asia, the call
center industry is perceived as a rare
bright spot in the country sailing
economy.
Thus, the Arroyo government is putting
high hopes in the ICT-enabled services
sector for the development of the
economy. To realize its goal of placing
the Philippines in the call center map
of the world, the government has
designated more than 96 special economic
zones that offer tax breaks and other
incentives to foreign investors and is
improving the telecommunications and
other basic infrastructure.
The available skilled labor force
however could not catch up with the
demand of the industry. Out of the
380,000 graduates produced annually, a
mere five percent qualifies as call
center agents. In fact, only three to
five percent of applicants are taken in
by the call center industry.
What is very alarming is the government
mainstreaming the education system to
churn out graduates that would fit the
qualifications needed by the industry.
In this regard, the Technical Education
and Skills Authority (TESDA) of the
Department of Labor and Employment has
released a scholarship fund for would-be
contact center professionals. Malacanang
mandated English as the primary medium
of instruction in both primary and
secondary levels, aside from placing
more emphasis on Math and Science as
preventive measures. On the tertiary
level, a number of schools all over the
country, like UE in Recto, are now
offering the subject Advanced
Communication for International
Business.
As remedial measures, formal training
and certification programs for call
centers have already started in training
centers like AHEAD Learning Systems and
the Avaya Customer Contact Training
Center (ACCTC) located at the Mapua
Institute of Technology. Call centers
like People Support (Phils) Inc. has
already started conducting special
classes in the University of San Jose-Recoletos
(USJ-R) on basic contact center
education for graduating students.
University of the Philippines student
leader Atom Araullo, himself a
graduating student, says that this move
on the part of the government is
reflective of the dominance of other
countries in the economic affairs of the
country. This tendency is nothing new
since based from history, the government
has been mainstreaming the education
system of the country based on the
demands of the global market for
semi-skilled workers.
Not so Bright after All
After a deeper analysis, the exponential
growth of the call center does not paint
a very bright picture after all.
Although the quality of the Filipino
labor force lures in investors, the
undoubtedly more decisive factor would
be the cheaper labor cost. While the
salary rate is comparatively higher from
the minimum wage popularly offered
nowadays, the practice of developed
countries to exploit the cheap labor
pool of underdeveloped countries would
eventually lead to lower wages,
especially so since 60 percent of the
operational cost of a contact center in
the country goes to labor, according to
the Department of Trade and Industry
(DTI).
Research also shows concerns on the
health costs for those working the
graveyard shifts. According to Rebecca
Stoll, an analyst for US research group
Gartner, after touring call centers in
the country, as you can just work at
night so long before you burn out. This
suggests that prolonged call center
employment may pose several health risks
for the agents.
Most workers are denied to right to
unionize. There is lack of job security
and the labor force is not trained for
skills that would benefit the country.
At the other end of the line, agents are
often subjected to racial
discrimination, harassment and verbal
abuse, and yet obliged to remain
unruffled and calm. Weng adds,
'Stressful, especially during the early
part. But then I have to learn to detach
myself. I sometimes feel like a robot,
I'm not learning anything.
Bubble Industry
Analysts predict that aside from facing
stiff competition from other countries,
the market would soon be saturated and
the industry will burst. This is the
reason why mainstreaming the education
system just to cater to the demands of
the call center industry would be a big
blow to the economy.
According to Melvir Buela, an
undergraduate engineering student from
UP Diliman, the education system should
be attuned to what the country really
needs. He added that for undergraduates
looking for jobs to save money for the
rising tuition rates, call centers are
the best option since the shift and the
high pay are beneficial. However, he
does not approve of the brain drain to
the semi-skilled call centers.
Araullo says that graduates flocking to
call centers imply that many are finding
it harder and harder to find decent
jobs. So instead of putting all the
resources into sustaining the growth of
call centers in the country, the
government should instead exhaust all
means in localizing industries in order
to generate sustainable employment for
the 31 million unemployed Filipinos.
Araullo adds that students should always
view call centers as an option until
basic reforms are put into place.
"Students should not be ashamed. It's a
decent job. But then they have to think,
be curious and be open to the potential
that they themselves would be the key to
in initiating positive changes in the
future." Bulatlat
