RP call centers reel from world’s highest turnover
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Joji Ilagan-Bian, president of Six-Eleven Inc, a Davao-based call center firm, however remains very bullish about the future of the country’s call center industry. The Philippines, according to Bian, is a big player in the global market for BPO and has been cited one of the top countries worldwide for BPO investments. BPO services offered by call centers include marketing, sales, customer care, investor relations, bookings, etc.
Although the Philippines and India have the most number of call centers in the world, ” it’s fascinating to note that Indian call centers are now moving to Philippine cities,” says Bian, who also runs a large training institute in Davao for call center agents with ready jobs waiting for them in Manila and Makati call center companies. Davao ranks third in English-speaking skills in a recent survey of 12 Philippines cities.
As more and more call centers are cropping up in the major cities of Manila, Makati, Quezon, Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Dumaguete, the number of qualified English-speaking applicants available nationwide is no longer keeping up with the fast-rising numbers of call centers seeking desperately for applicants.
More than a hundred call centre companies in the country are scrambling over each other today, trying to entice any English-speaking applicant they can lay their hands on—- whether very young or very old, Filipino or foreigner, parttime or fulltime, retired or moonlighters, etc.—- as long as they can speak very good English.
In one Makati-based call center, it’s not surprising to find young agents like 19 year old Sandy Tordessilllas, a student at Letran University, sitting side-by-side at the operations center with retired teacher Leonardo Manriquez, 64, from Pangasinan or even a foreigner like Maxim Motovsky, 52, a Russian trader who speaks good English and wants to earn extra money.
“As long as they speak very good English, as long as they pass our one-month training, we’ll hire them and pay them well,” says a human resource manager at Convergys, one of the country’s biggest call centers with branches in Makati, Quezon, Pasig, Bacolod and Cebu cities.
The high turnover rate in the industry is also blamed on call center training programs which failed to produce many good agents for the jobs. “Our training was a disaster. I was glad they fired me. We can’t focus and think during training at two in the morning. That kind of training doesn’t make sense to me.” says Jayson Ramirez, 34, an entrepreneur who needed extra income.
At Convergys, training managers boast to new trainees that only one out of every 100 applicants they interviewed are actually hired. “So, you’re the best, the cream of the crop!” he tells a trainee. Eventually, only 3 to 5 out of every 20 trainees survive an intensive one-month training.
Rejection and termination of thousands of English-speaking trainees in many call centers nationwide in their efforts ” to keep standards high in the industry” is costing the call center industry millions of pesos in wasted training costs, admits one training manager of Advanced Contact Solutions.
Both ACS and Convergys have “exit interviews” for all call center agents resigning or getting fired, to find out the reasons and causes of the high turnover rate in the industry. A pattern is slowly emerging from these studies—- bad training design, oppressive trainors, too much stress, too much pressure, ‘prison-like’ condition, pay not worth the effort, etc.
It may take some time to really get to the bottom of the Philippine call center industry’s abnormally high turnover rate. (davaotoday.com)
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March 15th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
It never surprises me that call center proprietors just can’t seem to get it through their brains that you can’t just treat your employees as some expendable resource to abuse at will. Hence why I created my website http://www.convergyssucks.com.
March 15th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
call center agents are highly bankable in this country… often than not, most call center agents are too pressured with the 8-hours duty and gets home without extra baggages… i know a lot of call center agents, they are the ones who are adding more stress to their daily routine, overspending on vices, drugs and other stuff… poor attitude makes them more stressed. call centers offer big amount of salaries and benefits, a LOT of agents doesn’t know how to manage it…
March 17th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
At Convergys, only 3 to 5 out of every 20 trainees survive an intensive one-month training. That is tantamount to a 15-25% Graduation Rate… how is that possible? According to my friend who is a Training in Convergys, their Graduation Rate is averaging somewhere between 85-95%. I wonder where you got your data?
Because if 15-17 Trainees fail for every group of 20.. factor in the cost of training (between US$700-1500) then Convergys should have folded up weeks ago instead of growing to 12,000 or so employees.
March 20th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
You’ve got to be an ex-Con or even an ex-trainee to know what’s happening at Convergys. But its the happiest times of their lives to be out of Convergys. They remember the “night of the massacre” when halfway thru their training course, still halfcooked and dazed, unable to absorb the nightly lectures that stretched to the wee hours of the morning, trainors suddenly barged in and announced a series of exams with 100% as passing grade— or perfect score. Trainees could hardly navigate a new software program for the jobs they were hired— but they’re forced to get the exams whether they like it or not. And they have to pass with a 100% perfect score. That’s how they do a “mass execution” at Convergys. (This is also happening in other call centers, we were told by trainors) Most often than not, you see a group of 20 trainees almost wiped out, with only 3 or 5 passing the training and getting the jobs. The promise of P5000 monthly training allowance for fares and meals was forgotten. The promise of P15,000 salary suddenly shrunk to P11,500. Hungry with empty pockets, they suddenly find themselves out of the company, but delightfully relieved and very happy. No, they can’t quit the training on their own, otherwise they’re penalized P25,000. So it’s better to be fired. And many, many others actually “asked to be fired” to avoid paying the penalty. Its nice to know that there’s a growing number of ex-Cons who put up their own website to get the feelings of hundreds of others who got out of Convergys— all happy that they’re out FREE AT LAST !
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:31 pm
i think that expectations were laid out before training actually starts. you’re complaining at how cvg is strict - well, it just goes that you guys don’t deserve to be in cvg at all if you can’t keep up to the standards that they have set. that’s how it is for majority of the call centers: they need to be strict as it is Client initiated. how can cvg be sure of quality service if their training department is very lax? so, i guess you we’re thinking that being an agent is easy. welcome to the real world!! being an agent is hard and you need to really strong to be able to survive. Bottom line is, SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST!!
April 3rd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
In my opinion, we are lucky that call centers invested their money here in Philippines. They provided fair salary and benefits. Try to work in other companies; they will just pay you basic salary and for how much? There are even no proper benefits. My friend worked in Dubai and earned 15,000 pesos and she was very far from her family. Did it compensate her? For those agents who complained how tiring call center is; here is what I can say dudes “It’s a matter of self-discipline and motivation”. The problem with us, we tend to complain without seeing the positive side yet. Some of my friends quit when we were still in the training because they couldn’t adjust the schedule but after two months they like to re-apply. Why? Is it because Filipinos are changeable minds? Of course not! The reasons are: We don’t know how to appreciate and we don’t want somebody will discipline us in other words; we hate rules and regulations and plus the pride!!! Come to think of it…
April 25th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Call center agents are treated like prisoners in a concentration camp, with “Nazi” security guards eyeing every employee like they are potential thieves or terrorists. Inside, its like a factory and the agents are seen as machines that must function as machines that run smoothly. Look at their faces, Look at their eyes when you’re in an elevator with them. Try to listen to them talk in whispers in the cafeteria when they’re tired of speaking English. Even their laughters and their smiles are fake and put-ons because they all badly need the money. Every agent knows they all work under the “sword of Democles” —- just three mistakes and you’re gone. You stop being a human being when you’re a call center agent. Talk to the hundreds who quit or asked to be fired, they’ll tell you the same story…
May 25th, 2008 at 2:51 am
I can’t believe the turn over rate.. !
August 6th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
If given a chance,I would like to be a part of your company to ehance my communication skills.