Call centers dangle fatter paychecks for skilled few

CALL CENTERS are turning more and more to gimmicks and gadgets — aside from offering higher wages — to reel in the few skilled workers still looking for jobs, an industry official said.

About 120 business outsourcing process (BPO) outfits are tapping the same talent pool that is not getting any deeper, and human resource directors are feeling the pressure, said Raffy David, a director of the Call Center Association of the Philippines.

For every 20 job applicants who get accepted, only one shows up for work, David said in an interview.
The association expects the number of call center workers to grow 60 percent to about 179,000 by yearend and reach 506,000 by 2010.

Job opening advertisements in newspapers, online job sites and job fairs still attract applicants, but more and more call centers are using TV commercial spots on television and radio, magazine advertisements, streamers and even billboards to attract jobseekers, David said.

“Some try out party-like events, like ClientLogic, which organizes events and bring in [musicians] to attract potential employees,” he said.

Another BPO company, TRG, held a speech and image-modeling contest with $1,000 at stake, he said.

“Others offer freebies such as sign-in bonuses, travel benefits, and free gadgets like mobile phones and MP3 players to (get people),” said David, an officer of the call center company Pilipinas Teleserve Inc.

He said one of the most effective means of recruitment was still “word of mouth” — a referral system in which companies that offer incentives to employees who recommend possible recruits.

The call center companies eTelecare and PeopleSupport, for example, offer something between P1,500 and P5,000 for every successful hire, he said.

“One of them claims that about a quarter of its workforce was signed up through this referral program,” he said.

David cited one firm’s “audacious tactic” of putting up “a team in a basketball league.”

“TeleTech says it costs less to maintain a basketball team — the TeleTech Titans in the Philippine Basketball League,” a well-followed amateur leag – “than buying weekly full-page newspaper ads,” he said.

A call for unionization in the sector is being sounded, but market-driven salary and benefits systems still prevail,” the association official said.

He said the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU — May First Movement] had referred to call centers as “air-conditioned hubs for exploiting workers,” while the party-list group Kabataan [Youth] described the work as “degrading and fit for prisoners or summer interns.”

David said a poll conducted by the University of the Philippines’ School of Labor and Industrial Relations indicated that “more respondents are open to join unions to better negotiate for salaries.”

“Interestingly, unionization can help stem attrition and job-hopping since members are given a bargaining power and are provided a forum to resolve work-related issues,” David said. “Ironically, the apparent transient nature of the job is hampering efforts to organize unions.”

He also said that, since salaries and benefits adjustments are market-driven, workers are less motivated to organize unions. —by Ronnel Domingo, Philippine Daily Inquirer, With INQ7.net