‘Strengthen values at call centers’

A group advocating education in information technology (IT) in Cebu yesterday urged call centers to respond positively to the results of a 2009 survey that showed that call center agents lived lifestyles that gave them higher chances of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and other health risks.

Bonifacio Belen, president of the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology, said companies should take the information as an opportunity to strengthen values formation in the workplace.

“Perhaps they could do some activities that will divert the agents’ attention from those things, perhaps by engaging them more in community activities,” Belen said. He was referring to “risky” behaviour noted in the study such as unprotected sex, casual sex, smoking and drinking.

The report, however, has not affected the morale of call centers workers, Belen said.

“What I know though is that some companies, because of the reports, have started including reproductive health tests in their medical benefits,” he said.

Among those companies is Qualfon, one of the business process outsourcing (BPO) companies holding office in Asiatown I.T. Park.

According to Joslyn B. Canon, human resources and administrative manager of Qualfon Philippines Inc., the company will start including HIV tests in their annual physical exams for employees in response to the report.

“As much as possible we also want to protect our employees and for us, doing that will help aside from holding some awareness forums for them,” Canon said.

As of yesterday, Canon said she has not received any report of an STD case among Qualfon employees.

D.J. Moises, manager for the global operations center of Lexmark Research and Development Corp., said such things were a matter of personal choice for anyone, not just call center employees.

Jon Escobar, a recruitment manager for Convergys Philippines Services Corp., said the survey was no indication of wrongdoing or a liberated culture among call center agents.

“We don’t really know if they started doing it when working at a call center or since college,” Escobar said.

He suggested carrying out a similar study on college level respondents.

“Trust me, it’s happening everywhere not only here and not only in call center companies,” he said.

The study by the University of the Philippines Population Institute surveyed lifestyle and reproductive health issues among 929 young professionals, including 675 call center workers in Cebu and Manila.

The study noted that three out of four call center workers engaged in premarital sex, compared with two out of three for non-call center workers. However, the study cautioned that “we cannot conclude that the higher prevalence of risk behaviors among call center workers can be attributed to work in the call center. There could be a selective bias, such as those who enter call center work already exhibit higher risky behavior.

The average age of call center agents who were interviewed was 23.

“There is evidence that risky behaviors are now highly prevalent in that age group,” said the study.

Department of Health statistics showed 96 recorded HIV cases in Cebu City from 1989 to January this year. Of that number, “most” were call center agents, and 65 were male. –Aileen Garcia-Yap, Cebu Daily News