Call centers expect to hire 70,000 more agents this year

by Othel V. Campos, Manila Standard, May 30, 2018

Call centers expect to add 60,000 to 70,000 agents annually over the next five years, despite the threat of automation and artificial intelligence on the business process outsourcing sector.

Contact Center Association of the Philippines chairman Benedict Hernandez, however, said the projection which was originally based on the 2016 roadmap would depend on the proposed second package of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or Train program.

Hernandez said while the group had not yet revised the target, the passage of the second package of tax reforms could affect the additional $1-billion revenue target in 2018.

“When we did this [roadmap], the Train scenario was not there yet. But we haven’t changed it yet. If anything happens that will affect us, we might re-forecast,” Hernandez said in a news briefing Wednesday.

All information technology and BPO companies including contact centers that receive tax incentives are registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority. Despite being located outside the economic zones, these companies enjoy the same benefits as other economic zone locators.

The second phase of tax reforms could include reforming the corporate income tax and the different incentives received by foreign and local companies.

Under the 2016 roadmap, the Philippine contact center sector is projected to grow by 7 percent to 9 percent until 2022.

“The global market for outsourcing the IT and BPO services, including contact centers, is far from being saturated. The view from the roadmap for the 2022 study is that it’s a trillion economy for the IT and BPO markets globally. Of this trillion economy, we penetrated about 16 percent of that two years ago,” Hernandez said.

The roadmap expects call center revenues to hit $13 billion in 2018. Employment in the call center industry is also projected to increase by 60,000 to 70,000 heads annually.

The Philippines, according to studies, remains the top contact center site in the world.

CCAP will hold the Contact Islands 2018 Conference in Cebu on July 25 and 26 where industry issues and concerns would be discussed.