Contact centers gear up for higher-value jobs

by BUsinessWorld, Mar 26, 2019

THE Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) said the sector has been investing “heavily” to upgrade talent amid the growing demand for professionals who can take on higher-value tasks.

“Mid- and high-skilled jobs are seeing more demand in our industry. Our professionals are now finding themselves more engaged in complicated tasks that require experience or specialized expertise paired with abstract reasoning and situational response/autonomy,” CCAP President Jojo J. Uligan said in a Tuesday statement.

“The industry is investing heavily in training for both entry-level and tenured positions,” he said.

Based on the results of an internal study by CCAP, mid- and high-skilled jobs in the contact center sector account for 85% of positions.

Earlier, market research firm Frost & Sullivan estimated that about 73% of the global business process management industry will involve mid- and high-skilled jobs by 2022.

The sector now focuses on delivering “customer experience” with the aim of offering quick and accurate resolutions, personalized interactions, self-service options, and interaction via customers’ preferred channels.

Delivering these requires contact center professionals to learn how to complement their work with automation, data analytics and other emerging technologies, CCAP said.

Currently, the business process management (BPM) industry generates annual revenue of $27.1 billion.

The contact center segment accounts for more than half, generating annual revenue of $14.6 billion and employing more than 890,000 call center professionals.

The Philippine BPM industry accounts for about 18% of the total global IT-BPM industry of about $83 billion, CCAP said, citing data from the global think tank The Everest Group.

In a previous analysis by consultancy Frost & Sullivan, tasks that require basic skills are projected to decline 29% worldwide by 2022.

At the same time, mid-skill jobs are expected to rise 12%, while positions that require higher skills are projected to grow 19%. — Janina C. Lim