Travails in the call center (first of 2 parts)

(First of two parts)

She was a single mom in her 40s. With her two kids, she left her hometown in Isabela to go to Manila to seek a better life. That better life was supposed to be working as a call center agent. Then one day, things changed completely.

Her eyes were closed and she was slumped at her desk. Her officemates thought she had just fallen asleep, then someone approached her and saw she was foaming at the mouth. There was panic, and by the time she was rushed to a nearby hospital, it was too late.

Because of the odd hours and the stressful work environment, there are now stories about call center agents having heart attacks in the middle of a call or losing consciousness because of hypertension.

One call-center employee interviewed by BusinessWorld said he has heard of eight cases of office deaths; other agents interviewed have each heard of at least one case. Documented proof is hard to come by, leading some to regard these stories as urban legends. But others believe this has become a phenomenon in an industry that generates billions in revenue for the country.

Business Process Outsourcing is a $13-billion industry, widely touted to generate employment, contribute to the national economy, and keeping Filipinos close to their families, unlike the OFWs toiling abroad.

But while many are counting the country’s gains from call centers, it seems that only a few are taking a hard look at the health costs that Filipino workers have to pay to ensure that the industry is up and running.

“We’re very worried about it. We are constantly worried about it. We keep track of all of it,” said Jose Mari P. Mercado, president and chief executive of the IT & Business Process Association Philippines (IBPAP), a group of BPO companies which includes top-performing members such as SPi Global, Stream Global Services, Convergys, Accenture, Teleperformance, and JP Morgan Chase Bank.

“There’s no denying that’s possible, but to blame the whole industry?” he said. “I always say, put it in the right perspective.” There are an estimated 900,000 employees in the industry, and in that context, Mr. Mercado said only a few deaths have been reported.

“I’m not trying to be heartless. All I’m saying is that the way it’s being presented today is that ‘he died while working on the floor so don’t work in a call center because you’ll die.’ It’s jumping to this conclusion, which is totally incorrect and unfair.”

Not everyone agrees with Mr. Mercado. Ian Porquia, president of the BPO Industry Employees Network (BIEN), which has members from the top 25 BPO companies, maintained, “There are cases of BPO workers who become casualties during the operations in the office.”

“One thing is for sure, because of that kind of stressful environment, the tendency is, if you have a weak immune system, it will multiply the risk of [an illness] being fatal,” Mr. Porquia told BusinessWorld in an interview.

Call centers operate 24 hours a day and are mandated to have clinics, yet there are some companies whose clinics are closed during certain hours, said Mr. Porquia.

A doctor should be in the clinic because a nurse alone cannot do anything when someone has a heart attack, said a call center manager who spoke to BusinessWorld on condition of anonymity.

Furthermore, health benefits are not standardized across the industry. Even within a company, the health benefits can change, said Mr. Porquia.

When the company needs more employees, they offer attractive benefits, but after a certain period, they will no longer offer that package to the new employees, so even agents within one company will not have the same benefits.

SELF-REGULATION

From the onset, the Department of Labor and Employment had adopted a strategy of “self-regulation” among BPO firms.

Soon after she assumed her post in 2010, Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz led the signing of the so-called voluntary code of good practices with the BPO sector, saying in a speech that it was meant to “wean the industries from too much dependence on government for regulation and intervention even on minor issues.”

A statement dated Dec. 10, 2010, also quotes Ms. Baldoz as saying: “The DoLE is not now primarily concerned with the issuance of orders. Instead, we are here to hear your views; we are here to guide management and labor along your intention towards social partnership.”

Critics say this statement gave the BPO companies carte blanche to implement their own rules, some of which could have been more detrimental than beneficial to Filipino call center workers.

Anna Leah Escresa-Colina, executive director of the labor-advocacy group Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research Inc. (EILER), said the DoLE’s push for self-regulation in the BPO industry “will only embolden outsourcing firms in violating labor rights with impunity.”

“If the government itself cannot protect BPO workers from dismal labor conditions and uphold workers’ rights in BPOs, how can we expect foreign firms to do so under self-regulation?” Ms. Escresa-Colina said.

“Rather than pushing for self-regulation in the BPO industry, what DoLE should do is to promote the rights of BPO workers inside the work place.”

But last April, IBPAP and DoLE signed a two-year partnership agreement to promote the voluntary compliance of the BPO sector with the government’s General Labor and Occupational Safety and Health Standards.

“Through this accord, the DoLE and the IBPAP demonstrate strong resolve to work together to increase awareness of the [BPO] sector on general labor standards and occupational safety and health standards with a view to improve compliance, develop industry-specific best practices, and foster within the sector a culture of voluntary compliance with general labor standards and occupational safety and health regulations,” Ms. Baldoz said in a statement.

“MAGNIFIED” CASES

The single mother from Isabela was training at SPi Global in Makati.

Despite what happened, SPi expressed confidence in its health programs and facilities.

Marie Ampeloquio, chief people officer of SPi Global Makati’s human resources department, and May Dizon, vice-president of corporate communications, both point out that all SPi sites have clinics, are each staffed with a nurse, and are open during all hours of operation. A doctor makes daily visits to different sites, but is only there for the shifts that have the highest number of employees.

SPi also has a pharmacy at every local site, unlike in other BPO companies. The pharmacy has over-the-counter medicines and commonly prescribed prescription medicines for hypertension, high cholesterol, and other ailments. Some medicines are sold at subsidized rates while others are free.

Cardiac arrest “happen[s] in any industry,” said Ms. Ampeloquio, arguing that this health concern is not endemic to the BPO industry. “I’m sure it has happened to the others [BPO companies]. But my worry is even if there were deaths in other [companies] whom you’ve interviewed, they might say there were none, but I’m honest.

“Of course, we feel bad that these cases are magnified in the BPO [industry]. This issue is magnified because it’s an industry that has night shifts, operates 24/7, attends to international clients, but I think it should not be [magnified] because it also brings in… growth [for] the Philippines.”

QUICK PROCESSING

Ms. Ampeloquio said the single mother from Isabela had been working in the company for only two weeks before she fell ill. She was just in training, and not even doing live work: she was not taking actual calls from customers yet.

In the past, it took two to three days to evaluate a prospective employee. Now SPi has become more competitive in hiring, taking only a few hours for a potential employee to go from entering the building’s premises, to being evaluated, to being offered a job. This is part of “the high standard talent acquisition practice” that SPi observes.

The single mother from Isabela was hired after just four to five hours of evaluation.

Although a medical exam is a pre-employment requirement, Ms. Ampeloquio said the exam only covered the basics, which the single mother passed.

When employees enter the company they will be under wellness programs anyway, Ms. Ampeloquio explained. But prior to entering the company, the “more important thing” is that “wala kang tama sa X-ray mo (your X-ray results are negative).

“We have certain standard tests that work for the demographic that we have,” said Ms. Ampeloquio. “The thing is if they don’t declare [that they have a prior condition], we can’t do anything about it.”

Ms. Dizon said the employees do not usually divulge these health conditions for fear the company won’t hire them.

It turned out that the single mother had had a previous heart attack before joining the company, something SPi learned only after she was rushed to the hospital.

“But we have an annual exam for employees,” said Ms. Ampeloquio. “We would have anyway caught it somehow. Unfortunately she died even before [we did].”

What they are proud of is the way they responded, she said.

The company brought the single mother to the hospital where she stayed for 10 days. Even though she was not yet a regular employee, she was extended a number of benefits. SPi settled her hospital bills and funeral expenses, said Ms. Ampeloquio, adding that SPi also looked for her relatives in Isabela so they could take care of the children she left behind.

WITNESS

A witness described the incident to BusinessWorld. He said that while some people were scrambling to get her to the hospital, other agents remained standing, curious about the commotion, until their managers told them to “Get back to work. Focus on your calls.”

Days after the incident, people asked management about her, but they didn’t get answers. “Management tried to isolate the case,” said the witness. The client told the company to take care of all her bills to keep things quiet, he said.

Whenever an employee’s relative dies, the practice in any office is to pass an envelope around for donations. The witness said nothing like that happened in this case.

“It was like a normal thing you see everyday. There was no debriefing, no follow-up, and no orientation in case something like that happens again.”

The incident was treated as an isolated case, said Ms. Dizon.

“Wala naman kaming kailangan baguhin (We didn’t need to change anything) in the way we’re doing things,” she said. “We did everything we could. The goodness of our human nature just prevailed. It’s as simple as that.”

CASE #2

Another case back in 2010 involved a man who collapsed in the office pantry of BPO company Stream Global Services (now Convergys) in North EDSA, Quezon City.

The agent was Christopher Roxas, a somewhat portly man in his late 20s when he died. Soon after his death, the pantry was closed off and flowers were laid there for the next few days. Rumors spread, but a witness who saw him collapse on CCTV told BusinessWorld that management did not address the issue beyond this.

Roxas’s mother, Julita, accused the company of failing to provide first-aid treatment to her son. According to a news report by the Philippine Star, dated Aug. 25, 2010, the nurse happened to be on a break and the company did not have the necessary medicines and equipment to respond to her son’s medical situation.

Mrs. Roxas later filed a case against nine company officials for reckless imprudence resulting in homicide.

BusinessWorld had repeatedly sought an interview with Stream. On May 7, Jingjing Romero, president of Stratos, Convergys’ PR, sent a text message saying: “CVG offices worldwide continue to operate low key and conservatively, always proceeding with caution on all matters deemed sensitive and confidential, as a matter of policy, as a publicly listed firm.”

METRICS

Being a call center agent involves more than picking up a phone and speaking in perfect English.

A group of call center employees relax at a restaurant in the financial district of Manila on July 10, 2010. Daybreak is happy hour in a world turned upside down at Dencio’s off Ayala Ave., the clientele young and loud and with a hint of California accent. — AFP

While talking to a customer, the call-center agent also navigates four to 10 tools on the computer, also typing up a report on the customer’s concern, how the agent addressed it, etc.

The agent has to do all this in record time or he risks a reprimand, or, worse, he could be fired.

Resolving a call within a certain time limit is part of a call center agent’s metrics (a measure of an employee’s performance), and there are around six metrics that an agent has to pass, BIEN’s Mr. Porquia explained.

One is the average handle time (AHT) or the number of minutes an agent takes to finish a transaction. This metric is often dictated by the Service Level Agreement (SLA), the contract between the call center and the (usually foreign) client.

SLAs can require numbers like 90/10 (90% of calls answered within 10 seconds), 80/20, or 70/30, said Mr. Mercado. The company will look at the client’s call volume or call arrival patterns and then compute how many people it needs on the floor at every shift to meet the SLA. “If at this interval I need 237 people answering the phones, then one person decides to go on break without approval, sira na ang 90/10 ko (my 90/10 target is ruined),” he said.

If the company doesn’t comply with the service agreement, the client can penalize the company or pull out and transfer his business to another BPO firm.

Another metric is the CSAT or the Customer Satisfaction Score. After a customer completes a call, there is a call back or a survey wherein the customer is asked to rate the call. If the agent gets a low-average CSAT at the end of the day, he gets feedback, said Mr. Porquia. That feedback can range from a memo to a reprimand by the team leader. If the agent doesn’t meet the expected CSAT for a month, the client can decide to fire the agent and the local call center company won’t have a say in this, he said.

“There is no security of tenure even if you are a regular employee,” Mr. Porquia said, adding that even if an agent has worked in a company for eight years, one poor evaluation can get that agent terminated.

“If you are looking for the biggest recruiter of contractual jobs in the country, go to the BPO industry.”

QUALITY ASSURANCE

Call center agents also have to watch their QA or quality assurance. All calls are recorded and evaluated. Every month, the agent undergoes a one-on-one coaching session wherein the agent and his boss listen to the recordings, discuss what was done wrong or how the call could be improved and/or made shorter.

There is also the metric of “adherence” or the ability of the agent to start working by the designated log-in time and finish at the end time. That is why, if a call center agent’s shift is 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., he should be in the office as early as 9:30 a.m. to set up his computer and log into the system at exactly 10 a.m. “That’s not counted as overtime,” said Mr. Porquia.

Even if the agent’s job is not related to sales, many positions include a quota for “upselling” or asking the customer if he wants to make an additional purchase or avail himself of upgrades.

Transfer rates pertain to the number of agents it takes to resolve a customer’s problem. Every call costs $5-$12, said Mr. Porquia, so if it takes only one person to resolve any particular concern, then the company earns money. But if the call has to be transferred to a different department or to another agent because the first agent fails to complete this transaction, then the company’s revenues decrease.

“This [the call center industry] is the most metrics-driven industry that I have experienced,” Mr. Mercado himself admits.

The metrics system is also why absenteeism is not tolerated, said Ms. Ampeloquio. “Every person off the floor affects the revenue of the company. That’s the truth. You cannot deny the fact.”

This correlation between the company’s earnings and the presence of agents is the reason why leaves are canceled.

“That has happened, but we do not condone it,” Ms. Ampeloquio said. Canceling a leave is only allowed if there is a “business exigency” where the company is “bound to not meet the client’s metrics.”

“And of course we let them go on leave when they are sick,” she said, despite some experience to the contrary — although Ms. Ampeloquio said she has not heard complaints about canceled leaves.

AGENT’S WOES

Several issues were raised by call center agents during the 1st National BPO Workforce Team Building on April 26 and in other interviews with BusinessWorld.

In few other industries are restroom breaks as strictly timed as among BPO companies, said BIEN’s Mr. Porquia. An agent has to log in and log out to go to the restroom. If an agent is even one minute late because of the long line at the comfort room, his team leader will call him to return to his work station.

A deluge of calls can compel an agent to stay in his seat. A raised hand, an agent’s signal requesting permission from his team leader to go to the restroom, is often ignored or denied because of too many calls, said some agents. Sometimes three hours pass by before the team leader finally allows an agent to leave his seat. If the agent has used up his allotted number of breaks and still needs to go — too bad. Not surprisingly, many call center agents say they have developed urinary tract infections.

Then there are the hours — a call center agent is usually awake when he is supposed to be asleep. The difficulties are compounded because the work shifts change every few weeks. One week they can be on the night shift (10 p.m. to 7 a.m.), then weeks later they’ll be transferred to the mid-shift (2 to 11 p.m.). They are constantly adjusting to new sleeping schedules. The result is sleepless nights and days of exhaustion.

An employee told BusinessWorld this is why a call center agent needs cigarettes (to deal with the stress) and beer (to drink himself to sleep).

This unhealthy lifestyle is compounded by the junk food diet. Cafeteria food is not very good, they complain. When agents venture out to find alternative places to eat, all they have are fastfood chains — the only establishments open at the dead of night.

The calls themselves cause a lot of stress. Customers can insult you, curse you, shame you, or sexually harass you, and you’re still expected to be civil, said one call center agent. The customer is always right, after all.

Many call centers advertise the promise of a rising career, high pay, work-life balance and putting their employees’ interests and welfare on top of the list. But in interviews with BusinessWorld, the agents would disagree and instead cite a litany of their woes. –Jasmine T. Cruz and Jeffrey O. Valisno, Businessworld

– See more at: http://www.bworldonline.com/weekender/content.php?id=89884#sthash.puVANDsF.dpuf