Call center labor shortage bearing down on RP

AS THE call center industry in the Philippines continues on its blinding progress, it still has to contend with the issue of labor shortage. Unfortunately, the industry fears that labor shortage might get worse in the coming years.

In a recent presentation, the call center organization Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) warned that the labor shortage has actually worsened in recent times. From five-percent hiring rate, call center operators are reporting three-percent hiring rates for applicants.

Worst still is the attrition rate, or number of call center agents that are leaving the company. Currently, the attrition rate is at 35 percent, well above the 8.3-percent attrition rate that the industry has set as acceptable.

CCAP reported that of the 400,000 Filipino college graduates per year, only 100,000 are immediately employable. Of this 100,000 only 12,000 could pass requirements to work as contact center agents. This is still well below the 60,000 minimum needed by the call center industry.

And while analysts forecast that the number of outsource services agents (combined figures for contact center and business process outsourcing providers) could reach over 500,000 in the next four years, the industry is not putting too much hopes on achieving this number.

CCAP Director Benedict Hernandez said the current shortage could be attributed to the current quality of education college graduates receive. This includes lack of proper English communications skills necessary for this type of employment.

Hernandez said the industry has noticed the labor shortage problem before but because of the double-digit growth rate of the call center industry, human resource is having difficulty keeping up.

“Thus, we at the organization is in active talks with the government, the academic institutions and even among our members so that we could come up with activities to produce graduates that are ready for the job at hand,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said that among their activities is working with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority to develop a courseware suited to call center work. Some members of CCAP have also partnered directly with schools for teacher training, passing on the training to students, thus ensuring immediate pool of workers for the company.

But Hernandez said the contact center industry is still assured of a steady labor pool in the coming years, assuming that the industry’s current activities to address the problem are successful.

“Our activities now, if we don’t make enhancements, could produce up to 200,000 employees. A little bit of improvement in these programs could rack up to 300,000 people for the industry. But when do we see that the supply of workers matches the demand? It’s anyone’s guess,” Hernandez said.