22 Jul, 2008, 0745 hrs IST
Deepshikha Monga & Chaitali Chakravarty, ET Bureau
The Economic Times
NEW DELHI: BPO firms, which have so far been big job creators in India, are now shifting employees from here to emerging outsourcing destinations, including the Philippines.
Not only are domestic BPOs like Genpact, Sitel and Intelenet hiring people in India in droves for their Philippine operations, MNCs like Citibank and Accenture with operations in that country, too, are relying on Indian talent.
“While at the associate level, the Philippines has talent that is comparable or superior to their Indian counterparts, there is a complete void at middle and senior management level. It’s largely Indian executives who fill this void at Indian, local and captive BPO firms in the Philippines,” says Quatrro BPO Solutions managing director Raman Roy.
The Philippines has emerged as an attractive rival outsourcing destination to India, on the back of its large English-speaking population, a slew of fiscal incentives and lower property rates. Apart from the capital, Manila, other places — Cebu, for instance — have also come up as favourites for setting up call centres.
“I have lost five managers in the past one year to BPO companies in the Philippines. The local firms offer superior compensation packages to executives who have cut their teeth with Indian BPO firms,” says head of another BPO firm, wishing to remain unidentified.
Another BPO firm chief says his company, too, has faced talent crunch at senior and middle management positions in the Philippines. He pointed out the example of MNCs — Citibank is a case in point — that employ a number of Indian executives to manage their captive operations in the Philippines.
There is a significant movement of voice processes to emerging destinations like the Philippines and Eastern Europe, says Positive Moves Consulting managing partner Vibhav Dhawan.
“Large MNCs, with presence in India, are expatriating a significant number of Indians to meet their talent needs in the short and long term in these new markets,” he adds.
Genpact, India’s largest BPO firm, went to the Philippines in 2006 and since then, has built a sizeable presence there. Speaking of its strategy to meet talent needs, Genpact president & CEO Pramod Bhasin said: “We start by using a mix of expats from India and hiring locally. The long-term goal is to have grooming and training for the local talent to eventually manage the Philippines operations. That time is, however, another 1-2 years away.”
Adds Nasdaq-listed BPO firm ExlService Holdings CEO Rohit Kapoor: “It’s certainly a challenge to find mid- and senior-management talent in the Philippines. We are dealing with it by taking our senior managers from India while also hiring local talent. So, our country manager, migration and transition and process head are all Indians while the HR head, operations and facilities heads are natives.”
Manila was ranked second among outsourcing destinations in Asia-Pacific by research firm IDC early this year, behind Bangalore. The BPO industry in the Philippines currently employs over 3 lakh people.
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