As the BPO industry is steadily growing in the Philippines, the country's umbrella association of BPOs finds it necessary to update their list of companies engaging in outsourcing services. The Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP) plans to release the said updated list this month.

As the chief executive of the said business group has put it, the directory is meant to help chart the growth of the BPO industry in general.  Outsourcing companies are thriving in a way that is unprecedented. Therefore, it is essential to monitor all companies with such scheme in order to obtain the real statistics when it comes to the over-all performance of the country's BPO.

As of the moment, the industry is getting bigger and more comprehensive. With five fields of expertise, it now employs about 400,000 to 500,000 individuals with skills competent in animation, software development, engineering and design, medical transcription, and technical support. It is undeniable that outsourcing is going to be a formidable industry soon as long as the international demand for offshore outsourcing remains high.

The soon-to-be-released directory is entitled "Offshoring and Outsourcing Directory Philippines 2008". It is said to be a comprehensive list of key actors in the Philippine IT-BPO market. The contact details, business descriptions, among other vital data are stated in the list.

            This act of BPAP is an exemplification of how associations of separate entities try to solidify their business bloc in order to obtain a more significant position in terms of national policies, government support, budget appropriation, etc. The more members they have, the better their bargaining power is. Considering it is still a young industry, efforts like increasing and monitoring the members of BPAP is a crucial factor in establishing its identity as a major economic driving force of the country.

As Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) continues to thrive in the Philippines, various sectors become increasingly responsive to the needs of this industry. In fact, the education sector and the government are adopting measures to support Philippine outsourcing by developing initiatives and design curriculums meant to equip graduates with sufficient competencies essential for the continued success of the industry.

            A case in point is the creation of a talent working-group meant to offer insights on labor and employment market trends, issues and directions, and plays "applicants' advocate" role during the design and testing of talents. CHED, DepEd, TESDA, and the umbrella association of outsourcing firms in the country, BPA/P (Business Processing Association of the Philippines) spearhead the campaign in preparing students to be ready for possible employment once they graduate.

            Aside from these, there are also partnerships between companies and universities in the pursuit of modernizing the curriculum to be more industry relevant. One school in Makati is currently strengthening its use of the English language by transforming the call center English program into a required English conversation class. Another school responded by way of providing a call center elective to graduating students wherein those who pass are guaranteed with call center jobs after graduation.

The various government agencies and educational institutions initiated the said activities the moment they found out that graduates are actually not equipped enough for them to qualify for employment in BPOs. Research studies show that out of the 400,000 fresh college graduates every year, only a quarter are proficient in the command of the English language, and are eligible to work in call centers and various BPOs. There is a glaring discrepancy between the jobs the industry can provide and the pool of workforce produced every year by college institutions. The industry can provide 600,000 new jobs by 2010. This can never be filled up by the few qualified graduates at hand.

For the mean time, various efforts are being adopted in order to improve the employability of graduates. The outsourcing industry provides a remarkable number of opportunities. Therefore, it is worthwhile to know that the government and the concerned sectors are finding ways in order to meet the said demand. After all, those efforts are for the benefit of all; on the part of the firms who are seeking assistance, and on the side of a nation where unemployment remains a pressing issue.

The thin supply of talented workforce remains a crucial issue especially for a fast growing industry. The Philippine business process outsourcing industry is said to have a shortage when it comes to the supply of savvy and eligible manpower. For instance, call centers are maximizing efforts in order to retain talent as turnover becomes a growing problem in this service-oriented industry. It has always been reiterated in various researches that there is a shallow talent pool for Philippine BPOs. Worse, the increasing attrition rate aggravates such condition. Statistics would show that the industry has a relatively high attrition rate of 20 percent annually compared to other industries which experience turn-over in a low single digit. Fifty-one percent of those who leave call centers eventually leave the industry for good.

The high level of attrition rate can be attributed to employee dissatisfaction. This issue lies on the fact that business firms like BPOs are naturally inclined to cut costs. A back clash happens when employees' compensation and overall working conditions are the ones hit by cost-cutting. Hence, as a reasonable reaction, it would be understandable that talented employees leave after a considerable time of working due to dissatisfaction and their dire need for better opportunities. For this reason, it won't be difficult to address such problem.

RP call centers were told to go beyond cost saving by the Call Center Association of the Philippines. Asia-Pacific Research also reminds them to convert themselves from doing cost-saving options into a primary avenue for revenue generation. In this case, it would just be a matter of strengthening company services like sales and consultancy particularly their customer care team.

Other suggestions are the following: the industry needs a culture that people would want to be a part of; call center offices need to have gyms, spas, rest areas and the like to take care of employees; and company policies may adopt more flexible working conditions like having home-based agents.

Those are just some of the suggestions that may benefit the industry and curb the issue on attrition. Perhaps, if these are properly practiced and applied, I don't think companies will still lose grip of their talented employees. After all, these are not meant to merely benefit the employees alone. Rather, they are ultimately meant to boost the outsourcing industry in the end.

It always remain a mystery that despite undesirable travel advisories against the country, the chronic uprising of mutinies against the current administration, or the persistence of forms of political repression, internationally inclined businesses still continue to thrive in the Philippines. In fact, BPOs, call centers, animation services and the likes even show remarkable business performance. It seems like the overall industry of offshore outsourcing is not even shaken despite the presence of these political instabilities.  What could be the fundamental reason for this? Better yet, to answer this inquisition, it's more appropriate to review the conditions that initially establish the Philippine outsourcing industry for we might find something there that explain the source of its strength responsible for making it surpass all the odds that confront it. When and where did it start? What's the raison d'etre of Philippine outsourcing industry?

Actually, outsourcing is said to have emerged a few thousand years ago with the production and sales of food, tools and other household appliances. As soon as small communities and societies began to form, people with specialized professions began to trade with each other for goods and services. In effect it can be said that each worker was outsourcing some activities to others.

As the world evolves and human societies turned into nation-states, a sense of interconnectedness grows between and among them. In turn, they tend to help each other in a lot of ways. In the contemporary time, outsourcing became an engaged practice for companies, wherever in the world they are based, to seek back office assistance from pool of employees even outside their national territories. U.S. and U.K. are two of the leading nations where most companies, who preferred to outsource their operations, are based. On the other hand, India, China, and Philippines are examples of countries that serve as outsourcing destinations.

Outsourcing was not fully identified as a marketing strategy until 1989. However, in the case of Philippines, the practice of outsourcing is already practiced as early as the 70s dwelling on accounting services, animation, among others. It was just in the past decades that outsourcing acquires an identity of itself. And, with the revolutionary advances in information technology, outsourcing becomes increasingly evolved that it covers almost all fields from legal services, medical assessment, software development, to call center services and many others.

Hence, with these, it can be said that the factor which makes it responsible for Philippine outsourcing to flourish is not because of inherent characteristics peculiar to it rather because of a more broader idea that most business companies all over the world felt the need to outsource their operations in order to focus on core company concerns. The issue that concerns Philippines is why choose it as a viable option for offshore outsourcing. Despite the presence of some irregularities in the country, so long as the long term operations are not disrupted, then, it is still a sound decision to outsource in the Philippines. Political instabilities are outweighed by the bond that keeps nations throughout the world fundamentally linked with each other. The growing feeling of interdependence gives vigor to the outsourcing industry in general. For without this, business relationship between countries is not possible in the first place. 

What makes the Philippines a viable option for offshore outsourcing? Perhaps, this can be best answered by the increasing numbers of foreign companies who chooses to contract with Philippine IT solution providers to develop their sites, create graphic designs, review bulks of legal documents, and any other thinkable service which can be left handled to the Filipino work force. But to make things a bit more firm and certain, outsourcing in the Philippines booms in a steadfast manner because of crucial factors that stems from the uniqueness and brilliance of Filipinos. Here are some defining factors which able the country to continually gain ground, and perhaps serve as tickets for it to outbid its competitors in outsourcing.

Language Advantage. U.S has been one of the leading countries whose companies prefer to outsource their operations. Luckily for Filipinos, Philippines had more shared culture with the U.S. among Asian countries. This is not just in terms of legal system or the admiration of western mentality, but primarily because of a more fundamental and basic connection, that is, when it comes to language. When compared with other outsourcing destinations in Asia, Philippines has a pool of workers who are more proficient in the command of the English language. Not just that, when interpreting legal documents from the U.S., Filipinos are better skilled in doing this because the educational and the legal system are heavily anchored in the said language. Hence, there is this instant understanding of the solution provider towards the culture of the foreign client. So, it can make the transaction progresses in a fluent manner, and the outputs be accomplished in a way that is sensitive to the character of the one who is being served. The Philippines is the third largest English-speaking country in the world, so it's not surprising to use this as an advantage over other competing countries in the dynamic world of outsourcing.

Trained and Skilled Labor Force. Government has been continually supporting the outsourcing sector by keeping a steady supply of talented workers through education and training. Service businesses which includes outsourcing is easier to set up and support than capital-intensive manufacturing businesses, and it can even generate more white collar jobs than the latter. Hence, fresh graduate students with degree holders can be best utilized under the IT and outsourcing industry. The cheaper labor wage compared to the increasing salaries of those who came from other outsourcing countries like India, even further the advantage of contracting with Filipino providers.

            These factors are just few of the many reasons why outsourcing continually flourishes in the Philippines. Though there still a lot to mention, still, those are enough to provide hints as to why it will always be an advantage to work with Filipino service providers. Filipinos had been globally known in quite innumerable fields like sports, arts, entrepreneurship, engineering, designing, among others. And, it seems like adding outsourcing in the list would be a greater pride not just to the country itself but primarily to the work force who persistently sustains it.