Whence & whither BPO Philippines?

By Bro. Novid T. Mohammad Jafari (147)

The BPO (Business Process Outsource) is the practice of contracting a specific work process or processes to an external service provider. The services can include payroll, accounting, telemarketing, data recording, social media marketing, customer support, coding, and development, and many more. This is often done either offshore (Outside of the Country of origin) or onshore. Call Center is one of the top contributors in the BPO industry. Historically, all the type of work was offshored in the Philippine and got to the point where we held the number 1 spot of clients globally to put in their work. This had grown significantly in the past two decades that enabled to gain of the trust and confidence of the top 500 fortune companies to open their sites here in the Philippines rather than contracting the work out with BPO qualified companies - Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Capital One, HSBC, Verizon, Telstra, Visa, PayPal, Accenture, JPMorgan Chase, and Google to name a few. BPO companies have been one of the top choices for new graduates and job shifters in the past due to the Industry’s competitive salary. They lucrative offer helped increase the standard of living for most. Average annual salaries can range from 260k to 390k for entry-level jobs, 450k to 800k for mid-level leadership, and may even reach an average of 1.5M -5.0 M for more senior roles. Working in the BPO industry may provide competitive rates but it also has its own unique market challenges. Schedule and working hours are some of the most challenging as you would have to adjust to the time zones of different countries depending on what region a company supports. Europe, North America, and some Asian countries are some of the top market contributors in the market. This also means you can work early in the morning or start as late as 8:00 pm until the next day. These irregular scheduling require a lot of adjustments and commitment to be successful in this type of industry.

As Freemasons, this brings unique challenges

IT-BPO Masons pose as the enjoy a brief respite from their chosen occupation. Left Side: Aurelio Alegre (202), Erwin Torio (365), Jermaine Loyola (365), Denis Bukas (365).Right Side: Armando Buen (27), Gene Paulo Guadalupe (371), Jeff Sacramento (51), Kenneth John Gregorio (371), Bobby Sagun Ancheta (371).

during our petition years and into the journey of being a Master Mason. To have a better support structure, fellowship, and avenue to extend the cable tow, Bros. Armando Bueno (000) and Gene Paulo Guadalupe (000) decided to create a Facebook group for Master Masons called BPO Masons. It later evolved to IT BPO Masons when this writer joined the Brethren. The group currently has 55 members with a truly diverse background from the type of work and level of expertise. Being fully committed to both their professional careers and the craft, all went thru the challenges of adjusting their 24-Inch Gauge to fulfill their obligations from being a petitioner until being raised to the Sublime Degree and beyond. Each BPO brethren had interesting stories to share - from applying their Regular Stated Meeting (RSM) dates in their vacation leave to adjusting their work schedules either by starting early or going straight from their shifts, as well as leaving early during the fellowship to re-adjusting personal time offs just to fulfill their own goals and obligation to the brethren and their lodges.

Philippines is the leading provider of voice BPO services, a world-class provider of ITBPM services to a wide range of prominent Fortune 1000 firms in North America, Asia, and Europe. As of 2019, it had 1.3 Million direct employees (including 300,000 employees in 23 provinces) and 3.1 Million indirect employees, 25 Billion USD in revenues, and 1% global market share. Based on the Tholons, Inc. report, the country is now ranked 18th in the 2021 "Top 50 digital Nations" with Manila considered rank 8th on the "Top 100 Super Cities for East and Southeast Asia". The Philippine advantage focuses on the robust and diverse talents, cost-competitiveness, expanding infrastructure, and a strong government - academe linkage. It is leading in-voice capabilities, growing in IT and non-voice type of work. Given the right enabling conditions, it is projected that the BPO industry has a potential reach of 39 Billion USD, employing 1.8 Million direct full-time employees by 2022.

Despite all these competitive advantages, 2020 has a challenging time because of the pandemic. Travel, Workspace reorientation, limited staffing, and even work types have been considered and adjusted for ‘’work from home’’ (WFH) infrastructure reliability. Every company and industry did what they could for employee well-being. Most common are providing accommodations, covid-testing, safe transportation (pick-up & drop-off points), basic meals, and even financial assistance. Home infrastructure and partnership with the Telcos has been the priority so employees can be quick enough to support and work in the comfort and safety of their own homes. Like all other businesses everything was not easy. Everyone had to be agile, and able to adapt quickly. When a crisis hits hard, we need to focus, think, and act across five horizons - Resolve, Resilience, Return, Reimagination, and Reform.

Resolve means address the immediate challenges that Covid-19 represents to the institution's workforce, customers, technology, and business partners. Resilience is addressing near-term cash-management challenges and broader resiliency issues during virusrelated shutdowns and economic knock-on effects. Return means we need to create a detailed plan to return the business to scale quickly as the COVID-19 situation evolves and knock-on effects become clearer. Reimage the next normal; what a discontinuous shift looks like and implications for how institutions should reinvent. Reform is the need to be clear about how regulatory and competitive environments in the industry may shift. As everyone go through tough times, the industry still provides hope as Filipinos showed how resilient and agile, they can be despite all adversaries. The future still showcases a diverse talent as we expand our business line more from within. The BPO industry started to excel in voice type of work (Customer service, sales, and technical support) that lead to back-office work. It has now expanded to Animation, accounting, clinical data analytics, cloud compounding, data analytics, financial analysis, game development, insurance support, virtual and augmented reality, legal research and analysis, mobile app development and social media analytics. The Philippines can offer robust, great, and diversely talented Filipinos. Despite all these, there are still some opposing forces of technology that may

seem to put a lot of doubt if the industry will stay. Opposing force of technology means easier tasks are being automated, as you may have experienced in our day-to-day lives. Imagine when you had to go to a teller to withdraw money, then years later, ATM was invented which reduced the workforce as some of the easier tasks were automated. There is a potential dampening of roles due to automation, but it just means that the demand for a higher skillset will increase. The low-skilled tasks had a forecasted growth of 4%, but 29% of the task will be dampened due to automation. Mid-skilled tasks are projected to increase by 12%, but 7% will be dampened by the same. The high-skilled task has a projected growth of 19% with only 1% dampening. Companies and individuals should invest in increasing their personal development, hunger for knowledge to keep up with the pace of change. Technology changes our lives every day, and the good news is we have organizations like CCAP (Call Center Association of the Philippines) and IBPAP (IT and Business Process Association) who have built a roadmap and has been working hand in hand with LGUs and the Government focusing on both physical and digital infrastructure, academe changes and training. With great talent, stronger partnership with academe and Government, we will end up a stronger Nation that can provide world-class service to all.

Bro. Novid T. Mohammad Jafari was raised in Rafael Palma Lodge No. 147 on February 20, 2016. He is the current Web Administrator of the Institute of Masonic Education &Studies (IMES). He works as Director for Global Partner Management and Customer Service for PayPal and has been with the BPO Industry for 18 years.