50 % of BPOs to increase work force

Written by Max de Leon / Reporter

Thursday, 05 March 2009 22:27

A RECENT survey among business-process outsourcing (BPO) firms showed about 50 percent of the industry expect to increase their work force by up to 15 percent this year. The survey, conducted by Outsource2-Philippines (O2P) and the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) from February 5 to 22, showed the biggest growth in employment is expected from companies that currently employ 5,000 to 10,000 personnel. About 33 percent of these companies, the study showed, project work force growth between 11 percent and 15 percent in 2009. “BPO companies with work forces ranging from 1,000 to 15,000 employees expect an average increase in staffing requirements of between 6 percent and 10 percent, close to the average work force increase expected across all sectors and respondents. Small- and medium-sized operations are expecting employment to increase at the same rate,” the survey, released by TeamAsia on Thursday, said. The survey was conducted online, with a response rate of 24 percent. It had 158 responses from 664 invitations sent to industry executives in a wide range of BPO sectors. Gigi Virata, BPAP research director, said growth in the BPO work force is expected to rise as the global economic crisis forces companies to look for alternative and cost-effective ways to provide high-value services. “With at least 97 percent of surveyed companies providing moderate to high-value services, and 95 percent expecting employment growth, the question for the industry now is whether current academic standards and curricula are aligned with the increasingly complex requirements of the BPO industry,” Virata said in a statement