Philippines, the Destination of Choice
The Philippines has become the destination of choice for teleservices and BPO work due to its strong affinity for North American culture, an ample supply of English speaking, computer and Internet-savvy college graduates, as well as the reduced cost of operations. These benefits are compounded by reduced attrition, which contributes to lower operational costs and superior performance. With BPO operations beginning in the Philippines in 2000 with 10,000 people; the island nation is now a major hub for outsourced services at over 200,000 people working for over 120 service providers.
- Quality Workforce — Filipinos are a highly regarded workforce recognized by business analysts like Gartner, the MetaGroup, and the Economist Intelligence Unit. The Philippines graduates 350,000 to 380,000 young professionals a year from universities closely patterned on their western counterparts. Once in the workforce, Filipinos tend to remain with the same company for a longer period of time than employees in the United States and India — where the BPO phenomenon has triggered significant churn among employees seeking incrementally higher pay and/or benefits. The average length of stay for Philippines is 2.5 years versus India’s 8-9 months.
- English Language Skills — As the world’s third-largest English-speaking country, Filipinos are comfortable speaking and working in English. Gartner has commented on "the ability of Filipinos to adopt accents and nomenclature, as well as understand American idiomatic expressions and usage, are significant advantages."
- Government Cooperation — The Philippine government remains committed to attracting IT enabled service (ITES) jobs through a series of initiatives that make the country both business and investor friendly.
- Cultural Affinity — The Philippines has a long history with the United States because the Philippines was under U.S. rule for almost 50 years at the beginning of the 20th century. This means there is a long-standing history of cultural cohesion and understanding of the U.S. Filipino professionals are therefore well suited for business interactions with the United States. As Gartner notes, "this positions the country well to work with and conduct business with U.S. end-user buyers seeking to procure services from Filipino service providers."
- University Support — The Filipino educational system has demonstrated a willingness to work with the private sector to develop curricula that address the needs of the emerging ITES industries. Institutions of higher learning — 643 IT schools, 400 technical schools, and 86 colleges and universities — are focused on supplying graduates with business, project management, and language skills necessary to sustain growth.
- World-class Telecom Infrastructure — The Philippines was the first nation in Asia to de-regulate its telecom sector, and demonstrates several important benefits as a result. According to the GIGA Information Group: "The Philippines possesses a clear edge over all other offshore contenders due to its superior telecommunications infrastructure." Communications costs are among the lowest in the region giving businesses with large bandwidth requirements such as contact centers a decisive edge.
The Philippines BPO phenomenon rewards providers that understand how to establish North American cultural awareness within the local operations groups. TeleDevelopment helps organizations leverage the abundance of Filipino talent by helping companies bridge culture and distance.
