The Outsourcing Week in Review: Wednesday, June 3, 2020

Welcome to Inside Outsourcing: The Outsourcing Week in Review

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

Millions of people returned to work across Metro Manila on Monday as one of the world’s most strict – and longest – coronavirus lockdowns was eased to help resuscitate the economy. On May 29, President Rodrigo Duterte approved the Metro’s transition to the lower-grade General Community Quarantine (GCQ) from the MECQ. The decision to ease measures came despite a recent spike in new COVID-19 confirmed cases which have been attributed to increased testing and clearing of a backlog of tests.

>> Working post-pandemic: What employees and employers need to know

June 1, marking the first day of the GCQ, saw millions of returning workers facing commuter-chaos as public transport had only been allowed a partial resumption and buckled under the strain.  Many were forced to wait in queues for hours or walk several kilometres along highways to get to their work.

While outsourcing continues to adapt to the new normals, the pandemic is showing to have a mixed impact across the industry. It seems that the world’s consumers are responding to the quarantine by phoning in for more help – resulting in a surge in call center demand. Online job portal JobStreet Philippines reported 23,000 call center job postings from March 15 to April 30, which accounted for 41 per cent of the total postings in the employment site. Whilst overseas, California’s Employment Development Department (EDD) has also launched a “mass hiring” to bring aboard 1,800 workers to bolster the agency’s faltering call center operations. Additionally, Sitel Group in South Carolina is hiring 325 work-from-home (WFH) employees to support client growth in its Spartanburg contact center.

>> Japan Firm Seeking PH BPO Investment
Seeking expressions of interest for BPO investment. The Japanese firm is looking to be an investor and active partner in the business and aims to complete the transaction quickly so it can continue to focus on the job at hand and pursue growth – read more.

Nigeria has set its sights on expanding its nascent outsourcing sector with the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) announcing the creation of one million Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) jobs by 2025. According to Director-General Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, Nigeria’s BPO sector is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of eight per cent from 2020 to 2027.

Despite the pandemic, some big deals have been done. Accenture will boost its automated insights and Big Data capabilities in India through the acquisition of Ahmedabad-based Byte Prophecy. The firms currently collaborate in providing advanced data solutions to clients across India and the Asia-Pacific. Teleinfo Media, a contact services provider is transitioning its outsourced call center operations to the cloud-based Tikal Call Center in Thailand. Tikal’s Chief Executive Officer Doron Dovrat called this strategy “the future of call center operations and services.”

On the other hand, India’s BPO sector seems to be struggling to adjust. French BPO firm Teleperformance laid off 3,000 workers from 21 cities stating that many of its clients had discontinued their services or nigasked to reduce staffing as a result of dropping activity. Infosys India is also about to trim its mid-to-senior level workforce of delivery managers, industry principals, AVPs, VPs, and SVPs. The company has around 13,000 employees at these levels.  Deep outsourcing layoffs across India have led a major union, National Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES), to write to the Maharashtra Chief Minister complaining that the BPO and KPO industry was aggressively terminating employees without any reasonable cause and withholding or deducting their salaries.

Meanwhile, a Bangalore BPO has filed a case against six of its executives for embezzling ₹4.8 crores (₱32m, $645k) after an internal audit discovered the executives had transferred refund amounts to their personal accounts.

In lighter news, the Philippines has been recognized as the third ‘most favored offshore location for contact center delivery’ according to The 2020 Front Office BPO Omnibus Survey. India and South Africa took the first two spots and were followed by Malaysia and Poland completed the top five. The survey was completed by 540 senior decision-makers representing 42 countries across multiple sectors.

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

NEWS THIS WEEK

2 June 2020

• Call centers scramble to handle surge for customer service – read article…
• Teleinfo Media moves its call centers to cloud in Thailand – read article…
• Infosys India to reduce 1,300 executives to flatten organization – read article…

1 June 2020

• Real estate sector braces for POGO closures – read article…
• PH named as third most favored offshore location – read article…
• Workers brave Metro Manila commute on first day of GCQ – read article…

29 May 2020

• Metro Manila to be placed under GCQ – read article…
• Nigeria targets over a million jobs by 2025 – read article…
• The virtual call center is here to stay – read article…
• Sitel looking to hire 300 full-time WFH employees – read article…

28 May 2020

• Call center hiring spikes during lockdown – read article…
• Six executives accused of cheating BPO of ₹4.8 crore – read article…
• Pune-based union writes to CM over lay-offs – read article…
• EDD launches mass hiring to boost call center operations – read article…

27 May 2020

• Teleperformance in India terminates up to 3,000 employees due to pandemic – read article…
• Metro Manila likely to be under GCQ by June – read article…
• Davao office vacancy projected to surge this year – read article…
• Accenture India acquires analytics and insights firm Byte Prophecy – read article…

Read more Inside Outsourcing Newsletters here:

1. The Outsourcing Week in Review: May 27, 2020
2. The Outsourcing Week in Review: June 10, 2020