WOMEN LEADERS (From left) Vanessa Janssen of Guerilla Staffing Solutions, Marge Aviso of Telework PH, Pamela Ann Baluyo of Scale Experts Inc. and Patricia Francisco of Customer Success for Southeast Asia. — CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, especially call centers, seem to perpetuate traditional gender roles, as the public often sees stock photos of offices with rows of women employees with headphones in front of computers.
The pictures evoke images of old business establishments when women did mainly clerical work or were telephone operators in big companies.
But executives of some BPO companies belie the notion that call centers are no places for promoting women empowerment and gender equality. The executives were participants in the first-ever WOMENtrepreneurs Meetup in Manila. With the theme “Connect with Women Leading the Philippines Outsourcing Sector,” the meeting was organized by Payoneer, one of the world’s leading cross-border payments platform, to mark International Women’s Month in March.
Monique Avila, Payoneer country manager of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries, says the company, which has been in the country for seven years, wants to shine the spotlight on women executives and entrepreneurs and how they have advanced the goal of gender equality and women empowerment. There are many Filipino women-led businesses, she points out.
Vanessa Janssen, president of Guerilla Staffing Solutions, an all-women service provider firm at the Clark Freeport Zone, says gender is not really an issue in the BPO industry.
“The work is focused on deliverables and outputs, and not on looks or physical aspects… It gives all staff members, no matter the gender, the equal opportunity to showcase their skills,” she says.
Since the work is not dependent on gender, Janssen says Guerilla simply ensures that they hire the “right people based on their skills, experience and work ethics. This gives female applicants an equal opportunity to land the job.”
Monique Avila -contributed photo
No discrimination
In fact, some 58 percent of Guerilla’s employees are skilled, talented and qualified women who fit the jobs available and exceed clients’ expectations, she says.
“We empower these women by giving them opportunities to grow. Not only can they support their families financially but, because of the work-life balance that we practice here in Guerilla, some members of our staff are advancing their education by attending school and taking their master’s degree after their shifts.”
Marge Aviso, chief executive officer of Telework PH, says company policies are geared toward equality between men and women in terms of access to a good working condition, health care, job roles/opportunities, training and development, salary grade/benefits and privileges. “We have a no discrimination policy in the workplace. Our hope is to continuously improve and add more to the initiatives, like child care services and certification for equal employee opportunity,” she adds.
Guerilla women employees, Janssen stresses, are not holding traditional women jobs.
“We employ extremely talented women for various roles such as CAD (computer-aided design) drafters, estimators, engineers, landscape designers, to name a few. Throughout Guerilla’s recruitment process, we never discourage women from applying for jobs that may seem to be male-dominated,” she adds.
Janssen says the company ensures the process is unbiased and rules apply to everyone. The industry, she notes, has progressed through the years and created more opportunities across the board for all genders. Aviso admits that her company, a homegrown BPO firm based in the province of Bulacan, gets more men than women applicants. But technological advances seem to be leveling the playing field a lot more.
About 40 percent of women employees at Telework PH are doing data analysis, work that has a lot to do with technology. And the company tries to help women further improve their chances for such technical jobs.