The local contact center industry expects to maintain its lead over India in the coming years, with revenues seen reaching $14.7 billion and employment estimated to hit 816,000 by 2016.
According to projections made by the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), the industry should grow 18 percent this year, resulting in an employee base of 406,000.
The goal, according to CCAP president Benedict Hernandez, is to keep the industry growing at a compounded annual rate of 15 percent over the next five years.
To meet this growth target, Hernandez said the industry should exert even more effort to sustain a steady supply of qualified personnel, to ensure that the demand for contact-center services out of the Philippines would be met.
“There’s still a great opportunity for growth. Demand is really not the issue, but our ability to supply,” he said in a briefing on Monday.
Responding to this need to develop a steady stream of personnel, Hernandez said the CCAP would be establishing a Global Competitiveness Institute, a spin-off of the organization’s talent development committee.
The institute, Hernandez said, would be tasked with identifying industry skills standards in terms of language and other skill sets, as well as formulating standardized intervention and skills programs that could trickle down to colleges and even high schools.
“We want to be able to identify standard definitions and measurements for skills because each company may have different definitions and metrics. We want to make these standards embraced by and embedded in schools. We’ll go to [the Commission on Higher Education] and the private schools for that,” Hernandez said.
He said being on top of the contact-center ladder brought certain challenges, including ensuring the long-term sustainability of a qualified pool of front-line and management talent, increasing talent-retention levels, guaranteeing continuous government support and addressing cost concerns.
The Global Competitiveness Institute could address the talent development challenge, Hernandez said. Talent retention would be tackled by the Human Resource Council, which CCAP would also be establishing especially to conduct research and intervention on employee welfare.
In terms of government support, Hernandez said the CCAP was seeking a consistent incentive regime and a reduction in the number of public holidays. CCAP director Rainerio Borja added that the group also wanted to see more investments in education as well as greater local government support, particularly in areas outside Metro Manila.
The contact center industry managed to become the country’s biggest sunshine industry over the past decade, growing from a revenue base of almost zero in 2001 to $2.6 billion in 2006 and further to $6.2 billion in 2010.
The country also surpassed India last year in terms of contact center revenues, according to research organization Everest Group, making the Philippines the leading contact center destination in the world.