The Philippines’ information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) industry will lose its cost-effective advantage with the proposed wage hikes.
The Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) in a statement yesterday said analysts see the wage hikes as a pending threat to the industry’s edge.
Rosario Cajucom-Bradbury, CCAP managing director, said labor cost is just one of the many factors that clients look at when signing up for contact center or business process outsourcing services across the globe.
In May, the Senate labor panel approved “in principle” a proposal for a P150 across-the-board daily minimum wage hike. While the IT-BPM industry’s compensation is well above the minimum wage, the distortion any adjustments will create will warrant a review of the salary structure of the sector.
This proposal is on top of the recently approved P40-wage increase imposed in National Capital Region, where most of the IT-BPM companies are located.
“The Philippines is no longer just a labor arbitrage. Clients look at the quality of experience and work that are rendered,“ said Cajucom-Bradbury.
She said customer experience covers the quality of care and assistance delivered.
“Filipino agents always stand out because They are outstandingly customer-centric. Their empathy enables them to go the extra mile when serving customers.” said Cajucom-Bradbury.
This and other issues are the focus of the ongoing annual Contact Islands Conference in Dusit Thani Mactan in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.
The local contact center sector has set a yearly annual revenue target of $59 billion by 2028–about $49 billion of which is expected from CCAP-member organizations. The sector posted actual revenues totaling $27 billion, accounting for 84 percent of overall IT-BPM industry revenue of $32 billion.
The contact center industry is to account for 2.3 million full-time employees out of the 2.5 million employment target of the entire IT-BPM industry by 2028.
