Strong currency hurts Philippine call centres

[Ronzkie23]

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Strong currency hurts Philippine call centres

AFP News – 16 hours ago

The peso's rise is hitting call centres in the Philippines, handicapping the global leader in the lucrative business as it combats a challenge from top rival India, industry officials said on Wednesday.
Forty percent of the members of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines had cancelled expansion plans and an equal number reported losing business to other destinations, the industry group said.
Nearly half disclosed in a group survey that they were having trouble meeting revenue targets because of the strong peso, it said in a statement.
The association said the local currency had become uncompetitive compared to the rupee in India, the Philippines' main rival for outsourced business services.
"The combination of an appreciating peso and a depreciating Indian rupee has provided India with a meaningful cost advantage," the statement said.
The Philippine peso has strengthened by about seven percent from about 43.90 to the US dollar on January 2 to about 41.05 at the close of last week.
Industry president Benedict Hernandez said Philippines-based call centres must be able to operate "within acceptable market prices", but added: "That's becoming increasingly difficult as the peso continues to appreciate".
The Philippines overtook India as the world leader in call centres in revenue terms in 2009 and in manpower terms in 2010, according to industry figures.
Manila is also making strides in other outsourced businesses like medical and legal transcription, accounting, software writing and animation.
Earlier this year the association had forecast that call centre revenues would rise to $8.4 billion this year with 493,000 people employed.
They said this should increase to $14.7 billion by 2016, when the sector is tipped to employ 862,000 people.
Hernandez did not say if the targets were now in danger of not being met.

Source: Strong currency hurts Philippine call centres - Yahoo! News Philippines

[rickflag]

Mao na ni ako giignon bad effects sa atong strong currency. Kung padayon ta ani can we afford to lose those companies who provided millions of pinoys jobs? Kinsa man unya makahatag ug work nila, ang mga importers nga mao ray naka benefit aning strong peso?

[james_chaw]

i don't mean to be disrespectful of call center workers but let's face it: With the advent of these call centers in the Phils. there have been some good and bad aspects to the economy and business sector respectively.

It has been good to the economy in that more and more people have disposable income which means more businesses are benefitting from it. But on the other side of the coin, businesses, especially traiditonal businesses have become less favorable in terms of potential employers to the workforce because: a) low take home salary compared to what call centers are offerring. ; b) because call centers are located in more "sosyal" locations, they would rather work there for the "prestige".

Gone are the days when work is work no matter where it is; so long as it is decent and sufficient with good benefits, beyond those that the government demands of its business owners.

One disturbing notion that call center or potential call center people don't see is that call center companies pay you in cash and have minimal health benefits. so in case of emergency, utang na naman kay gamay ra makaya sa health benefit program sa call center company.

And what will happen to the would-be displaced workers if call centers shut down? They will become OFWs na pud.

[rickflag]

Bro as far as I know, most big call centers here have good health benefits. My cousin works at Convergys, they have Maxicare HMO and their coverage is 500K per illness. It even covers her parents. No other local companies can provide that much I bet.

[james_chaw]

that's the thing bro, a lot of people don't know that there are a number of companies that do offer that same coverage. They just have to look for them.

[james_chaw]

see for most potential employees, their bottomline is take home pay. If it's too low, they don't bother knowing what is the company has to offer. I know because i've seen MANY who apply, then don't come back.

[james_chaw]

there are numerous medium scale companies that have great benefits in Cebu. it's only a matter of getting the information right.

[rickflag]

most of these companies who never off are unfortunately the local ones, especially the ones owned by families lang. below minimum pa ang sueldo wa pa gyuy laing benefits. me i used to work at one of the biggest BPO in the country, my rate was above average and I have HMO worth 400K per illness and life insurance worth 24 times my monthly pay. aside from that, I also received quarterly bonuses and it is one of the companies who will be affected with these strong peso currency since it is an MNC.

[james_chaw]

That erroneous generalization that family owned businesses pay below minimum wage is laughable and ludicrous. Professionalized family owned businesses know and DO pay the right wages and benefits and go beyond what is required of the government at times. employees who have been mired in large scale businesses have little to no accurate and up to date information of how small and medium scale businesses are being run nowadays.

The rise of institutions that offer family business seminars and consultants who offer professionalization services to family owned businesses is already a step in the right direction towards becoming more competitive in the real world. You think these MNCs didn't start small and work their way up? No one becomes an MNC overnight. Steve Jobs worked out of his garage. Henry Ford started small. Rockefeller started with only a few buildings.

The course of family owned-businesses is towards professionalization, especially when it's the present generation that are handling the reigns.

[james_chaw]

also, it is not only the BPOs that are reeling in from the negative effects of the strong peso but also the exporters. Exporters relied on a weak peso in order to gain more.