Losing Half

If you drive around two of the Philippines' biggest metropolitan areas -- Manila and Cebu -- the burgeoning presence of the call-center industry readily makes itself apparent. Recruitment posters plaster anyplace that might harbor a budding customer service representatives and BPOs use billboards to build their brand as the recruiting war intensifies.

I recently talked to an employee of a U.S.-based call center. She is only a year out of college. Like many of her generation, she started her career with a local call center, earning her chops before transferring, in less than six months, to the American company where she almost doubled her pay.

Here's the shocker: in her training batch of 25 employees, in less than six months, more than half are no longer working for the company. Those fired were let go for frequent absences or committing too many mistakes. The voluntary resignees cited the growing workload and the stresses of the reversed lifestyle (working when the rest of the country is asleep) as the factors in giving up the good pay.

If you're an investor in any of the BPOs, make sure you pay rapt attention to their attrition rate.