Running head: THE CALL CENTER AGENTS
1
The call center agents perception of trade offs between labor productivity and employment
Luz P. Banes
Caroline S. Romero
Universidad de Manila
2
the call center agents
Abstract
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA 2017) states that Metro Manila remains the top contributor of the
country’s Gross Domestic Product due to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) that employs call center
agents. However the region recorded highest unemployment rate. It is in this view that the researcher
would like to investigate between the labor productivity and employment. The writer also cited several
options to decrease the unemployment rate in Metro Manila while maintaining its feat of having largest
share in the country’s GDP and determine whether the trade offs between greater labor productivity and
higher unemployment rate in Metro Manila is true.
Call center agents were used as participants in this study. The proponent theorized Okun’s law
relationship between output and unemployment. He said that when unemployment falls by 1%, GNP rises
by 3%. However, the law only holds true for the U.S. economy and only applies when the unemployment
rate is between 3% and 7.5%. and does not follow in Metro manila. In order for manufacturers to produce
more goods, they must hire more people. The inverse is also true. Less demand for goods leads to a
decrease in production, in turn prompting layoffs.
Other Asian countries like Japan, Singapore and
Hongkong noted an increase in labor productivity due to employment of capital technology, yet high
employment rate was recorded. In metro manila the causes of high unemployment rate in the country
contributes to the used of modern technology that replaces the work of laborer.
Keywords: labor productivity, unemployment, call center agents
I.
Introduction
Studies shown that the sustained growth of developed countries has ridden on the back of
technological advances rather than increasing use of factor inputs. (G. Llanto 2012) Meaning
developed countries invested more technology to produce more products or services. As this is
the band wagon for a country’s growth process, Philippines employed more capital intensive
3
the call center agents
investment to boost production and increase employment.
Example of capital intensive
industries are automobile manufacturing, oil production, and refining, steel production,
telecommunications,
and
transportation
sectors (e.g.,
railways
and
airlines).
All
these industries require massive amounts of capital expenditures. (Investopedia May 8, 2019)
Thus the amount of manual labor decreases because of the technology employed as perceived by
the economist, politicians and academicians. The new word now is no longer human labor but it
is now what we call labor automation which is also a part of labor productivity. The assumption
that labor productivity increases as unemployment also increases will be dealt in this paper.
The Philippine government branded Metro Manila as the National Capital Region,
comprising 17 cities , with the City of Manila as the country’s capital. Back in 2016, Metro Manila
posted over 164% greater productivity levels when compared with the other regions of the country.
In this connection economists view Metro Manila as the economic thrust of the Philippines brought
about by the prevalence of high-value added jobs in business services, which is popularly called
as business process outsourcing (BPO). Gartner defines business process outsourcing as “the
delegation of one or more IT-intensive business processes to an external provider that, in turn,
owns, administrates and manages the selected processes based on defined and measurable
performance metrics. In simple terms BPO, is the contracting of non-primary business activities
and functions to a third-party provider that includes payroll, human resources (HR), accounting
and customer/call center relations. Call centers employ call center agents to do these customer
care services.
Over the last decade, there has been a rampant entry of call centers of foreign multinational
companies in the Philippines because it is cheaper to hire Filipino employees and operate in Metro
Manila compared to their respective home countries. In addition, the Filipinos’ command of the
the call center agents
4
English language is better than average. [ CITATION Phi17 l 13321 ] The average English
proficiency of adults in the Philippines is among the highest in Asia. The country ranked third,
only behind Singapore and Malaysia, in the Education First English Proficiency Index, 2018.(
ASEAN Briefing Dezan, Shira & Associates, July 2018)
What is a Call Center Agent- Call center agents work in telephone call center where they
may receive incoming calls from customers regarding a product or service or place outgoing calls
to current or potential customers. They are required to help customers in a number of areas, such
as billing, service issues, and orders. They typically work on a computer at a workstation or
cubicle, where they log the calls they make or receive and enter customer information into a
specialized database. They may be required to take on additional duties, such as sales and
retention. (payscale.com) Call center agents work at the mercy of computers, software program
application and internet. Without all of these call centers will not be possible. It is in this light
that this paper will present the findings that bring about the factors that contributes to labor
productivity of call center agents in Metro Manila and resulted to an increase in employment
despite reliance to technology. Others thought that the technological innovation paved the way to
replace human labor and decrease number of employed people or increase unemployment. A
direct relationship that increase in labor productivity is equal to increase in unemployment.
It is in this paper that call center agents proved that human labor is still the master of technology,
and their effort is a must in order to produce more services and output. Human labor or labor
resources plus technological innovation and capital investments equates labor productivity.
What is labor productivity - Labor productivity measures the hourly productive output for a
country's economy during a period of time. Labor Productivity =Total Output / Total Productive
Hours
5
the call center agents
For example, suppose a country's total output for 2015 was P5 trillion. All labor force worked a
total of 100 billion productive hours for the year.
= P5 trillion / 100 billion hours (50/1)
= P50 per hour
The country's labor productivity for 2015 was P5000 per hour.
At present, the average hourly pay for a Call Center Agent in Philippines is PHP 85.52 or
equivalent to Japan Yen 173.83 ($1.67/hr)( themoneyconverter.com/PHP/JPY June 29, 2019)
Therefore if the labor productivity of all call center agents in the Philippines contributes about $23
billion (P1.15 trillion) (http://ccap.ph/2018/02/20) the computation is as follows:
=Php1.15trillion/12 billion hours=Php84.58/hr. for year 2018 and that’s the average rate of call
center agent per hour. Php 84.58 per hour x 8 hours is Php 676 above minimum wage in the
Philippines. Php537.00 per day.
QUESTIONS, AIMS/OBJECTIVES
Statement of the Problem:
1. What is the perception of call center agents to the trade offs between labor productivity and
employment?
2. How does the call center agents labor productivity affects the country’s economy?
3. What government intervention should be taken to increase labor productivity without
sacrificing human labor.
Objectives
1.
To identify how much does the labor productivity of call center agents contribute to the
employment rate;
6
the call center agents
2. To analyze the call center agents perception as to the trade offs between labor productivity
and employment;
3. To recommend actions to be taken by the government to increase labor productivity without
sacrificing human labor.
Hypothesis/Theoretical Framework
Okun’s law describes the relationship between production output and employment. In
order that the manufacturers produce more goods, hiring more people is a must. The inverse is
also true. Less demand for goods leads to a decrease in production, in turn prompting layoffs.
According to Gordon, (1995) Is There a Tradeoff between Unemployment and
Productivity Growth, while structural shocks may initially create a positive tradeoff between
productivity and unemployment, they set in motion a dynamic path of adjustment involving capital
accumulation or decumulation that in principle can eliminate the tradeoff.
Hence the labor productivity of a country should not be prompted by adding more capital
investment to replace human effort but labor automation will be used to make things easier and
more production to produce. As there will be more technology there will be more workers to
operate and serve the customers as the call center agents are doing. Employees, wanted to do more
in a shorter amount of time while organizations, wanted to generate more revenue with fewer resources.
And technology are used to increase productivity.
The fundamental rationale is that a proven pathway to an improved labor productivity in
the future is bestowed no less by employment growth. Employment of labor and technology sums
up to labor productivity. However, the country's labor productivity from period to period as a
measure of output efficiency resulted to employers and manufacturers to decrease its labor cost
by introducing high yielding output through automation and technology. But these technology
7
the call center agents
are nothing without the human intervention. The birth of Labour-intensive Technology thru
Business process outsourcing came in. BPO is an answer to unemployment in the Philippines.
II.
Method
Participants are 11 call center agents working in different business process outsourcing in the cities
of Manila, Makati and Quezon city. Call center agents working in the BPO,s are among the
workers in the industry that received above average minimum wages. The BPO;s are considered
the most robust industry in the history when it comes to employment of people. Qualitative
research using structured interview was used in this paper. The main purpose of a structured
interviews is to ask the same set of questions from every participants. The selected participants
were asked to answer five (5) questions using convenience sampling (also known as
availability sampling). It is a specific type of non-probability sampling method that relies on
data collection from population members who are conveniently available to participate in study.
Facebook polls or questions can be mentioned as a popular example for convenience
sampling. (Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2012) “Research Methods for Business
Students” 6th edition, Pearson Education Limited ) in study. Facebook messenger was utilized to
collect the answers of the call center agents. Another technology was used in this study. A face
time or video chat was used to execute the structured interview.
Literature
Labor productivity due to high efficiency in the English Language and cheap labor of the call
center agents.
Currently, about 44.1 million people out of the 70.9 million – aged 15 years and above –
are in the labor force. This is approximately 62.2 percent labor force participation rate. Such high
labor productivity is greatly attributed to the Philippines’ high literacy rate which stands at around
the call center agents
8
96.6 percent and is at par with that of some of the affluent countries of Europe and North America.
The average English proficiency of adults in the Philippines is among the highest in Asia. The
country ranked third, only behind Singapore and Malaysia, in the Education First English
Proficiency Index, 2018. English is the primary medium of instruction in academic institutions,
government offices, and in corporate settings. This makes the Philippines the world’s third largest
English-speaking country. Furthermore, the country produces over 600,000 graduates each year,
enriching the professional pool.
With such a highly skilled and productive workforce, along with a robust supply of
business process outsourcing services, and sound economic fundamentals, Philippines has become
one of the most attractive destinations for businesses expanding to Southeast Asia. ( Dezan Shira
& Associates. July 2013ASEAN Briefing) The English proficiency of the Filipinos with the
number of BPO investors in the country because of cheap labor produces more employment to the
Philippines.
How much does the call center contributes to the employment rate of the Philippines.
The Philippines’ call center sector is expected to remain as among the strongest segments
that contribute to the national economy. Many analysts cite the resilience and outstanding coping
mechanism of local contact centers for the sector’s lasting strength and growth potential.
Overall, the local business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, wherein call centers
belong, has a current total revenue of about $23 billion (P1.15 trillion). If it reaches an annual
growth pace of about 16 percent, it is projected that by 2022, the industry could further rise to be
a $40-billion (over P2 trillion) one, possibly making it the top contributor to the national
economy’s growth, displacing overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) remittances.
the call center agents
9
When it comes to providing employment, ads from various call center firms across the
country continue to dominate job vacancy posts in various job portals. Proof to this is the recent
disclosure released by government-sponsored job site PhilJobNet, which indicated that out of
6,120 active job vacancies it posted in the January 18 week, about 17 percent or 1,029 positions
were call center opportunities. ( ccap.ph/2018/02/20) The Contact Center Association of the
Philippines stressed that call center agents are now the new heroes of the Philippines growing
economy and will surely surpassed the revenue from the Overseas Filipino workers remittances.
“According to industry analysts, revenue from the country’s BPO industry grew 10-fold
from $1.55 billion in 2004 to $15.5 billion in 2013, reaching an estimated $18 billion in 2014,”
the report from Oxford Business Group OBG stated.
On the other hand, on a 2017 report, OBG stated, “In 2015 US source, a small group that
provides clients with outsourcing needs, reported that the IT-Business Process Management (ITBPM) sector — which includes IT, BPO, and engineering services — saw industry revenues soar
by 18.7% year on year to hit $18.4 billion in 2014. Growth was even stronger in 2015, with IT and
Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) reporting that annual industry revenues
reached $22 billion that year, a 19.6% increase over 2014 and exceeding a target of $21 billion.”
BPO Industry Growth and Contribution to Philippine Economy. The Philippines is home to
851 registered BPO companies, more than half of which are call centers (429), based. Almost 400
(46.2%) firms provide computer or IT-related services on the latest Philippine Statistics Authority
(PSA) data Oct 10, 2018.
Labor productivity stands at an annual average of PHP583 thousand.
10
the call center agents
Labor productivity (value added per worker) in Business Process Management (BPM)activities
stood at an annual average of PHP583 thousand in 2013. Software publishing generated the
highest labor productivity of PHP3.5 million per worker. Other industries which posted more
than a million mark are the following(psa.gov.ph 2013)
•
Finance and accounting, PHP1.6 million
•
Research and analysis activities, PHP 1.0 million
•
Computer programming activities, PHP1.0 million
Oxford Business Group (OBG) described the BPO sector as an “economic powerhouse”
and “one of the largest white-collar employers in the country.” Since its emergence in the
country in the 1990s, the industry has exhibited exemplary growth throughout the past
years. The sector has then become vital to the country’s economy that it has often been
referred to as a “major economic pillar” and an “economic lifeline
•
“Rarely has a new industry traced the trajectory from concept to prime economic driver as
quickly as business process outsourcing (BPO) has in the Philippines. In a very short time
span, BPO has grown from a handful of contact centers to a global back-office resource
hub and call-center capital of the world, drawing jobs and investment from all corners of
the globe along the way,” OBG noted in a 2016 report
III.
Results/Discussions
Question 1. How many outputs do you finish at a time
1.
I finished whatever is demanded of me
2.
Most of the time, I finished my to-do-lidt for the day before going home.
3. one agent can handle 20-40 tickets a day
the call center agents
11
4. Calls per Rep per Day should be 12 to 14 per day
5. Since being a call center is not only answering call but resolving clients
concern and tagged or note every little thing you told the client, everything should
be recorded, multi tasking is really a hard thing to do.
6. If I am not mistaken we had 2 journals each day, which is similar to reflection
toe topic we had a day after.
7. 180 to 200 transaction for the whole eight hour duty
8. 2 to 5 transactions for 5 minutes
9. I cant even remember how many outputs I already finished because its too
many
10. I was still a student that time.
11. 180 to 200 transactions for 5 minutes
Question 2. Why do you think you increase your production
1. The motivation to reach my goals to a stable life
2. I increase my production because I have different sets of to-do-list which I
accomplished before going home.
3. Since were selling credit cards to the valued client’s mas maraming
productions mas maraming approval mas maraming incentive.
4. Its because I already know the full process and gamy na ung Gawain so
maning mani na lang sa akin
5. If your doing same thing every day, same concern you have this what we call
Mastery that will make your work easy as time goes by.
the call center agents
12
6. Because of time management, and also because of the knowledge I had when I
was studying.
7. In increasing production, it help things done accurately according to what is
needed as well as to motivate myself to reach the purpose of why I am working on
it.
8. Because of the technology where clients will just have to input their
transaction(s) in our system instead of writing it manually in slips.
9. Because I already enhance my knowledge in doing such things.
10.Because we are meeting what the client’s asked for
11. Because an increase in production is a proof of your hard work. (Because
quota is pay)
Question 3. Does increase in production means greater pay?
1. Not always but sometimes there can be incentives not just in terms of money
always though.
2. No. Whether you do your more or less your pay is fixed.
3. Yes, increasing of productions mean having a greater pay.
4. It depends on the regulation of our company but in our situation we have a quota
and when we reach our quota we received more incentives more production more
incentives.
5. Create pay for the increase on production, it doesn’t matter since your sign a
contract for a year with specified salary. Though we do not have an increase on salary, if
we reach the metrices provided by the company they gave us in kind and monetary
incentive.
the call center agents
13
6. Yes because I do double shift. In BPO time is gold, every minute counts.
7. Even if you increase and not to increase your production the pay still the same
but employer gives incentive when you work hard.
8. No.
9. No because it is a fixed rate.
10. No but we would love to.11. An increase in production may give a higher
chance of promotion, if the company earns more you may also get more compensation.
Question 4. Did you observe any specific actions taken by the employers to increase
production..
1. Yes.
2. Yes. Since were in sales there are incentives.
3. Yes.
4. I thing yes! Most of the agent even they reach their quota still they strive more of
production because it is a competition. More production means a candidate for promotion.
(Karamihan sa mga agents kahit quota na sila di sila nagpepetics, in terms of production
kasi kami competition din yung nangyayare kaya mas maraming production mas mapipili
for promotions)
the call center agents
14
5. Yes before in our department we do manual calls. We contact our clents thru manual
call. Clients answer call right away and there is no busy or unattended line(Sumasagot na
kaagad sila sa mga calls wala nang unattended lines of busy line.)
6. If we reach the metrics provided by the company they gave us kind and monetary
incentive.
7. Yes. They are giving away gifts, to motivate each agent to hit their metrics, and because
of that the productivity level of the agents increases. For us its like a non-monetary rewards
like tumblers, perfumes, gadgets etc.
8. Yes, when you are good referrer for cross selling they give incentives or token to their
employee.
9. They just invest more on IT Technologies for the system.
10. Yes. By giving incentives to their employees and also by having evaluations to their
workers.
11. Hiring more people.
Question 5. Do you think employment technology will give birth to additional labor force.
1. Yes, when it comes to a corporate company transitioning into digitalization it requires
to have someone to demonstrate the new technology introducing it to the people but for a
factory I think it will less additional labor force.
2. No. Putting machines to work will only cause unemployment to people.
the call center agents
15
3. Yes.
4. In every call center company technology matters since it will help to resolve clients
concern the fastest possible it can be, a lot of company spend million for sophisticated
facility.
5. I agree because for us people working on a BPO, technology is like a thing that we cant
live without. By having the latest technology it makes our lives easier. And also the
technology that we are using also lessen the workload of each agent.
6. Yes, as we all know technology helps a lot to make things easily done but employer
also need to have additional labor for to make it happen.
7. It will probably lessen the labor but it can be more crucial once that technologies
encounter difficulties and glitches.
8. It’s a no for me because more task and command can be done by technology. Therefore,
it will less the labor force
9. For me, no.
10. Yes but only in certain fields.
Question 6. What did the company owner do when it employed technology to increase production?
2.
On the other side he/she still needs to employ workers because someone needs to
operate the technology
3. They gave a hassle-free service to their customers which is very convenient
16
the call center agents
4. Add more call center agent
5. Being a call center agent for an inbound account it is a must that you handle 80 to
100 calls a day
6. In every call center company technology matters since it will help to resolve clients
concern the fastest possible it can be, a lot of company spend million for
sophisticated facility.
7. They do mass hiring to hire new call center agents and also to fulfill the head count
that the production floor needs. 7. The only thing that they need to do is to have
more manpower to increase more production.8. He will just see to it that all of the
employed technology is working well and fit for fast and more production. Only
few labor force is needed for supervising everything. 9. Due to investing in
technologies it lessen the work force but the production will increase due to more
partnerships and products will emerge. 10. Cost cutting. 11. Prior implementing the
utilization of new technology/systems, the company does a thorough trial/testing.
Employees will then be taught how to use the new system
Discussion
The participants finish their expected output per day because of the following reasons: The
To-Do-List; pre assigned two (2) journals, quota of two (2) to five (5) transactions for 5 minutes,
and a 180-200 transactions for the whole eight (8) hours. Therefore outputs are met by the call
center agents because it was already expected of them to finish.
The call center agents answered the reasons why there is increase in production among
their part because of the motivation they have to reach their goals, to hit the to do list, and the
the call center agents
17
driving force to receive more incentives, and because of mastery, time management, knowledge
learned from school, technology and increase in production means proof of hard work. The
answers are reflection of the behavioral pattern of the call center agent to prove that work can be
done productively due to mastery and pay incentive.
The participants answer for question number three. Do you have increase in pay when there
is increase in production. Among the 11 participants there are six (6) participants who answered
they have fixed salary so increase or decrease in production, means nothing to them because the
salary is fixed. Only one (1) participant answered that increase in salary depends on the regulation
of the company. Three (3 participants answered an increase in production causes an increase in
pay provided that the employee will hit quotas, work hard and if the company earns more.
Another question reflecting answers of the call centers agents when employers would like
to increase production what specific actions are taken by the owners. Majority answered monetary
incentives, gifts, token and promotion and evaluation are always being administered and to hire
more people to work. For question number 5, Do you think employment of technology will give
birth to additional labor. Seven (7) participants answered positively, four (4) participants said
negatively. Thus the call center participants believed that technology is not replacement for human
labor but it is a partner for more production.
The last question 6. What did the call agents observed when the company owner employed
technology to increase production. More revenue, more partnerships and more production resulted
in employing technology. Lesser client complaints, and if there is any it is easily resolved. The
owners train more people to adopt on the new technology. These are the answers: need more
workers to operate technology, hassle free service to customers, must to handle 80-100 calls a day-
18
the call center agents
more production is required; resolve clients concern faster, mass hiring for more antents, more
technology more manpower; only few labor forces needed to supervise the technology; lessen the
work force but more partnerships and products produce, cost cutting and employees are taught
how to use the machine.
IV.
Conclusion/Recommendation
The fundamental rationale is that a proven pathway to an improved labor productivity in
the future is bestowed no less by employment growth. Employment of labor and technology sums
up to labor productivity. However, the country's labor productivity from period to period as a
measure of output efficiency resulted to employers and manufacturers to decrease its labor cost by
introducing high yielding output through automation and technology. But these technology are
nothing without the human intervention. The birth of Labour-intensive Technology thru Business
process outsourcing came in. BPO is an answer to unemployment in the Philippines. Remember
when the Philippines faced with double-digit unemployment rates in the 1980s to the early 1990
and going abroad is the only answer to unemployment, today it has come a long way since BPO
investments were conceptualized. Oxford Business Group (OBG) described the BPO sector as an
“economic powerhouse” and “one of the largest white-collar employers in the country.” And the
Philippines was even dubbed the world’s BPO capital in 2010. In a very short time span, BPO has
grown from a handful of contact centers to a global back-office resource hub and call-center capital
of the world, drawing jobs and investment from all corners of the globe along the way,” OBG
noted in a 2016 report.
According to the study the call center agents have high productivity because the employers
taught them to finish a certain number of production a day. The motivation to increase production
given by BPOs are incentive plans like cash bonuses, profit-share, shares of stock, retention
bonuses, training and non-financial recognition. The participants also stressed that BPOs spend a
lot in training and team building. Here the employees were taught to be one with the employers
and the mission vision of the company. They are taught to reach their goals, to hit the to do list
the call center agents
19
and therefore be productive. The owners also spend time, effort and money to train more people
to adopt on the new technology The everyday task the call center agents do as they last in the
company enables them to master the work and that would mean lesser time is allotted for a
particular production that sums up to increase in production at a lesser period of time. Mastery
comes if there is a repetitive action and time management follows. Call center agents are
millennials, and the introduction of technology and exposure to these lead them to be more
productive. More revenue, more partnerships and more production resulted in employing
technology. Lesser client complaints for a certain company catered by the BPOs and if there is
any it is easily resolved, this would mean another good production. All the answers of the call
center agents are reflection of the behavioral pattern honed in them through training. They proved
that work can be done productively due to mastery, pay incentives, time management and exposure
to technology.
Therefore, for high labour productivity like the business process outsourcing,
the
government has to make a suitable monetary and fiscal measures to be adopted to discourage the
sole use of capital-intensive technology by the business sector. The government may also give tax
incentives to the BPO’s and may grant awards for the most number of employed call center agents.
Labour-intensive techniques with lower productivity of workers in the industry should be
discouraged. This may trade off between employment and growth of output. It is evident from the
answers of the participants that BPO encourages more employment and the salary BPO offers is
more than the minimum wage. Whenever the investors in the BPOs acquire new technology to
increase its production, more workers are needed to operate the same. The role of call center
agents labor productivity to employment is that they will spur increase employment rate in Metro
Manila and thereby increase in gross national product.
20
the call center agents
According to socio economic planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia from GNP 2016 of
6.9%, 2017 got 6.7% and 6.6% for 2018 but the unemployment rate as recorded by Philippine
Statistics office are as follows: 2016 is 5.5%; 2017 is 6.6% and 2018 is 5.3%. In final analysis in
the year 2016 where it recorded the highest increase in GNP of 6.9% compared to 2017 and 2018,
it has also the lowest unemployment rate. That is really the normal trend, increase in GNP low
unemployment. For the year 2017 compare to 2016, there is a decrease of 0.2% in GNP and
increase in unemployment rate of 1.1% also a normal situation. But in 2018 where there is a
decrease of .1% in GNP there is also a decrease of 1.3% unemployment rate. Meaning there is a
decrease in the number of outputs/productivity a .1% yet there is 1.3% decrease in unemployment
rate or there are more employed persons. So Okun’s law does not follow in the Philippines.
Okun’s law relationship between output and unemployment. He said that when
unemployment falls by 1%, GNP rises by 3%. However, the law only holds true for the U.S.
economy and only applies when the unemployment rate is between 3% and 7.5%. and does not
follow in Metro manila.
Recommendation:
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Police Authority should be
vigilant about the welfare of the call center agents in terms of labor standards and labor relations.
DOLE should review the policies of the BPOs in terms of the quota system policy of the call
centers whether the agents are not in the disadvantage position and the stability of its employment.
Since most of the BPOs or call centers operates a 24 hour work phase therefore the security and
the health of these workers should always be prioritized by the Police Authority. The Department
of Transportation for a safe transportation of the call center agents and the Department of
the call center agents
21
Information and Communications Technology for the fast internet connection is a must to the
Philippines (DICT). The Department presents the National Broadband Plan – the blueprint in
building infrastructures for a digital nation.
The Philippine government, in its desire to accelerate the deployment of fiber optic cables
and wireless technologies and improve the overall internet speed and affordability all over the
country, particularly in remote areas, developed the National Broadband Plan (NBP).
The NBP, which addresses the clamor for universal, faster and affordable Internet Access
has three major broad strategies, namely: 1) establishment of policy and regulatory reforms; 2)
government investment in broadband infrastructure; and 3) support for the stimulation of
broadband demand.
Align with the recommendation of the researcher to increase employment is for the
government to accelerate Investment in Agriculture sector using more human labor to operate
technology and rely not only on labor automation. Agriculture sector is the largest labor incentive
industry in the Philippines. Investment not only generates employment directly but also has a
multiplier effect which operates through backward and forward linkages. If the government
provides more credit to farmers at lower market rates of interest from commercial banks therefore,
the farmers could buy fertilizers and other high-yielding inputs, and arrange irrigation. Organic
products should be priced reasonably in the market so as demand will spur. In the market,
agricultural products are pegged at higher price. Organic agricultural products are those products
that are not technology driven, no fertilizers, no artificial processing, or in layman’s term a product
of a backward agriculture.
22
the call center agents
Further, there is really a need for the expansion of educational projects and more health
care program that will generate employment opportunities. When there will be more schools,
hospitals, health care clinics in the rural and urban areas, employment will be created both to the
educated and unskilled persons.
Do not let humans and computers overlap, but instead look at jobs that require an element
of human behavior that computers cannot reproduce: intuition, creativity, innovation, compassion,
imagination, and so on. These jobs will never be replaced by technology. The call center agents are
workers of the new generation made by technology driven resources. They provide labor effort with
the help of technology and provides greater productivity. The employment of technology offers
additional work because the failures of the machines, hardwares and softwares can only be provided
solutions and decisions by the human intelligence. The use of technology does not replace human
labor it should only be a tool to make things happen at a shorter time at its best quality.
References
Bourguignon, F., Railton Scott, T., The Globalization of inequality (2014), Princeton University
Press.
Campbridgeshire, UK PALgrade, Macmillan.
Campbridgeshire, UK PALgrade, Macmillan
The Contact Center Association of the Philippines ccap.ph/2018/02/20)
Keynes,J.M. (1936) The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money of 1936 (Doctoral
Dissertation) CAmpbridge, Paul R.
Dezan Shira & Associates. July 2013ASEAN Briefing)
Gordon, (1995) Is There a Tradeoff between Unemployment and Productivity Growth,
G. Llanto 2012 Productivity and Labor Employment
Keynes,J.M. (1936) The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money of 1936 (Doctoral
Dissertation) CAmpbridge,
Krugman,P.R., Obstfeld,M&Melitz,M.( 2017) International Economics: Theory and practice
11th edition, Pearson Education.
23
the call center agents
Okun's Law Definition |
Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/okunslaw.asp#ixzz5RnkE1D00
Paul R. Krugman,P.R., Obstfeld,M&Melitz,M.( 2017) International Economics: Theory and
practice 11th edition, Pearson Education
Piketty T. (2016) Capital in the twenty first century, University Press
Philippine Statistics Agency, (psa.gov.ph 2013)
Villa, Roderick, February2018
Samuelson, P.A. (1947) Foundations of Economic Analysis,(Doctoral Dissertation) Harvard
UniversityPress
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2012) “Research Methods for Business Students”
6th edition, Pearson Education Limited )
Retrieved from https://www.bworldonline.com/bpo-sector-an-economic-pillar/may 2018
https://www.manilatimes.net/solving-the-unemployment-problem/80176/
https://www.information-age.com/people-vs-technology-innovation-come-123468162/
https://www.pinoy-ofw.com/news/224-reasons-why-philippine-unemployment-rate-is-high.html
https://countrymeters.info/en/Philippines#literacy
https://tradingeconomics.com/philippines/gross-national-product
Acknowledgement
The researcher would like to show her gratitude to Mrs. Caroline S. Romero for gathering the call
center agents to answer the structured interview. For Engr. Leticia Marquez for giving pointers to
finish qualitative research and for Ms. Nenita Santos for extending help in securing Japan visa.
Also for Dr. Virgie Berganio and Dr. Estela Diaz for pushing me to attend the conference and
securing airlines and accommodation for the WERA 19th conference.
To God be the Glory.