INTRODUCTION

There are a lot of things that happened in our lives when this pandemic began. There are a lot of people who got infected, some were healed by their own immune response and some had died since their health was already compromised. There are a lot of businesses that had closed due to bankruptcy and there are millions of people who became unemployed because of that. These are the worst things that happened in 2020 and we're still experiencing the same thing. I really appreciate some of us who use their skills to get up on their knees and never lose hope. Those who use their mind to use their skills and expertise to earn a living. I have a lot of friends who use online platforms like Facebook marketplace to sell something. I myself use it to sell my products too however, eventually, I fail, though there are still a lot of people who still succeeded and they were succeeding when days and weeks went by.

 

Luckily, even though there are a lot of us who became broke and unemployed during this pandemic, there are still a lot of businesses who remain in the limelight, especially those businesses that have adapted the new normal while doing business online or businesses that only use the internet to operate. One of these businesses is a call center company from the BPO industry. This type of business is really in demand especially now that they're offering work from home setup that is essential for us who are really worried to go onsite work. I myself am currently working from home since April of this year, 2020. The good thing about working from home is that you may now have quality time with your family especially on your kids if you have one. It is also a great opportunity for you to try something new. For example, you love cooking, since you're now working from home, you now have some ample time to use your expertise by cooking dishes that you can eventually sell to your neighbors and even online. Also, since you're now working at home, you can try to do some side hustle such as applying for a home-based job like virtual assistant or data entry job that is really in demand nowadays. You see, there are a lot of options that you could try on, all you have to do is to find it. These options will never find you, you, yourself have to find it.

001: WHAT IS BPO?

 

For today's topic, we're going to discuss BPO. What is BPO? What does it look like to work in the BPO industry, why do you have to work here and what are the things that you need to learn first before considering applying in this industry? These are some of the questions that we will try to answer based on our knowledge and after reading this, I hope you learn something. Please continue reading until the end and let me know your key takeaways by writing a short diary at the end of every chapter.

 

A. WHAT IS BPO?

 

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the practice of contracting a specific work process or processes to an external service provider. The services can include payroll, accounting, telemarketing, data recording, social media marketing, customer support, and more.

 

B. WHAT IS BPO IN RELATION TO CALL CENTER?

 

Business Process Outsourcing is the act of outsourcing some aspect of your business's operations to a third-party vendor or service provider. A BPO call center is a team of outsourced agents who handle incoming and outgoing customer calls for other businesses. Business Process Outsourcing or BPO from the word itself is the process of outsourcing employees to work for international clients and handle customer service related jobs. BPO companies in the Philippines outsource employees for their international or local clients to work for them and in exchange these clients will pay these outsourcing companies based on how they handled their customers. These types of jobs are really in demand in Guatemala, El Salvador and some parts of Asia such as India, Singapore and the Philippines.

 

Why are these clients outsource new employees outside their home country? Simply because our pay is so much cheaper than those of their countrymen. For example, if the client is from the US and they're normally paying their US employee about $10-$12 an hour, in the Philippines, this amount is already a daily rate. Imagine how big that difference is? You see, even if I'm the client and I'm from the US, I will definitely invest in outsourcing some of my employees in the Philippines. Also, one of our advantages from other countries like Singapore and India is, our accent is pretty much similar to american accent or if not, we have at least a neutral accent and can easily adapt to english language. Good thing, we're also colonized by the Americans so english becomes our second language which really helps us to communicate to foreigners very easily.

 

C. WHY DO YOU HAVE TO CONSIDER WORKING IN THE BPO INDUSTRY?

 

There are a lot of things that you can consider for you to finally apply in the BPO industry, first and foremost is the competitive salary. Imagine working for 5 days a week and/or up to 22 days a month while getting paid for at least 18,000 pesos, that's a huge some. Not only that, if you're working during holidays and rest days or what we call as rest day overtime, you get paid double of your daily rate plus, if your company offers some incentives for passing your scores or reaching your quota, you can definitely get a 2 digits salary per cut off. Also, if you're working somewhere in Makati, Alabang and BGC, there's a higher chance that you get a higher offer and when I say high, that's higher than 20,000 pesos a month or even higher than 25,000.

 

There's a lot of companies in the southern part of Metro Manila, especially in BGC, that offer a salary that is higher than 25,000 but, of course, that offers only to deserving applicants. You can also consider the environment. There are a lot of companies that have great working environments and good facilities that will help you relieve stress since this job is somewhat stressful - depending on the account that you're going to handle. I'm not gonna mention any name of the company as I don't know if I can do that without paying anything or not but, you can ask your friends or any other groups in Facebook to know which BPO company has the best environment. I know 2 companies somewhere here and near Araneta in Cubao, Quezon City, the name of the company starts with the letter "T" and I'm currently working on one of those companies and I can say that this company is one of a kind.

 

The third aspect that you can consider is the perks that you can get when you're working in this industry. Aside from a higher salary, you can also consider the benefits that most BPO companies offer. Benefits such as, but not limited to HMO coverage and life insurance. These benefits help you and your family when something bad happens to you, knock on wood. HMO coverage is a type of benefit where your company will shoulder the total cost or at least 80% of your hospital's bills if you get hospitalized due to some health or accidental reasons. Some companies also offer free dental and ophtal services, some also offer discounts when you're going to buy glasses in some optical stores. Aside from HMO coverage, they also offer life insurance where your family is guaranteed to get a certain amount when you die but of course, that's a kind of benefit that we don't want to take advantage of as much as possible. Aside from this, some BPO companies also offer retirement plans. There are only a few companies that offer this kind of benefit, mostly those in-house companies. 

 

These benefits will help you to get a sum of money when you retire like SSS pension but the good thing about it, when you stay in a BPO company for more than 5 years and they offer this benefit, when you resign due to some reasons after 5 or more years, you can get a sum of that retirement plan. Aside from these perks there are also some other perks that you can get from some BPO companies like monthly subscription. I remember working in a BPO company in Quezon City and our account was Netflix. During our 2nd day of training, that company gave us a 1 year free subscription of Netflix that even if you're already resigned or got terminated on that company, you can still use that account

Impressum

Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG

Texte: John Paolo Manchos
Bildmaterialien: John Paolo Manchos
Cover: John Paolo Manchos
Lektorat: John Paolo Manchos
Übersetzung: John Paolo Manchos
Satz: John Paolo Manchos
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 03.12.2020
ISBN: 978-3-7487-6676-6

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