The Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP): The hypocrisy

Honestly, do you know what it is & what has it done for you? Many of you may say, what is that? My point exactly! To a tenured call center professionals view, it is the largest group of the biggest call centers in the Philippines. Count in there almost all of the "notable" call center like Etelecare, Convergys, PeopleSupport, Sitel, Sykes and IBM-Daksh. I apologize if I forgot to mention your companies name. There's just too little space. This is a very timely blog because they will hold their annual gathering on July10-11. As they have for the last several years or so. Their agenda for this year's gathering to quote the article from the Business Inquirer is:

"The unveiling of the Philippine call center industry’s road map up to 2010, in alignment with the direction of the wider business process outsourcing industry. Various sectors, such as the government, real estate, education, and information and communication technology, will respond to this challenge during the plenary sessions."

"...Aside from the conference, exhibit, and job fair, the event will include special interest group (SIG) sessions for HR managers, workforce managers, QA managers, IT managers, and facilities managers from different contact centers. These are open for a for call center specialists where their particular issues and concerns can be discussed."

Sounds interesting. But again, what have they done for you as a call center agent, as a call center supervisor even as a call center manager? None you could remember... Another notable point.

Isn't that most if not all outsourcing/call center companies here in the Philippines have prided themselves that the core of their business is their people? If you have been in a couple of call center already, have you noticed that they put so much emphasis ( or sound like it ) to importance of their people ( their call center agents ) and even written in their "call center culture"? The answer should be yes.

But what has CCAP or this Call Center Expo Conference and Expo done for you as an individual call center professional? I'm going leave that as an open question to everybody. But let me express mine. In 7 years Call Center Blogger has been in the call center industry, I have never heard of, felt anything or seen anything positive this association call center gathering has done for my sake. Some would say, it a gathering of call center business people and executives. Well should executives at least talk about issues facing their agents? Since the agents are the core of their businesses anyway. Or have they invited rank and file people to this event? So they can raise issues like health and benefits? I doubt it.

If they are concerned about the welfare of their call center businesses here, what Call Center Blogger believes they should talk about is how they can sustain good qualified call center people to fill in job requirements. They should also talk about how they can better protect their call center agents from the health hazards that the profession brings. How they reduce their call center attrition rate in the midst of competition among themselves. These are the issues that concern both them and the common call center professionals. To date, these are only a a few pressing issues that face our industry.

Another very important issue is "call center hopping". Why is this happening? There are several reason that I'd rather not discuss. But one reason for this is caused by the call center companies themselves. They keep on promoting unfair "teasers" to potential applicants from other call center. Giving out signing bonuses, certification bonuses and "pirating" call center agents from other call center companies are not helping their own kind and association. I believe they should promote their call center companies based on culture and employee satisfaction.

I believe their association needs to discuss: What has the CCAP or this EXPO done for the majority of call center employees in the Philippines? Remember the date July 10-11, 2007... After that date post here and let me know if you've heard anything good that will benefit you as an employee of these call center. For supervisors and managers, shed light on this gathering for your call center agent's sake because after all... They are the core of your businesses. Right?

Posted in: CallCenter Issues