Stable workforce supply vital to BPM industry

STABILITY in supply of workforce is needed in order to maintain the upbeat and robust business climate especially in the Business Process Management (BPM) industry.

This, according to David Leechiu, a property consultant and former country chief of Jones Lang La Salle (JLL), one of the country’s largest real estate advisory and consulting firm saying that Davao City as one of the largest cities in terms of BPM locators should continue to tap its quality labor work force.

“Labor workforce production has to be constant because without the labor market, BPM industry might leave the city, it could be a major setback,” Leechiu said in his speech Thursday during the 3rd Davao Investment Conference (Icon) 2015 at the SMX Convention Center.

Leechiu served as one of the speakers in Davao Icon 2015 for the topic: Recent Trends and Developments in Real Estate Investment Industry. He presented that Davao City is among the next wave cities having a huge number of full-time employees for call centers according to ICT-Davao data.

Based on the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (Ibpap) data, an estimation of 33,000 total volume of BPO full time equivalent employees is recorded in Davao by 2014.

Leechiu also emphasized that Davao, as a fast-growing city, has been perceived to have an “untapped labor market, large, Manila-based developers ramping up projects across, safe and secure hub for business and upcoming resorts/tourism development.” Lawyer Samuel Matunog, president of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-Davao in an earlier interview said that the city’s BPM sector demand for industry workers and locators has remained to be the highest in the country.

“The country’s top BPO locators told us that, among all the cities in the Philippines, Davao has absorbed the biggest number of the BPO demand in the country last year,” Matunog said.

BPO locators are individuals working on the promotion of cities like Davao for the locators to come and invest in the city. Matunog said measures on expanding and developing BPO employees are suggested by JLL. BPO developers are also told to follow the market before building so as not to experience unoccupied BPO spaces.

“We should not go ahead too much from the market, market should be there first and the key predictor of the market is talent development, if wala, then the market cannot grow,” he said.

ICT-Davao Inc. is banking on the results of the innovative reform on the Philippine basic education system on IT skills development aside from the various skills development training and initiatives the ICT industry is providing.

Among the top 100 BPO destination in the world are the cities of Manila, Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Baguio, and Santa Rosa according to Tholons 2015 Report List.

 

source: http://goo.gl/ZWZlsf