Since the news broke out a month ago that Dell was to open another call center in Metro Manila, small to medium sized centers have started to lose their workforce. Even the big players are losing their best people to their centers.
When they strategically placed their first center south of Manila, there was no reason to panic. Based on the pool of competent candidates, south wasn’t much but it took a lot of really good people nevertheless. They competed with the current compensation of agents and supervisors. Being in a third world country, this was like gold to a lot of people.
With the second one to open up, they are very aggressive in getting the best in the industry. I’m not aware of their success rate, but it has been the “talk of the town”. People who have been loyal to other centers for years are now moving, despite of their past bad experience with Dell, when they were still outsourcing.
The reason? Plain and simple. Money.
Their compensation packages can’t be met by most call centers. They are hurting the small to medium companies. Start-up sites don’t even have a chance. Not only is the basic pay very high, but they are adding more benefits and allowances to make sure the candidate signs the contract.
I just hope that Dell can keep their promise and offer the workforce what they need, because money isn’t everything. People might realize that the hard work behind it and the politics just isn’t worth it.
This is not surprising at all. In fact, this is true free-market concepts at work. The best workers migrate to the highest paying bidder for their services. The long-range effect should be that all centers pay more and make the jobs more attractive.
Posted by: Call Center Information | September 26, 2006 1:01 AM | Permalink to Comment