Now that I've gotten off my ass and started doing things and taking pictures and writing about the experience, I've noticed that Manila Muse is starting to load up with too many divergent topics. Therefore I'll take advantage of Typepad's feature for unlimited blogs to create a couple of different sites focused on my interests. If you're coming over from Manila Muse, thanks for the support and welcome to a more focused meditation on the professional life of an (expat) BPO executive.
Hopefully The Source will evolve into a freewheeling discussion of the work of recruiting and educating BPO talent. Fortunately, I have a ringside seat to watch my colleagues solve problems and break ground on maintaining a steady supply of talent to feed the BPO beast that the Philippines has become in recent years.
Epixtar, my employer, is a mid-sized contact center with around 1,500 active seats located in Eastwood City CyberPark. We have other operations in the United States, but I'll be concentrating on the work we do here in the Philippines. Specifically, this is all about the beginning of the BPO experience from the time prospective agents walk in the door to the time they are transitioned into Operations.
According to my COO, Bradley Yeater, philosophically Epixtar provides operational excellence of our larger competitors with the service level and responsiveness of a Mom and Pop provider. Insofar as possible, I endeavor to imbue talent development with this sensibility — that of excellence that privileges the human dimension of the outsourcing business.
The discussion is not informed by the perspective of a large player nor that of one of the myriad of smaller operations that are commonly found in Manila serving smaller, niche clients. Our issues occupy the middle range where management and scale are a very commensurate with the effective management of large organizations that exceed Dunbar's number. In that respect, I suppose we are all addressing the business of developing talent in organizations where mistakes are magnified within the framework of a culture that is relatively familiar yet unique. Our solutions will be specific to our surroundings here in the Philippines as they require a high-degree of cultural sensitivity in design as well as application.
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