Why Filipinos Are The Best Offshore Workforce Today

By Author: leinski
Total Articles: 2
Comment this article

To say that Filipinos have a better appreciation and understanding of American language and culture than people from India, China and other providers of outsourcing services is a gross understatement.

For starters, the Philippines was colonized by Americans for 48 years during which Filipinos were taught how to speak english in schools patterned after their American counterparts. When the country was given its independence in 1946, the government that was created was also very similar to that of the United States. And today, due to the highly Westernized media in the Philippines, Filipinos are up-to-date with almost everything that happens in the US, whether it's current affairs, fashion, technology, entertainment or anything else.

More Advanced English than the Competition

In the Philippines, english is the dominant mode of communication in government, business, the legal system, sciences, medicine and education. Native languages are mostly used in colloquial settings. Americans and other english-speaking foreigners traveling in the country never get lost because they can ask any man ...
... on the street for directions, and he would understand what they're saying.

As a result of the highly Westernized lifestyle many Filipinos live, the Philippines has become a hotspot for multinational BPO companies. According to the local government, from a mere 4,000 in 2001, the number of BPO workers in the country skyrocketed to 350,000 in 2007; and in February 2009, the number already reached 400,000. The prospect for BPO industry's growth is so promising that the government expects a million BPO jobs will be available to Filipinos this year. Stunning growth is also expected to come from the communications and IT industries which would help generate $11 billion to $13 billion USD in revenues.

Highly Impressive Literacy Rate

The impressive literacy rate of Philippines is proof of the high quality of its knowledge workers. With a literacy rate of 93.4% according to the United Nations Development Programme, more people in the Philippines are literate than the biggest outsourcing competitor itself, India, which only has a mere grade of 61.0%. Filipinos are also ahead of other BPO competitors like China, Egypt, South Africa and Morocco. In fact, more people are literate in the Philippines than in Mexico or a nuclear power like Iran.

This can be partly attributed to the aggressive campaign of the government to educate the people and infuse more power to the country's BPO industry. Today, the government implements programs such as the Cyber-Corridor information and communications technology (ICT) channel, which runs the length of the entire country and interconnects all BPO service centers. The government also has a training program called PGMA-Training for Work Scholarship Program in partnership with the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP). The training includes English language proficiency and computer skills.

Unmatched and Globally Recognized Dedication to Work

The Philippines has been known to generate the most dedicated workforce in the entire world. Millions of Overseas Filipino Workers or OFWs serve as the driving force of top industrialized nations like the US, Canada and Italy. The same widely admired qualities of dedicated service and loyalty to their work that are the bread and butter of OFWs are embodied by BPO employees in the Philippines. As a result, more and more foreign companies are recognizing the significant advantage of hiring Filipino Call Center Agents, Web Designers, Programmers, Writers, and other staff over other BPO providers.

When it comes to BPO, The Only Way to Go is Filipino

In terms of offshore business processing, the Philippines is currently the third top performing country in the Asia Pacific, just behind China and India. With all of the plans the government is setting in motion, a 10% market share seems to be in the bag this year. As more and more companies in the US realize the risk of establishing operations in India and other competitors, the Philippines is grabbing more of the attention it deserves. The biggest American high-definition TV company, cell phone provider and broadband provider have now chosen the Philippines as their BPO choice. With this promising trend, the Philippines is truly set to conquer more turf in the global outsourcing industry very, very soon.

The author of this article writes for Offshoring Inc., a Philippines BPO company that specializes in providing IT services such as website development, SEM and SEO services, contact center services, and more.