Call Center Millionaires
Posted Wednesday, December 7th, 2005 5:51 pm by Miguel Paraz
Viewed 10023 times | Related entries: Outsourcing
In today’s Philippine Star “Hidden Agenda” column of Mary Ann Ll. Reyes:
The booming business process outsourcing industry is creating dozens of new multimillionaires among Filipinos corporate officers of publicly listed multinational BPO providers.
Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago reveals that Filipino senior executives and managers of upstart BPOs with major operations in the Philippines are enjoying the benefits of stock-based compensation by way of options to acquire company shares at discounted rates. This incentive is on top of their regular salaries and bonuses.
Is it just the management? One call center executive speaks giving stock options across the board in another article,
RP call centers open to giving employees stock options:
PeopleSupport, currently operating one of the biggest call centers in the Philippines, has in fact been giving stock options to employees regardless of rank, said [Rainero] Bong Borja, PeopleSupport Philippines president and Global Operations vice-president.
Borja is also president of the Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) and the Business Process Association of the Philippines.
“Giving stock options is a company-specific decision, and is sometimes used by companies as an employee benefit. As such, some companies may opt to give other benefits instead of [stock] options. However, we at PeopleSupport already provide stock options to our own employees,” he said.
The executive said that stock options given to employees vary according to position, performance, and tenure.
Offering stock options has created a “positive impact” on offshore operations in the country, Borja said. “It is definitely a differentiator.”
So why is Congress involved? Is there something wrong?
For instance, one Filipino executive is on record for recently selling 17,000 shares of PeopleSupport worth $177,650 (P9.8 million) at $10.45 per share, and for giving notice of his plan to sell another 17,000 shares. This is based on publicly available filings with the stock market regulators in the United States.
Wow, that’s a lot. The column does not name the person, so let’s look at Yahoo! Finance insider trading records for PeopleSupport. None other than:
19-May-05
BORJA, RAINERIO
Vice President
17,000
Direct Sale at $10.45 per share.
$177,650
I hope he and his industry really spread the wealth among the agents and employees so they could share in this:
Santiago says the stocks of BPO providers are among the hottest nowadays because the companies are growing revenues and profits at double-digit rates every year.
Related Entries:
23 Responses to “Call Center Millionaires”
Okay… if that’s the case, we could simply loan and start our own call center businesses >:)
One call center here in our city started out with a capital of 2m. Their expected ROI is 2 years…
But then it’s owned by PLDT.
that should be a fast ROI
other companies have an ROI of more than 5 years hehehe
owned by pldt?!?! oh my god. yayaman lang si tony boy dyan. wala naman syng paki-alam sa mga employees nya eh,. ninanakaw lang nya sweldo ng mga employees nya para makapag shopping sa rodeo drv, milan, paris & rockwell ang waswit nyang social climber na wlang kwenta, yung kapatid ni marina?! nasusuka kasi ako kapag tinype ko pa pangalan nya eh
what these callcenter companies are giving are just a drop in the bucket compared to the savings that they generate from hiring lowly-paid Filipinos…but by Philippine standards, salaries of callcenter agents are high. Indeed callcenter companies are profiting a lot…and why should we just be contented with being agents? The idea of transforming internet cafes into small-scale callcenters sounds good, but then again how can low-capital cottage callcenters get clients in the states and europe?
Alam ko PLDT gives one of the lowest call center pays. One of its call centers offered a friend of mine a job with a terribly low starting pay…say about only 70% of current industry standards. haaay!
Pero back to small-scale call centers, there really are companies out there that need the services of call centers but can’t afford call center rates. Siguro dito puwede pumasok ang small-scale contact centers. Daanin sa dami ng clients instead of one-time, big-time which major industry players prefer.
ok, ok…then you would have to lower the salaries. that sounds sensible. start with philippine clients first, then maybe developing countries, not in the states or europe. then maybe, the country could come up with some sort of cooperative for small callcenter companies…by that, we would be producing outsourcing entrepreneurs, not just owners of internet cafes.
wow, thats good to hear, i mean, the part where internet cafe oweners transforming their internet shp into a small time call center.. now i know i have competitions..
xado nman exagerrate ung story, isa lang ung millionaire, tpos kelangan presidente ka pa ng asusasyun para mangyari ung ganung bagay..
Mr. Borja is the one on the record since his employer is a public corporation. Who knows that private stock deals are going through with the other guys.
I think these call center employees deserve much more on the basic grounds that the companies are minting money using their services.
For outsourcing voice, chat, email or back-office support, visit the website of Aumenta Call Center, India.
http://www.aumenta.cc
I really hope the trend increases to give employees, or at least the best performing ones more equity. Employees with equity are generally happier, more productive, and are less likely to be poached away by a competitor.
i actually stumbled onto this while doing research on how to attempt to open a call center in the Philippines. I am in the USA and would be curious as to what average pay is there, and if it is possible for a non-philippine to open a corporation in the philippines. If anyone has any advise about this, please contact me at EssexSXDBHI@aol.com, use CALLCENTER on subject line. thank you
I think someone needs to look into or investigate dozens (probably more) of start-up call centers that miserably failed and got into huge debts. I really pity some I heard to have invested their life-savings without thoroughly studying the investment.
Actually, call center salary is no longer competitive, the so called ordinary industry’s salary already increased twice (as mandated by Law)while call center pay did not increase at all…there are some who even lowered their starting pay!!!
@scott,
you can check out http://www.pinoycallcenter.com . There is an information there about setting up a call center in the Philippines
actually, the so called call center high paying is no longer true. given the rise in commodities and the inflation rate, the purchasing power of a call center agent has reall decreased. moreover, call centers in the Philippines did not increase their basic salaries for the past several years of setup. They say that they base their salary increase on performance and promotions but that is a lot crap. They really need to consider increasing the basics on a yearly basis to compensate for the inflation rates that we have, now evn. since it soared as high as 22% for 2008. When I go to work, i could agents from different call centers that the salaries are no longer competetive.
i agree. call center benefits is the same with what ordinary employees has. and take note of the “SALARY”.
im actually looking for new call center who can provide competetive salary. i hope there’s one. lol
Business Process Outsourcing is now on its fast-pace. More and more business savvy are investing greatly on call center in the Philippines because Filipino people are said to be patient, caring (for clients), honest, hardworking and also an effective English conversant, among others. So to whom will you trust your business? The answer is definitely obvious.
By the newly elected president of the United States, hope that Obama won’t eradicate the call center outsourcing industry and the millions of people who are working behind it.
What now, Obama wins, he’s a good president with good advocacy. And we are all now in great peril.
I wonder what other call centers are giving stock options.
A gay Senior Program Manager (SPM) at Sutherland Global Services was caught in Malls specially in SM San Fernando Pampanga chasing guys and paying them for a short time. He goes by the name “Polo”.
Add your comments