[dropcap]R[/dropcap]ecent months have seen extensive discussion in Saint Lucia surrounding its growing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector, and the future of the industry. While it’s clearly a good time to be an advocate for BPO locally, there remain challenges ahead when it comes to building a BPO strategy within the national and the wider global economy. Just as it’s a time of great opportunity, so too it is one that requires honesty and a clear-eyed look at the BPO sector as a whole.
SAINT LUCIA AND BPO
When it comes to the growth of a BPO sector, Saint Lucia faces some hurdles commonly seen across other nations of a similar population and economy. A relatively small population is a challenge in attracting large-scale investment. There is no prospect of a company hiring 1,000 workers if there is no facility to employ them. While not quite a simple case of ‘build it and they will come’‚ the creation of premises to house staff could provide employment for job-seekers as well as those who already hold employment but seek additional income.
The 24 hour nature of many call centres serving the global economy makes flexibility in staffing and employee lifestyle possible. Even if a facility doesn’t operate at full capacity or perpetually‚ the advantages of a call centre operation are its relatively uniform cost from one worker to the next. Put simply, while a car manufacturer may have wildly varying operation costs for different specialist roles, given the range of job duties, skills and equipment required‚ a BPO call centre role typically would require the same equipment from one employee to the other: a phone and (usually) a computer.
THE SUCCESS OF OJO LABS LOCALLY
OJO Labs is a good example of the successful emergence of the BPO industry locally. First announced back in early 2017‚ and officially opened in November 2017‚ growth has gone so well for the call centre that the company declared in August of this year that 24 new jobs would be created each month. This is firm progress towards the original goal of employing up to 300 Saint Lucians before the third year of operations, so much so that current growth projections have been revised‚ with the expectation that OJO will have 700 employees by 2020.
For critics who may look at such rapid growth with concern or skepticism‚ the partnership of OJO with the Saint Lucian government‚ alongside the integration of A.I technology into existing operations, offers two cornerstones for ‘future proofing’. The resources and knowledge available via public investment‚ and the growing demand for machine learning in the private sector, mean that Saint Lucia holds a leading example of BPO in the Caribbean.
THE VULNERABILITIES OF BPO
While the BPO sector can bring huge benefits to a local economy‚ it can create new issues. BPO outfits, by design, typically exist to support foreign businesses with local resources, doing so via jobs that – whether due to the scope of the role or the distance between the BPO location and the foreign headquarters – can limit promotion within the company.
This can place limitations on an individual’s career progression in a company and, at a community level‚ inhibit the development of home-grown businesses that have a wholly locally owned and operated identity.
For those who wish to see local entrepreneurs and business thrive, not only for economic opportunity but also as a form of economic security against the unpredictable headwinds of the global economy‚ then prioritisation of other industries for growth over BPO is ideal.
A LOOMING SKILLS GAP
When it comes to growing the BPO sector in the global economy, Saint Lucia has unique considerations surrounding its biggest industries. As detailed last week, there remains a sizeable percentage of Saint Lucians employed within the agriculture sector. There are also many now employed in the financial and tourism industries, today the two biggest drivers of Saint Lucia’s economy.
The BPO industry offers a natural crossover with the financial industry. Yet they also make strange bedfellows when it comes to wages. Whether a banker is born and bred locally or dispatched to Saint Lucia from a bank’s headquarters abroad, either way the appeal of making themselves available for BPO work may be minimal.
In turn, the specialist nature of expertise in the financial sector means bringing prospective employers and workers together is no easy task. While the online world may see a sizeable market of general services on offer in which employers and workers can easily match up, many prospective employers recognise that the BPO industry delivers the greatest benefits when it offers something they cannot acquire in-house, or can do so elsewhere at a more economical rate.
The specialist knowledge they have in-house is unlikely to be replicated on the open market. Even if it were, it is unlikely to be at a rate that provides huge cost savings. As a result, the shift towards greater utilisation of BPO services continues to see some real hurdles in its path, even allowing for favourable currency conversion rates and other benefits.
EVOLVING OFFICE CULTURE
While recent years have seen a trend towards BPO, it’s not guaranteed. Many big tech companies like Google and Yahoo are turning back from a culture of remote work and outsourcing towards wanting employees in their offices. This surprises many because a cutting-edge tech firm would appear a natural domain for advancing such changes.
But instead, whether it’s a mix of sheer size and scale (task management softwares like Slack and Asana may make talking to 100 employees a day easy but if you need to speak to them all at once then it’s much easier when they’re all in the same room) or simply the desire to instill a strong workplace culture, after some years of testing, many employers now see issue with having employees located outside the office.
BETTING ON BPO
Alongside the potential for change among foreign employers, there are also the present flirtations with protectionism that many nations around the world are engaging in once more. If it continues, it could increasingly see more jobs ‘brought home’ at the expense of the BPO sector.
This should not put a damper on the success achieved here so far, just a recognition of how circumstances locally and globally have played a role in it so that those aspiring to see the continued growth of a BPO industry locally have firm stepping stones in place going forward.
