CLASS ACTIVITY 1: RESEARCH SEMINAR I

TOPIC: The effect of investing on Frontline Employees of Business Process

Outsourcing with Continuous Improvement Culture towards the Company Gains

To write up a concept paper which generally entails the focus subject of my

target topic for my upcoming thesis, I definitely reflected within my own experience and

probably my own desire to improve how continuous improvement, or subjects this like,

is being applied as one of the core values of a Business Process Outsourcing

Company’s culture. Based on my work experiences in this industry, the four Companies

that I have worked with, namely ETelecare Global Solutions, Sutherland Global

Services, QBE GSSC Insurance and WNS Global Services, selected one part of their

core value that relates to innovation, continuous improvement and process excellence.

Simply and evidently, the Business Process Industry recognizes the need of advancing

their business propositions through continuous improvement as they made sure it is

rooted into their own DNAs or core values. This ensure that the wheel of progress

keeps on turning for this Industry as they keep up with the daily changing needs and

demands of their stakeholders and customers.

As per International Labour Organization in their Working Paper Series

December 2016 – “Advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have

facilitated growth in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, and the Republic of

the Philippines ranks among the world’s major BPO destinations. The BPO’s economic

influence in the country has tripled in the last ten years. Low labor costs, a highly skilled

workforce and competitive ICT infrastructure have provided the major drivers for this

growth. While contact centers represent the most important subsector in terms of
revenue and employment, higher value-added subsectors are also growing. BPO is

expected to expand rapidly in the coming years, further strengthening the country’s

participation in global supply chains (GSCs).” The Philippines Department of Trade and

Industry (DTI) defines BPO as the “delegation of service-type business processed to a

third-party service provider.” BPO in the Philippines is becoming a key developing

industry, primarily due to the relatively low cost of living, and a workforce which

composed mainly of young and educated Filipinos with good spoken English language

skills.  Most of the international research and data companies have placed the

Philippines as the number one trending country as the top outsourcing destination.  The

Business Process Outsourcing Industry in the Philippines is considered to have been

established well since it first started in 1992. The industry is composed of eight sub-

sectors, namely, knowledge process outsourcing and back offices, animation, call

centers, software development, game development, engineering design, legal and

medical transcription. The industry itself has been regard as very essential to the

country’s economy as one of the biggest sources not only of employment for the labor

force, but as a budget resource especially during the scarcity caused by the COVID-19

Pandemic. This industry is one of the largest sources of tax and have continued its

operation while others have already closed due to the pandemic. The Philippine

Economy was able to survive despite most of the industries downfall because of the

Business Process Industry. It is said that its potential growth has been estimated into

20% annual increase as per the Information Technology and Business Process

Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) up to year 2022. In 2016, this Industry has given

1.16 million jobs to Filipinos, which majority are considered less hirable due to the most
company’s high standard of education level, age, experience among other reasons.

Evidently, Business Process Outsourcing have been giving second chances to those

who have been expectedly unemployed. Hence, the Philippine Business Process

Outsourcing’s stability is significant not only to the Country’s economy, as well as the

employees and families which depends their livelihood in this industry.

Continual Improvement, sometimes called as Continuous improvement, by

definition, is the process of ongoing improvement of products, services or processes of

an organization through incremental and breakthrough improvements. These efforts can

seek "incremental" improvement over time or "breakthrough" improvement all at

once. By constantly looking for ways to improve things, it results to streamlined

processes and efficiency gains which eventually leads to savings and stability. It is also

called Kaizen, which originated in Japan shortly after the end of the Second World War.

It is a Japanese term meaning "change for the better" or "continuous improvement." It is

a Japanese business philosophy regarding the processes that continuously improve

operations and involve all employees. Kaizen sees improvement in productivity as a

gradual and methodical process. The concept of kaizen encompasses a wide range of

ideas. It involves making the work environment more efficient and effective by creating a

team atmosphere, improving everyday procedures, ensuring employee engagement,

and making a job more fulfilling, less tiring, and safer. It gained massive popularity in

manufacturing and became one of the foundations of Toyota’s rise from a small car

maker to the largest automobile manufacturer on the planet. These processes are being

used by a lot of Companies now and these Companies gained a lot from Kaizen. They

are measuring their success with Efficiency Gains or what they called as Hard and Soft
Savings. To differentiate, Hard Savings are the Efficiency Gains and Monetary Savings

while Soft Savings are more on their intangible impact to their customers and

stakeholders.

I observed that most companies in Philippines Business Process Outsourcing

industry, who claims they adopted Continual Improvement as part of their Core Values,

invests only to their “higher ups”. These are the Team Managers up to the higher levels.

Lean Six Sigma Training opportunities were being offered to these levels and gave

opportunities for leading projects. With the help of their front liners, these Managers are

then being given the recognition as the Project Lead while their Front liners barely

understood what is in it for them to be part of the Project Team. Their usual role is to

provide daily inputs and data to their Project Lead that can be cultivated for the Project

Success. The Front liners seldom see the bigger picture and realized how they are

contributing to the project – and then to the Company’s success. Hence, they may or

may not understood how the core values should be applied in their daily working lives.

This is what my Thesis would be about – to study if it would be feasible and

beneficial for the Philippine Business Process Outsourcing Industry if every Company

under them would implement plans to extend the investment of embedding the learning

of Continuous Improvement to each and every of their Front liners. Are there

Companies who have already done this and how are they progressing so far compare

to those who have not done yet? Does it add up to their progress at all? How will this

paradigm shift impacts the future of the Philippine Business Process Organization?

Furthermore, how does it impact employee commitment and retention in the long run?
 These are the vital questions that I am looking forward to answer with my Thesis

Paper. This topic is very personal to me as it is my passion to help people grow. As a

People Manager, I am an avid fan of investing in people. However, I also know that

there are limitations to systems and processes such as and at the end of it, I would like

to provide valuable and educated recommendation to the industry where I spent my

twelve years of working life.