Teleperformance facility lets go of 300 employees

BY MARIAN GRACE S. RAMOS/BUSINESSWORLD LESS THAN three months after it started operations, the Teleperformance EDSA IT Center 2 facility in Mandaluyong City has downsized its work force and is transferring 300 employees to other call center sites in the country. In an interview on Thursday, Teleperformance Philippines Managing Director David Rizzo said the company was doing "staff adjustments" after one of its technical support accounts reported less calls than previously estimated. "We did not lose the account. It is just smaller," Mr. Rizzo said in reaction to reports that a number of employees would be terminated because a client ditched the local unit of the Utah-based firm. "They talked to us, particularly the QA [quality analyst] division. There would be layoffs because a telecommunications firm changed its contract," an employee said. The source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, added: "Though they promised that they would work it out, I’m worried because we don’t know more than you do." Mr. Rizzo guaranteed that Teleperformance’s EDSA employees would keep their jobs. "No one is forced to resign [because of the changed contract]. People who are laid off are those who violated company policies and have performance issue." Mr. Rizzo said that over the past month, at least 200 employees previously serving the downsized account were transferred to the new 7,000-square-meter site in Sucat Road, Parañaque City. Another 100 agents have three other locations to choose from. Apart from Sucat and EDSA, Teleperformance has two facilities in Pasig and one in Bacolod. "In a situation where we may be overstaffed in a particular account, we move them to another program We already invested in them [employees] through education. It doesn’t make sense to do it all over again," Mr. Rizzo said. In a phone interview, Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) Executive Director Jojo J. Uligan said layoffs are "very uncharacteristic" of call centers here. "It is very unlikely as its [business process outsourcing or BPO] business is growing," he said, adding that the usual practice is to transfer employees to other facilities needing workers. Meanwhile, training in the Sucat facility, which was previously a semiconductor plant, will start on Jan. 28, while production calls will proceed on Feb. 18. Out of approximately 2,000 employees needed by Sucat, a total of 400 people have been hired plus the 200 transferred employees from EDSA. Teleperformance expects to fill up the complement of 2,000 workers in the Sucat facility within the year. So far, Sucat has three clients: two from the information and technology space and one from the customer service industry. The 1,200-seat production facility is Teleperformance’s top priority. "We are focusing on Sucat before we’ll proceed with other expansions," said Mr. Rizzo. Reaching the country in 1996, Teleperformance has four facilities. Today, Teleperformance is employing 7,500 people with 5,000 work stations locally.