Expats should learn culture, exec says
By Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:42:00 05/17/2009
MANILA, Philippines Most Filipinos will say yes even if they really mean no. And they do not mind talking about how much they earn with each other.
Executives from abroad who are working in the thriving business process outsourcing industry here should know cultural tidbits like these to bring out the best in their people.
In a presentation during a recent Asia CEO Forum conducted by Chalre Associates, Jeff Uthoff, executive vice president for solutions and strategy in Asia for ICT Group Inc., said expats here should make an effort to learn more about the Philippine culture.
This would go a long way in motivating their Filipino colleagues and subordinates to do their best, he said.
For example, he said a typical Filipino would say yes even if he really does not mean it because of the Filipinos natural tendency to please other people.
Another useful piece of information that expats should be armed with, he said, was that Filipinos working in a team usually favored team recognition over individual recognition.
He related that local contact center talents also did not appreciate remote management as they preferred hands-on managers who knew what was happening on the ground.
With years of experience under their belt, he said most local contact center talents could already be considered mature and so should not be underestimated.
Apart from these cultural tidbits, he said expats should also take the time to really understand Philippine labor laws, particularly considering the peculiarities of contact center work.
Knowing these cultural nuances and laws would allow expat executives to earn the trust and to enjoy the unyielding loyalty of their people, he said.
This would also spark passion and enthusiasm among their employees, he added.
What ICT does
Using its learnings of the Filipino culture, Uthoff said ICT Philippines had adopted an open-door policy that encouraged employees to openly air their views.
He said the work environment was also engaging, enjoyable and [with] a family atmosphere, promoting teamwork, cooperation and collaboration among employees.
Encouragement and motivation were also freely dished out to employees, he said, and the companys people were always treated with respect and dignity.
Our performance orientation is anchored on rewards and recognition, fun and motivation, career development and team support, he related.
He said these were what gave ICT Philippines employees the positive and champion attitude needed to sustain and grow a contact center business.
Capitalizing on learnings
ICT Philippines has, since its launch here in April 2003, been capitalizing on its learnings on Philippine culture and laws to advance its business.
From having only three client partners and 6 million purely US-based contacts more than six years ago, Uthoff related that the company now had 30 client partners in 57 verticals and 66 million contacts as of end-2008.
Fifty percent of production for ICT is now done from the Philippines he said.
He added that ICT Philippines employee base had also exponentially expanded to more than 8,000 as of December from only 75 in April 2003.
These employees manned 5,300 contact center seats, from only 200 seats six years ago.
Clients served had also gone beyond the United States to Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and other Asia-Pacific countries.
From inbound and outbound voice services in April 2003, ICT now also provided back-office processing, as well as market research and data entry services.
The next frontier
What ICT Philippines wanted to achieve next, he said, was robust operations in the provinces, with expat executives that understand provincial lifestyle and culture.
Beyond just knowing general Filipino culture, he said expats should also be able to grasp the specific cultural peculiarities existing in its Cebu City and Nueva Ecija sites, with about 600 workstations each.
[We have to] make sure imported management understands the province he said, adding that they should be able to embrace the local area, including the local governments and the barangays.
They should also understand that call center experience might be a bit more limited in the provinces compared to Metro Manila, and that contact center representatives might have to be educated more on the contact center lifestyle.
This would entail listening to calls more often and spending more time up front, he said.
Employees should also be educated on career opportunities, dispelling in them the notion that a contact center job was a dead-end job or merely a stepping stone to another career, he added.
Expat executives and employees were not the only ones who needed to be educated about provincial operations, he said, as ICT Philippines clients would also have to be briefed about the provincial sites prior to their visits.
These would have to include briefings on accommodations, food and transportation, he said.