Are Ads Enough to Make You
Employer of Choice?
by Carol Dominguez and Paul Catiang

Readers of Sunday newspapers are more than familiar with the job openings advertised for the various contact centers whose operations have grown over the years. Week after week, these advertisements run the gamut of marketing strategies and push the newspaper medium to its limits with regard to ad size, color and sheer inventiveness—a sure sign of how much the business process outsourcing industry needs talent.

But is that all there is to it? Are there other ways to go about attracting talent to work for contact centers and to make them stay? What kind of brand will jobseekers and employees buy into? To answer these questions Carol Dominguez, President and CEO of John Clements, has conducted a study of five BPO companies: Convergys, Teletech, PeopleSupport, and eTelecare.

Convergys: Outthinking, Outdoing
In the Philippines, Convergys has around 12,000 employees with an estimated monthly ramp up of around 800 people. Recently, Convergys was named Employer of the Year at the 2007 International ICT Awards. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, the publicly-traded company now has eight operations in the Philippines, with five in Makati, one in Pasig, one in Alabang, one in Cebu and one in Bacolod. The company values unparalleled client satisfaction, teamwork, respect for the individual, people development, diversity, its shareowners’ trust, corporate citizenship and integrity. In 2006, Convergys posted revenues of US$ 2.8 billion, with its stock price at US$ 16.61.

When it comes to branding practices, Convergys invests in weekly colored newspaper advertisements, delivering its message to potential employees: “Build your career.” The company has spent over PhP 10 million in this endeavor alone. On top of this, Convergys demonstrates its corporate social responsibility by donating to typhoon victims.

Teletech: Selling the Lifestyle
Recognized by the International ICT Awards in early 2007 as the Fastest-growing BPO Company of the Year, Teletech has around 11,500 employees, all of whom enjoy the Teletech Lifestyle. The company is known for its strong employee branding practices, whose incentives include lifestyle perks such as spa treatments, gym membership, discounts in various shops and establishments, and occasional musical concerts featuring the Philippines’ popular performers. The company even has its own basketball team in the Philippine Basketball League, the Teletech Titans. Along with its branded lifestyle, Teletech’s newspaper ads also include the tagline, “Are you ready to take on the world?”

A publicly-traded company, Teletech’s revenues were US$ 1.2 billion in 2006, with its stock price at US$ 24.23. Teletech has operations all over the Philippines: Pasay, Fort Bonifacio, Cainta, Novaliches, Cebu, Dumaguete, Bacolod, Bacoor, Iloilo, and Lipa--six out of ten located outside the Metro. This is part of the company’s drive to bring its operations closer to its employees.

Teletech has also established partnerships with the Ateneo Graduate School of Business in Manila and the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod to provide its employees with UpGRADe, its MBA scholarship program designed to help Teletech employees develop the management skills needed by the company.

Selling the Teletech lifestyle applies both to employee branding and in marketing to potential employees. Each week, in a different newspaper, reminds jobseekers that its lifestyle is available to those who would take the chance with Teletech. Around PhP 8.3 million has been spent in putting out such advertisements. With a monthly ramp of 800 people, Teletech spares little in its recruitment efforts.

The company also exercises its corporate social responsibility by improving the basic communication skills of the BPO talent pool; in early 2007, Teletech pledged a five-million-peso grant to support President Macapagal-Arroyo’s English Proficiency Program.

PeopleSupport: The Future Is Yours
With employees numbering approximately 9,400 and an estimated monthly ramp-up of 500, PeopleSupport makes it a point to keep itself in the public eye. The Los Angeles-based company distributes these employees among its four facilities in the Philippines: two in Metro Manila, one in Baguio, and one in Cebu, with a Learning & Development center in Davao. The company’s President, Bong Borja, was recently awarded the ICT Contributor of the Year at the International ICT Awards 2007. Its branding efforts come in the form of weekly advertisements in the newspapers, like its contemporaries, although PeopleSupport makes it a point to advertise in provincial publications. So far, the organization has spent almost PhP 4 million on these ads, which display the company tagline, “Don’t let your career go down the drain—the future is yours at PeopleSupport.”

In terms of employee branding, PeopleSupport values and develops integrity, innovation, a focus on customers, and a people-centered culture among its employees. In the recent past, PeopleSupport gave employees stock options regardless of rank, and have the benefit of good career paths and excellent training opportunities.

eTelecare: The World’s Most-awarded Call Center
One of the first contact centers in the Philippines, eTelecare employs about 7,300 people and has a monthly ramp-up of 500. Based in Cyberpark Philippines in Eastwood, the company has expanded to five other locations in the Philippines: Makati, Alabang, Asiatown and Lahug in Cebu, and Pasig. To maintain its brand presence, eTelecare puts out weekly newspaper advertisements, and has so far spent over PhP 7 million in 2007.

Awarded by the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP) as the Employer of the Year in 2005, eTelecare makes sure to maintain its employee branding through its comprehensive and rigorous training process, which focuses on communication skills, problem solving and interaction. The company has also invested in PhP 130 million in training programs.

In 2006, eTelecare posted revenues of US$ 195 million, recently listed their shares at Nasdaq with its stock price trading at US$ 10.75.

Comparing the Brands
A further study of newspaper ads reveals an interesting gamut of branding for call centers. They include the people-centric: “It’s all about the people!” (Access Worldwide); “It is our people who make the difference.” (Advanced Contact Solutions); the witty: “Q: What’s under your nose and is about to put a big smile on your face? A: A GREAT OPPORTUNITY” (HTMT); and the branded: “Big Blue is getting Bigger and Better; Work for a company unlike any other. Because you are NOT like everybody else. Be an IBMer.” (IBM Daksh); “Be MANY things but NEVER ordinary. Be a SUTHERLANDER.” (Sutherland)

Branding efforts have indeed begun to increase in variety and frequency, reflecting the growth of the industry for which they are recruiting. “I think that contact centers offer roughly the same things to their employees: plenty of development opportunities, competitive compensation & benefits packages, a wide range of professional experiences, among many others,” says Carol Dominguez. “But ever since the BPO industry boomed here in the Philippines, the war for talent also came along. It’s important to these companies to build a brand and use it to attract their talent pool and to retain their employees. Since these companies all offer similar benefits, then what’s left for them is to differentiate themselves from each other through branding, by highlighting company values, corporate culture and selling these to their employees and the people they want to recruit.”

But what’s more important than just building a brand is to build a leadership brand. To quote Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood, “Leadership brand is a reputation for developing exceptional managers with a distinct set of talents that are uniquely geared to fulfill customers’ and investors’ expectations...that differentiates the organization to employees inside and customers and investors outside...that creates institutional systems that will sustain them year after year.”

“What I’m saying here,” continues Carol, “is that a leadership brand lasts longer and has more profound effects than any ad campaign might. Well-trained employees will be transformed by their experience with their company that they will advertise their companies as the best employers to work for, and this will be more effective than any full-color newspaper ad would. If you build your leadership brand, you’re developing the best leaders and making yourself the employer of choice. Rather than spend all these millions in branding and ads, the money can be better spent in developing the skills of their employees.”

“Building a leadership brand,” says Carol, continuing to paraphrase Ulrich and Smallwood, “requires developing leaders who embody the promises a company makes to customers and investors, and sets the company’s leaders apart, differentiating the organization to customers and investors.”

“Right now, everyone looks the same in their ad campaigns. I think call centers should focus on their leadership brands, differentiate themselves, and create true and lasting value.”