John Clements-FuturePerfect Tie-up To Service Sutherland
by Paul Catiang

When customer management company Sutherland awarded its business to John Clements, the business was virtually the entire package—top-level management search; junior level management and agent recruitment; US-based HR manual adaptation to the Philippines; payroll outsourcing; provision of HR Generalist on a temporary basis; and the coordination for the provision of health benefits. “John Clements is a one-stop HR services provider,” says Mario Biscocho, Vice President and Managing Director of the Executive Search and Selection Division.

When it came to training the call center agents, however, John Clements needed to approach a specialist in English Language workplace training. While the respected HR company has its own English training program, it teaches American English and trains people to deal with American callers. Because Sutherland’s first account is geared towards British customers, a different approach was needed to train their prospective call center agents.

Enter FuturePerfect, a company with a twofold core competency: providing English competency skills to the BPO Industry and providing English proficiency skills to individuals who want to enter the industry. With respect to Sutherland, FuturePerfect provides training in the nuances of British English usage: idioms, humor, sarcasm. Trainees are even taught to determine a caller’s socio-economic background through conversation alone.

FuturePerfect President, Roger Bartholomew, finds working with John Clements to be a positive experience. “The people selected to work with Sutherland are fun to work with, and are of high caliber, too,” he says. “They listen very well and adopt accents quickly.” The only rough spot he finds is the trainees’ apprehension at going live and not understanding the caller. Mr. Bartholomew reassures them by saying that if they don’t understand a caller, chances are, neither can he. Still, it’s just a minor bump in the road.

Today, training progresses smoothly and more UK callers will be serviced here as part of the growing BPO industry.