WORKPLACE SAFETY + BPO NEWS AND COMMENTS FOR TODAY

Last week, different newspapers articles reported the shutting down of several call centers in the US. This week however, there are reports of new ones rising. To cite a couple, there is one in Colorado and another in Pleasanton.

Call Centers in the Philippines continue to expand. On 2006, companies led by DELL hired thousands of new call center employees. This year, People Support and several other existing BPO’s are contracting new buildings that will house their expansions. Today, another call center expands its operation.

The voice of the customer management profession points out that outsourcing is inevitable. However, there are some perils associated with it and discussed ways to avoid it.

In Dubai, a center called the Financial Technologies Centre for Straight Through Processing Services (FT-CSS) was created to act as a “Technology platform for brokers of stocks and commodities to outsource their complete trading and back-office transaction processing.”

Emirates, the Dubai based airline company will will inaugurate a big call and data center at the Dubai Outsource Zone in order to augment its existing facilities.

A call center incident in Portland has highlighted the need to establish steps to protect contact center employees from infectious diseases. Hopefully, all those affected will recover properly. What happened in that call center should serve as a lesson to all other BPO and non BPO firms all over the world.

The workplace conditions should be planned, taking into careful consideration the outmost safety of the people working in it. Despite the cut throat competition, it will always be a good business practice to institute measures that will protect the employees.

Clients should also take such matters into consideration whenever they choose new vendors. It is not simply the low figures that they should rely upon. Clients and vendors alike, should compete and take pride for the distinction of having and supporting the best working environments in the industry. Calling the Safety Organizations in the world...