How much is the middle management training gap and lack of an adequate call centre skills base costing SA?

by Jeff Austin

Jeff Austin draws on his international experiences evaluating South Africa as a possible offshore destination for one of America's top Call Centre outsourcing solution providers to explain why we lose lucrative contracts to rival countries like India and the Philippines.

Before Jeff Austin, Managing Director of Siyandza Skills Development, made South Africa his home a few years ago, his first connection with the country was made when the American company he was working for included SA in the short list process as a possible offshore destination.

"The company wanted to offshore in an emerging Call Centre (CC) market that had the skills, infrastructure and stability needed to sustain a large CC running around 2-4000 seats," recollects Austin, "and had included SA along with the Philippines and India in the short listing process."

The Philippines emerged, rather quickly, as the preferred destination and the company currently has 1,650 seats there, with plans to add 2,000 more in the near future.

Quality of personnel decisive

Among the various deciding factors, Austin highlights the overall quantity and quality of CC personnel available in the Philippines, particularly in the middle management layer ─ from team leaders to operations managers, as decisive.

Acknowledging the overall role played by the country's ostensibly effective educational policies in creating the surfeit, Austin also surmises that the distinct structures that many of the organisations being evaluated had made a telling contribution. "During the evaluation process it became apparent that many Philippine CCs tended to have well-developed and mature decision-making and management structures in place," he recollects, "which would have undoubtedly had an impact on the quality of personnel available."

Elaborating on this observation, Austin argues that clearly defined structures, accountabilities and roles are vital to the smooth running, consistency and focus of organisations like CCs.

"Everyone kne exactly what their role and mandate was within the Philippine CCs and there was very little overlap," he clarifies, "which was in stark contrast to many CC's here in South Africa, where it is still not uncommon to find Team Leaders (TLs) performing backend processes, managing budgets, and handling other administrative tasks. Tasks that distract them from their primary focus: ensuring consistent quality to customers through coaching and managing their team members."

Short-term thinking creates skills gaps

Austin contends that, aside of the perception of the lower education levels of the available workforce for CCs in South Africa, this "diluting of skills" is one of the main reasons why the overall quality of personnel is higher in the Philippines.

"Many local CCs seem to focus on developing staff to use their systems and product knowledge, rather than developing the actual skills required to perform their jobs and grow themselves within the organisation," he maintains. "It is an approach that may work in the short term at the entry level, when hiring new agents, but leaves large "skills gaps" that are significantly exposed in the lower and middle management levels."

Austin cites the example of what happens when a CC needs to hire a Team Leader to illustrate how these "skills gaps" are often exposed.

"Typically, many CC's promote their best or top performing agent, without due consideration for the range of leadership skills required in the new position," he observes. "It's an approach that is prevalent within the industry and that, basically, throws lower level managers onto the floor to sink or swim. This skills gap can be relatively easily avoided if an effective training and succession planning program – designed to grow and develop potential leaders – is implemented within the business from the entry level up."

Coordinated response pivotal

Aside of the quality and availability of personnel, Austin asserts that the approach and assistance provided by the Philippine government was also pivotal, with the company assigned a representative who was fully mandated to assist throughout the evaluation process.

"The Philippine Representative was very responsive, with quick turnarounds that were generally within 12 hours, and handled everything from general information sourcing, pricing and setting up meetings," Austin recollects.

This included everything from garnering reliable workforce skills assessments, negotiating labour costs, setting up meetings with key suppliers, to sourcing multiple quotes for building leases. "He came back with answers and options on everything we requested and promptly," Austin confirms, "regardless of whether it required public or private sector input."

SA adopts "sell first" approach

The South African government's response was not nearly as forthcoming. There was no coordinated drive to facilitate business into the country and the company received little help sourcing the information it needed to facilitate decisions.

"The response from the public and private sectors to large companies looking at South Africa or India was noticeably uncoordinated," remembers Austin, "and both India and South Africa seemed to have adopted a "sell first" approach. This approach made it hard to validate what little information was provided and did little to inspire investor confidence."

Austin explains that it felt like both government and the private sector were trying to close the deal without fully thinking through how to deliver against the promises made. Something that he feels was clearly reflected in the fact that delivery-related answers were generally hard to get and frequently lacked substance or solidity, which also made it hard to trust the information that was eventually communicated.

"There was a general lack of commitment and coordination throughout the process," recalls Austin. "At one meeting here, for example, the government official sent to meet our delegation brought homespun business cards that had been printed on A4 paper and even stamped incorrectly ─ not a great impression to make on a company looking to sink millions of dollars into the country."

Seven minutes to seal the deal

Infrastructural and environmental issues also came into play in the decision-making process, particularly the country's telecommunications infrastructure. "The high costs, low reliability and lack of service level guarantees were all issues and in stark contrast to those being offered by the other countries," remembers Austin. "Our meeting to discuss the telecommunications for the contract summed up the situation perfectly. It lasted a whole seven minutes ─ they arrived with their price sheet and were unprepared to enter into any real, meaningful negotiations or discussions."

Deal or no deal?

Nonetheless, Austin does not attribute the frustration experienced during the evaluation process as being instrumental to South Africa losing this lucrative opportunity to the Philippines. "One is prepared to work with the frustrations encountered during the appraisal process in order to identify the best possible destination," he accedes. "So the lack of a coordinated, efficient response to the team's enquiries had a significant impact, but was not a deal breaker in itself."

Pushed to isolate the single biggest factor responsible for South Africa's eventual elimination, Austin returns to the lack of skilled personnel available in the country. "In the final analysis, we knew we needed to secure a large enough base of skilled personnel to be able to scale and develop staff to match the company's internal growth on a sustainable basis so that we could ensure the investment's long term success," he concludes. "It's a deficiency that SA still needs to actively address."