Displaced tourism workers found jobs in BPO industry

CEBU, Philippines — As tourism-related establishments have yet to re-hire workers due to the slump, call center companies have become the jumping ground for laid-off workers.

According to Hotel Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu (HRRAC) president Alfred Reyes, hotel staff in particular who have lost their jobs, albeit temporarily due to slow business, have applied for jobs in call centers, in fact some of them have already been hired.

In connection to this, call center firm Performance 360 Call Center announced that the company is giving priority to displaced tourism workers for its 100-hour free call center training online.

 In an interview with the company’s founder Mike Cubos, he said the program has received more than 2,000 applications since its re-launching in May 2021.

Of the 2,000 applicants, about 30 percent are displaced workers hotels and other tourism-related companies.

“We are focusing on the tourism displaced workers because the number of laid-off workers from this industry is very high,” Cubos said.

As of February 2021, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) record showed that about 4.2 million Filipinos have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

PSA identified the tourism sector as the most affected industry during the pandemic.

Performance 360 has tapped the various local government units (LGU) in Cebu province to roll out this program.

Last month, the Cubos announced his company’s opening to accept trainees from Alcoy, Argao, Boljoon, Dalaguete, Oslob, Samboan, Santander, Cordova, Liloan, Compostela, Danao, Carmen, Sogod, Borbon and northern Cebu.

Cubos reported that 60 percent of the applicants are from the LGUs. “But we have other LGUs that we weren’t able to serve due to distance and slow internet connectivity,” said Cubos.

The trainees will learn familiarization of the US, Europe, Australia working culture, English communication skills, sales and telemarketing, customer service, call handling and hands-on phone experience.

After completion of the training, trainees will be provided with a certificate and will be endorsed to big call center companies for priority interview.

Cubos added that multinational call center firms have agreed prioritize the trainees once they complete their crash course.

Qualfon, Concentrix and others are currently hiring, Cubos said.

The training was initially aimed at capacitating senior high school graduates and those jobseekers who want to pursue a career in the call center industry. But the focus as of this time has also included the hundreds of tourism industry displaced workers as call center employment poses high possibility for them to get a job immediately.