Amid the competitive nature of the global business outsource processing (BPO) industry that caters mostly to large-scale multinational corporations, US-based outsourcing agency DOXA Talent is positioning itself as a "socially conscious solution" for Filipino skilled workers and helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) grow.
DOXA, who took on their first clients in the country two and a half years ago, offers offshore opportunities for skilled workers in the Philippines in various fields. Despite having manpower pools in Vietnam, Kenya and Colombia, majority of its workers are based in the country. To date, the agency has around 750 Filipino employees.
Among the company's leadership team, two out of five are Filipinos – General Manager Ira May Crisologo, and President of Operations Edward Lim. Having local input provides DOXA with an edge in the Philippine market and allows their US or international clients to foster cultural partnerships with their employees.
DOXA Talent Chief Executive Officer (CEO) David Nilssen said that DOXA is positioning itself as a "socially conscious solution for outsourcing," and a "people-first organization" that not only gives competitive benefits to its workers, but also partners with SMEs and clients that align with their sustainability and ethical values.
"My experience in the BPO industry is that oftentimes the BPOs are very concerned about the client, even at the expense of the team member. We put our team members first, and we only take on clients who believe what we believe," he said.
For a start, language matters for Nilssen. He and his fellow leading officials at DOXA call their employees "VIPs," noting their dislike of describing their staff as merely "resources".
"They are human beings, not human doers. Historically the industry has treated teams, team members as product versus people," he remarked.
The BPO industry as a whole accepts a 50 percent attrition rate as the standard, noted Nilssen, but they recorded only 22 percent last year.
"We want to see it get even better. But we believe if we pay people very well, if we allow them to work in a remote environment so they can be with their family and closer to their communities, if they're provided with the great enhanced benefits like healthcare and also investing in their development, that they're more likely to stay," he said.
DOXA utilizes a fully remote work set up. The company pays for their workers' internet home connections to ensure adherence to their required upload and download speeds. Workers who have their own connection can reimburse their internet dues to the company, said Nilssen. In addition, they provide a work-from-home (WFH) subsidy for energy consumption and internet, along with food allowances.
These attributes of the company have put them on jobseekers' radar with DOXA receiving 60,000 applications last year. However, to maintain its standards, the company utilizes a comprehensive screening process, which marks down the hired applicants to only around 400.
"We believe one of our superpowers is the fact that we actually individually recruit for every single role. So it is a little bit slower from that standpoint. But we're putting a higher quality individual who's specifically skilled to do that. We also use a behavioral assessment to make sure that not only does their resume meet the requirements, but they have the natural wiring. They have the ability to do the role long term," Nilssen explained.
Growth and expansion
According to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), sustained growth in the Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) sector, even amid the Covid-19 pandemic, led to higher service exports in the first nine-months of 2023.
The sector made over $35 billion in revenues in 2023, according to the Information Technology and Business Process Association Philippines (IBPAP). They are expecting to increase direct hires for Filipinos by eight percent from 1.7 million last year to 1.84 million in 2024, reaching two million jobs by 2025.
DOXA's CEO said that they expect 100 percent growth in manpower to around 700 more employees in 2024 as they did the year before.
The main growth drivers are in the professional services such as accounting and legal firms, creative services, and marketing agencies. Accountants are currently in demand roles that clients are seeking, followed by executive assistants, software and IT technicians, engineers and developers, as well as sales, customer service staff and creative roles like content writers, social media managers, and graphic designers.
They are also seeing an uptick in hiring in the healthcare sector with US clinics and hospitals needing workers to process medical billings.
To facilitate that growth, DOXA puts great emphasis on continuing to upskill and reskill their existing employees, as well as build tangible rapport between their clients and staff. The latter is being done through annual physical meet-ups like DOXICON where business CEOs from the US visit the country for three days to interact and establish stronger ties with the Filipino hires.
"We want to create more economic opportunity here. Now, in order for us to do that, though, we do believe making investments in education, specifically for our team members, is a way for us to continue to do that. We believe that in a modern workforce where it's very dynamic and technology is changing the landscape every single day, our people have to be just as adaptable," said Nilssen.