Sun, Aug 31, 2003 page11

• For call center trainees, `Baywatch' is homework

  • REUTERS
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  In the past four weeks, Sadhana Verma has picked up tips on American baseball, learnt American history and spent hours watching Jerry Maguire and TV shows such as Baywatch and Friends.

  And the 23-year-old Indian college graduate gets paid for it.

  Verma is part of India's booming US$2.3 billion-a-year back-office services industry, which is training thousands of graduates straight out of college in speech and culture to connect with far-flung customers.

  Thousands of miles away in Manila, prospective staff of call center C-Cubed Inc, are grilled on their knowledge of "Americana," including geography and their ability to comprehend accents from California to Texas.

  "We have speech and grammar training during which we get to listen in to different accents from different parts of the US so we get a feel for their accent," says Prima Cruz, 22, who has been with C-Cubed for nearly two years. "We try to adopt a Californian accent, which is more neutral than a southern accent."

  As global giants move business functions such as customer support, accounting, claims processing and human resource management to cheaper locations including India and Philippines, companies are educating and training their workforce in the different ways and manners of their overseas customers.

  Aided by a large pool of English-speaking graduates and engineers, India and Philippines are emerging as the hottest destinations for US firms farming out business to Asia.

  "We don't want our employees to live and breathe like an American when they deal with US clients, but they should be able to empathize with them," said R. Elango, human resources chief at MsourcE, a 3,000-strong Indian back-office services firm.

  Youngsters at call centers are routinely taught to assume British or American names and get weeks of classroom training in foreign accents and communication skills. Understanding a client's business also is key: Companies train employees on insurance and tax regulations for overseas customers.

  At stake is a fast-growing business: Around 3.3 million US jobs in the services sector and US$136 billion in wages are expected to move to offshore countries like India, Russia, China and the Philippines by 2015, according to Forrester Research.

  Entry-level graduates in India are paid between 8,000 rupees and 10,000 rupees (US$174 to US$218) a month, about a tenth of what their US counterparts earn. In the Philippines, entry-level call center employees earn about US$200 to US$275 a month. It may not sound like a lot, but the jobs are hot in countries where most liberal arts graduates find it difficult to get decent work.

  In India alone, about 100,000 jobs have sprung up in the past two years, doubling the industry's total workforce to about 170,000. About 60,000 people are employed in the call center industry in the Philippines and this number is expected to rise to about 300,000 by 2008.

  At many companies, the screening process starts from the initial interview where voice trainers closely check communication skills of candidates.

  Home assignments in training classes include watching news broadcasters CNN, BBC and television shows. Trainees listen to recorded talk shows, which industry executives say helps them get an idea of the latest events happening overseas.
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