CHRONICLES OF BAYANING PAYAT: Teleperformance, My First BPO Experience

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010 So on this day, I ended my long-term bumming. I finally got a job - call center agent. I was a total bum after I stopped studying in college.

Then one friend advised/referred me to apply for a job in Teleperformance. I was like, bakit hindi?

This wasn't my first time to apply for a job.

So I tried my luck on that day. I wasn't good in English. I hated all my English subjects in way back in my schooling days. It wasn't really my thing.

I was into arts and music back then. I also didn't know about call center when in fact it was already a trend back in early 2000's. So why not try it?

Here I list the details of my job offer, the application process they have and my short opinions.

DISCLAIMER: Details below may not be the same or applicable today.

JOB OFFER (J.O.)

Position: Technical Support Representative (entry level)
Account/Campaign: Telstra ADSL+ (BigPond)
Site: EDSA-Central (now Greenfield) in Mandaluyong City
Basic Salary: PHP14,000 (taxable)
Allowance: NONE
Premium: PHP1,000 (taxable)
Incentives PHP3,000 attendance bonus (conditional)
Paid Leaves: 10 SL 10 VL which is given every month (accumulated) and can be used upon regularization
Regularization: Upon 6 month of tenure
Health Card: Intellicare (not sure if they still use it now) given upon regularization
Appraisal: They have their own appraisal system which is computed according to your monthly performance (KPI/metrics)

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Teleperformance Greenfield District Site

Teleperformance is a multinational company headquartered in France.

The company specializes in outsourced omnichannel customer experience management, also known as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).

The company provides customer acquisition, customer care, technical support, debt collection, social media, and other services around the world.

Teleperformance has 217,000 employees across 340 contact centers in 74 countries and serves over 160 markets. Countries in which Teleperformance operates include France, the United Kingdom, Albania, Brazil, Chile, India, Philippines, China, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Norway, Italy, Greece, Portugal, the United States, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Australia, the Netherlands, Suriname, Egypt, Russia, Sweden, Germany and Poland.

Teleperformance is one of the world's largest BPO companies valued at $4.050 billion and headquartered in Paris, France.

Teleperformance Philippines

The company, founded in 1996, employs over 40,000 people in the Philippines and operates more than 30,000 workstations at 18 sites in Metro Manila, Antipolo, Baguio, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu and Davao.

From 2012 to 2016, Teleperformance received the Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Contact Center Outsourcing Service Provider of the Year Award for its performance in revenue management, market-share capabilities and overall contribution to the call-centre industry. It also received AON Hewitt certification as the best employer in the Philippines.

ABOUT THE ACCOUNT/CAMPAIGN/CLIENT

Telstra is an Australian company. That means "DAYSHIFT". So I will work in daytime, normal life. Opposite to what the 70-80% people who are in the BPO industry who work at night.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Walk-in applicants (Referrals do the same)
Go to the recruitment office (business hours) 8am-5pm. I always go after lunch so you can save your time and tummy. Going before will just give you same result.
Submit your resume to the reception. They will ask you to fill out an application form.
Fill out the form and submit back to them.
Your name will be called. Duration may varies depending on the numbers of the applicant or on how fast their recruitment move.
You will be called for the INITIAL INTERVIEW. This can be a solo or group interview. Usually questions are about personal information, educational background and work experiences (if there's any). Result will be given in a few after they review your response to the interview.
If you passed, you will be called for an ONLINE EXAM or VERSANT. It will be a series of different exams about English vocabulary, grammar and comprehension. It may also include some Mathematics and Logic. Some other exams are timed. Results will be given after the exam.
Once you passed the exams, you will be PROFILED to a program that suites your skills. At this point, you may want to bargain with the recruiter if you are looking for a specific account or campaign. With my application in Teleperformance, I was advised by a friend who worked for Verizon campaign to apply for the same campaign. However, Telstra-BigPond was on a ramp when I applied in. Ending? I accepted the offer since it was my first-time to passed and get hired.
Then you will be scheduled for the FINAL INTERVIEW. This interview is commonly facilitated by an operations manager, a supervisor or an HR. Result is given within the day or on the day they will provide you after the interview. In my case, I was interviewed via phone by a supervisor and asked me to do a step-by-step instructions on how to login and reset password on Facebook.com
IF YOU PASSED, then congratulations! You will proceed on the Job Offer where you will have a briefing about the your job and your salary and benefits as their employee.
You will also be given a list of requirements that you need to accomplish within their given timeframe.

MY EXPERIENCE

About the Company:
PROS

Teleperformance is not so meticulous in accepting applicants. They accept undergraduate college students with no working experience. They even accept high school graduates before. Not sure today.

CONS

Payroll disputes - during my 1 year stay with Teleperformance, I experienced payroll disputes a lot of times. We use payroll and scheduling system. But still, issues with pays every cutoff occur almost every month.
Security - super strict. They do frisking on every doors. I don't know if it applies to different sites.
Dress code - since EDSA site is (was) the main office, dress code is strictly dress up. Only on weekends you can wear tees and shorts. (at least they allow shorts) 😃

About the Account:

PROS

Dayshift
Aussies are nice compare to Americans
Training was sufficient - thanks to our trainer Cloyd Villegas.

CONS

Shifting sched - although it's dayshift, schedule-wise is not so good. I even experienced going to work on different schedule everyday.
Split-off - this is one thing I really hate the most.
System - it sucks (for TSR) they use VPN logins
Queuing - super! I was averaging for 30-40 calls a day doing ADSL troubleshooting.
Stations are not assigned. You must find one for yourself on a daily basis.

Aout the Management:
PROS

Can't think of any.

CONS

Politics - politics everywhere.

About the Place:
PROS

Location-wise, it's very accessible - it's just along EDSA. Can be accessed via bus or MRT.
There is a lot of food places nearby.

CONS

The building itself is quite old now.
Not fully airconditioned.

CONCLUSION

If you are new in BPO and near EDSA-Shaw (crossing), I recommend you try it here. But I heard that other Teleperformance sites have better working environment.

Bayaning Payat

Follow me on the following for more cool stuff about call center life and BPO in the Philippines: