Yes, Malaysia has become a call centre hub, an area which i have been reading up and researching on through the help of my 'over qualified' friends who went into this industry due to the recession years ago. This is an industry every growing in Malaysia, it makes up a huge part of the corporate world. It's an industry that is seen to be 'safe' during an economic storm.
Many parts of the world today, especially europen countries favour Malaysia simply because of low cost, the fact that we have professionals trained for this industry and the fact that Malaysia has a large number of English speaking citizens from the chinese, indian & eurasian communities. This industry continues to train more citizens into this industry due to it's booming business. Thr government through AMDEC has given jobless malay graduates a chance to embark on a career in the call centre industry but it only works well with Malays who at least have a reasonable level of spoken English.
'The Mother Of All Call Centres' in Malaysia is SCICOM(MSC)BERHAD, She hold various mega projects such as Nokia, Singtel, Air Asia, Petronas, G-Money, Ladbrooks and few others. Then we have Symphony owned by Dato'Azman, a high end call centre located at Damansara Ara. We have made other successful call centres here, SCICOM, Symphony, HSBC & Maxis (Internal & Outsourced) are the major players. We have the CCM Association that is currently Presided by The CEO of SCICOM. I would say that we have an estimated 20 successful call centres in Malaysia not including the smaller ones dealing with outbound calls. This is an Industry which continues to significantly contribute to the Malaysian economy.
My greatest worry is, this industry has become a ground for cheap and hard labour. Meaning that call centre professionals/Agents suffer a rountine of 9 to 13 hours a day on calls, most of them work on weekends and 'graveyard' shifts meaning 12am to 6am due to the client's country time difference. It has turned into a rigid military camp which is highly stressed up with unbecoming demands in KPIs and Service Levels. Agents take non stop calls and are forced to meet targets and KPIS. All this for a mere RM1,300 to 2,000. To me, this has come to a very worrying level.
It's time The government steps in and passes a bill in parliament governing the call centre industry meaning that;
(1) Agents work 8 hours a day which include 1 hour lunch and half an hour break twice a day.
(2)Salaries must be capped at RM2,300 the lowest and five day week. Muslims must be given off on Fridays, Christians given off on Sundays & religous festivals. The same for followers of other religions.
(3) Call Centre agents who wish to study must be be given the right to their off days to fall on their class days within the two days off a week. Twice a week off is a must.
(4) KPIs must be realistic and not military styled.
(5) Employees must not be made as cheap labour to toil without any mercy and rights given to them. Medical insurance that is proper must be given to all employees.
(6) A break of 10 minutes must be given after every call before the agent takes the next call, this will only increase quality of professional delivery of service rather than madness of achieving service levels only.
(7) In return, Call Centres can be selective when hiring and obtaining those with ability to serve and withstand the very stressful nature of customer service. This will only bring better return to the company and most importantly better quality.
(8) Companies must ensure career development immediately after agent's first year of service without having to go through the recommendation of the agent's Team Leader.
It's time the government steps in rather than allowing this BPO businesses continue being a legalized bully and extortion. For us to remain a call centre hub, call centres must be made legally responsible and not be allowed to continue their old ways. We can only nurture professionals in this industry if the Top Management of Call Centres change their unbecoming demands and rigidity.
