The Next Step

• Details
• Category: Telecommuting From The Philippines
• Hits: 5156

There is not doubt that the opportunities for employment using the Internet will provide a huge source of employment for countries that are competitive in the labor market in both quality and price. Countries who position themselves as “teleworking countries” will get the most jobs and the best paying jobs.

Jobs exist now that can be performed by qualified, unemployed Filipinos as teleworkers. Internet access is limited here in the Philippines. But access is sufficient to start a program putting at least some of the most highly qualified employees who are unemployed to work after a short training period. Teleworking “agents” can train in job search techniques, and self promotion of the worker. They can initially be the primary job searchers too.

A program needs to be designed and implemented to accomplish this as soon as possible. The importance to being first to position yourself or your business can not be overstated. Just because employers are not actively recruiting teleworkers from outside their companies at the moment, does not mean they are not buying services akin to telework now, from the Internet. And there is no doubt that should an employer find a highly qualified Filipino who can accomplish the work by telecommuting, that the employer would avail him/herself of the opportunity to employ/contract.

Now is the time to position the Philippines as an IT nation and an important player in not just software development, but all jobs that can be performed by telework. There is no need to wait for better infrastructure. The infrastructure presently in existence is not being utilized to accomplish the massive amounts of telework of which the nation is already capable.

To achieve success in this with this emerging technology it is necessary to be proactive. Today there is an opportunity to act rather only react. It will not last forever. Teleworking job opportunities and the money made by Filipino teleworkers can be the most important measure of progress for Net21. And Net21 will be a measure of the progress of the Philippines.

Outsourcing boom creates worker shortage

India’s outsourcing boom has created a chronic shortage of skilled workers, threatening to send future jobs to competitors like China and the Philippines.

ABC reports call centers and outsourcing firms are growing fast, but their HR departments say because of the shortage, many young Indians they interview are unemployable mainly because of their poor English.

A Bombay-based call center manager showed a letter written by an employee that said: 'I am in well here and hope you are also in the same well.'

The report said India’s outsourcing industry employs about 350,000 people but will face a shortfall of 500,000 workers in the next few years, a study by McKinsey & Co. says.

'If the industry has to go on paying higher and higher salaries to retain the staff it has, costs will rise and India will lose its biggest advantage -- cheap labor,' said Saurabh Wig, a former call center sales manager.

The problem with the skilled worker shortage in the second-most populous nation in the world is not quantity but quality, the report said. Many of the 3.6 million graduates churned out every year by Indian universities are considered mediocre, the report said.