Greater attention must be paid to the Caribbean’s outsourcing sector

Press release

January 15, 2018 at 10:19 AM

Audley Shaw, Minister of Finance of Jamaica

Bridgetown, Barbados (TDN)
– There are calls to give the outsourcing sector a higher priority given its current contribution to job creation in the Caribbean, coupled with its potential for expansion. Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director of the Caribbean Export Development Agency, says regional governments need to do more to seek opportunities for the Caribbean to seize the trend in the business outsourcing industry. Ms Coke-Hamilton made the call while speaking at the opening of the first itelbpo-sponsored Caribbean Outsourcing Conference (OCC) on December 6, 2017, themed “Leveraging the Offshore Caribbean for Outsourcing Services”. Held at the Iberostar Rose Hall Beach Hotel in Montego Bay, Jamaica, the conference brought together representatives from 26 countries to discuss how best to attract more international companies to the Caribbean to do business in areas such as call centre operations, website and motion graphics design, and legal and accounting services. Ms Coke-Hamilton noted the outsourcing industry’s current contribution to jobs in the region and its potential for expansion, highlighting that an average of 5,000 workers join the BPO industry each year. Ms. Cork-Hamilton said: “In 2010, the industry provided employment to 47,000 workers, and by 2015, this number had grown to 74,000…BPO and other professional services generated over $2 billion in revenue in 2014. Calculations show that for every 1,000 agents, companies in the region can generate nearly $25 million in revenue.” According to the Executive Director of the Caribbean Export Development Agency, despite the Caribbean’s late start in outsourcing, outsourcing investors are working overtime to expand their services in the Caribbean. “The Caribbean is a late entrant into this industry, but in addition to our well-educated, multilingual, customer-focused talent pool, we have other qualities that can make this industry a huge success story for the region,” said Ms. Cork-Hamilton. Ms. Coker-Hamilton pointed to a recent outsourcing industry investor perception survey conducted by her organization, noting that investors consider the Caribbean to be a strategic or ideal location for outsourcing, “because we offer investors time zone proximity and low operating costs, as a near-shore destination, we are in a similar time zone to New York, with daily flights from major markets… From Miami, we are only 45 minutes to the nearest destination and 3 hours to the farthest destination,” she told investors. The survey also highlighted that 45% of investors said their future business plans include expansion in the Caribbean in the next 12-24 months. “This is great news for the region, it means that those outsourcing companies here are succeeding and looking to achieve more success. When making investment decisions, our respondents pointed out that it is part of a regional strategy. Caribbean Exports supports investment activity in the Caribbean, which is a major motivating factor for us, given that investors are looking across the region. They are not just considering doing business in one region, but in multiple regions,” said Ms. Coker-Hamilton. Another interesting finding from the survey was that 100% of investors said they would be hiring more talent in the next 12-24 months and that they would be looking for that workforce in the Caribbean because of the human capital assets such as communication skills, quick learning and professionalism that the Caribbean talent pool possesses. Ms. Coke-Hamilton said the survey also highlighted development issues for the Caribbean, including the need to be more creative with incentive schemes, provide additional training for its workforce and the need for more data or market research on the industry. Also speaking at the opening ceremony, Jamaican Finance Minister Audley Shaw said there were currently about 26,000 people working in the industry across the island and about 60 companies of varying sizes operating in the Caribbean. He said one of the Government’s responses to the needs of the BPO industry was to ensure that its workforce was trained and had the skills necessary to meet the needs of investors. “Now, we are working to diversify local industries and move up Jamaica’s value chain by delving into new areas such as shared services, legal process outsourcing, computer-aided design and medical process outsourcing. These areas will bring new challenges, including language barriers. We must equip our workers and prepare them to take advantage of all the investment that is available to us,” Minister Shaw said. He further added that the government has taken note of the geographical distribution of investors in the BPO industry. He noted that the Jamaica Factory Corporation’s mandate is to provide real estate solutions for a variety of industries, including the BPO industry. He said that approximately 365,000 square feet at Morant Bay City Centre and 750,000 square feet at Naghead Technology Park will be developed for BPO industry space. Other notable speakers at the Caribbean’s first Outsourcing Conference included the Prime Minister of the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Honourable Sharlene Cartwright-Robinson. She implored investors that if client retention is their goal, then the Caribbean is the place to do business.

“In the outsourcing industry, retaining talent is often a challenge and in the Caribbean, BPO service providers were able to reduce attrition rates to 3% in Suriname and 5% in Haiti, further demonstrating the Caribbean’s advantage compared to other major outsourcing markets such as India at 40% or Mexico at 25%.