Internet woes, scamming risk hurdles of work-from-home for BPOs

WESTERN BUREAU:

Inconsistencies in the local telephony infrastructure and recurrent disruptions in electricity are the main challenges being faced by business process outsourcing (BPO) employees who have been working from their homes over the past two weeks.

“It’s still early days, but the main challenge has been problems with telecoms, interruptions and poor quality connectivity,” said Gloria Henry, president of the Global Services Association of Jamaica (GSAJ).

“Some persons have also had problems with intermittent power disruptions, but these are not major inhibitors,” added Henry, who is in charge of the Montego Bay Free Zone.

According to the GSAJ, some of the other conditions that qualify a worker for consideration for the work-from-home measure include technology and telecoms infrastructure offering a minimum of 10Mbps, and internal criteria such as a private room, security protocols, and tenure with the company for more than 10 months.

CAUSE FOR CONCERN

Additionally, workers must accept that they will be prosecuted for any breach of cybercrime or data protection legislation. The risk of the Jamaican lottery scam, which has fleeced millions of dollars from mainly elderly Americans, is also cause for concern because of its historical link with call-centre workers.

Henry, who was providing an email response to queries from The Gleaner, disclosed that approximately 10,200, or 26.4 per cent of the BPO workforce, were now deployed under the work-from- home regime. That number is expected to be increased to 30 per cent by April 24.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness ordered that effective March 18, government agencies and businesses should scale back non-essential work and, where possible, staff be demobilised to operate from home.

In addition, the Government granted permission for operators in the lucrative BPO sector, which accounts for a workforce of almost 40,000, to remove equipment purchased for use at the sites, which is normally prohibited under the Special Economic Zone Act, to facilitate working from home.

“I cannot provide you with the details of the firms, but the larger firms are between five and 40 per cent, while two firms have over 90 per cent and one firm has 100 per cent of their staff working at home,” said Henry, seeking to provide a clearer picture of how the initiative is working.

According to News18.com, the 374 BPO firms in top outsourcing destination India are struggling to piece together work-from-home solutions and other business-continuity plans, raising the question of whether the country’s leading source of employment can function smoothly amid the coronavirus crisis.

“The industry has been scrambling to set up its own business continuity plan,” R. Chandrashekhar, a retired federal government official and a former president of India’s IT services lobby group, NASSCOM, was quoted as saying.

As is the case in Jamaica, companies must seek client permission before allowing employees to work on sensitive projects outside the office. The article further quoted a senior human resources executive at a top Indian IT firm, speaking on condition of anonymity, as saying that regulation is the main challenge in working remotely.

“These days, the challenge is not really the technology, the challenge is the regulations, and, in case something goes wrong, who’s going to take the responsibility?” the human resource executive said.