Business process outsourcing (BPO) companies operating in Iloilo City are ready for their employees’ return to their offices.

The Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB), which is headed by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, decided to require BPO firms to implement the return-to-office (RTO) policy starting next month.

Phoenix Ferrer of XtendOps said BPO is an institution where process implementation setup for the unprecedented global pandemic has been strategically foreplanned for crucial measures to protect workers’ health.

According to him, their company had been providing remote work-from-home equipment to its workers even before the official announcement of the total lockdown in Iloilo in March 2020.

Ferrer said no major adjustments will be made because their onsite workers are already practicing health and safety protocols and risk assessments are performed by the company nurses with their partner health center before onboarding a new hire and endorsement to training.

“Our company administration takes extra measures to help ensure safety in terms of strict implementation of health protocol practice with the ready availability of healthcare support onsite for our employees who are returning to the office,” he explained.

“Our company has provided strong support and a clear understanding of how to benefit and utilize our employee HMO insurance plans including the ability to enroll their dependents with the best health coverage. We are still in an ongoing coronavirus pandemic,” ferrer added.

Given the fact that there are differences in terms of workload, Ferrer believes that increased workload translates to more job openings in the company.

“We helped feed families and save lives. Provided more job opportunities to those who were unemployed amidst the global pandemic growing from a startup BPO composed of 50 employees to an upscale of new operating sites located overseas and local, a total of simultaneously six centers in operations with a plan of adding two more before the year ends,” he shared.

Ferrer also said that BPO will never be returning to normal, but they have already adapted to the new normal. “The new normal where employee healthcare and welfare is foremost vital to the economic rebound success.”

“Remote work-from-home has been one of the most important and visible changes during the global pandemic, it has gained even more significance for both our internal and external clientele.”

Josephine Baylon, Nearsol Philippines operations manager, said though she’s not in favor of the RTO policy, they need to follow government orders.

“The company had always been prepared for the RTO scheme. Unlike other BPO companies that had their employees work from home for a long time or since the pandemic started, ours just started late last year. We have different sites to ensure that we accommodate all our employees onsite while following protocols,” she shared.

Baylon said that they have rented vans that fetched the agents to and from their doorsteps. “We had free food for them since the start of the pandemic so we can even ease their burdens financially.”

For now, their company has made an appeal to the government but they have expanded to other sites as well as to prepare for this set up.

“We make sure that our employees are fully vaccinated and to respect those who refuse to get vaccinated, we set proper expectations that they undergo COVID-19 tests as required to protect their co-employees,” Baylon said.

“So far the BPO industry is not that much affected with the pandemic. For us in retail, it is favorable since most of the physical stores are closed that our customers opt to shop online. With this, our call volume increases,” she continued.

According to Labor Undersecretary Benjo Benavidez, refusing to work on-site is not a ground for termination. However, workers may still be fired from their jobs “in the long run” for insubordination.

Based on the previous government guidelines, the BPO industry, the largest employer in the private sector, is allowed to keep its tax breaks even with 90 percent of its employees working from home.IMT