Despite now having to lay off a number of staff due to a request from one of their longstanding clients, Emerge BPO, a local Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company, says that the move will not affect the recently announced plans for its new campus.
Last Thursday, the company announced its decision to reduce its staff following a request from one of its international clients and noted that it would still be maintaining operations locally as well as in Canada and the United States of America.
“Emerge BPO continues to be transparent with its employees and will do everything it can to assist with referrals and placements to help make the transition for all affected employees as smooth as possible, including providing full separation remunerations, and other benefits. The company shall continue to do all in its power to minimise these jobs displacements,” the company had stated.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Heidi Solomon-Orlick and its Vice-President of Operations Dalgleish Joseph previously told this newspaper in an interview that it was in the process of developing a new Georgetown campus that would significantly increase its capacity ahead of expected growth in the industry.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Joseph said “absolutely not,” when asked whether the newest development would affect the expansion plans.
Joseph said the company already has opportunities for growth in the pipeline and not just in Guyana but in its overall business portfolio as well. “It is just very unfortunate that we just lost a portion of our client base, which obviously impacted a few employees but it should not affect our projections,” he said.
Joseph noted that such developments happen often in the BPO industry but the company is approaching the peak season and so it is working assiduously to secure business.
While he was unable to say how many workers would be laid off, Joseph explained that the figure is subject to change as developments are made. “Who knows? Maybe the figure we were looking at initially might be shortened but it is difficult to say right now. If I say 100 or 200 now, next week it could around 50 or less… We wanted to ensure the public understands what is going on because we want to be transparent so there are no rumours but we are still going quite strong,” he said.
Joseph noted that clients make strategic business decisions every fiscal year and those decisions can be based on financial challenges or strategic changes in their business model, pricing or performance.
He said in the specific case with the client that was responsible for the reduction, it would’ve made strategic decisions for over four years in terms of pricing that it would not be able to meet. “What we need to do better at as a country is to continue to be competitive and continue to position Guyana as a great near-shore destination for BPO or clients looking for great customer service. Other Caribbean islands are doing it successfully but that doesn’t mean they don’t have the same experiences,” he added. He noted that sometimes clients leave and 15 to 20 workers are affected as a result, while the departure of others may have a bigger impacts.
However, Joseph said that the important thing is ensuring that there is a contingency plan to reduce the impact of sudden changes in the industry. “If we understand that something is coming, then we should plan ahead and secure new contracts at least for our employees,” he added, while emphasising that the company will not be closing down.
Solomon-Orlick had explained that part of the reason for their investment in the new campus, which is expected to be completed by the end of the year, was anticipated growth, and she noted that they were trying to get ahead of the curve. She added that the anticipated growth in the industry is independent of the development of the oil and gas industry, although she pointed out that it would assist the growth of the BPO
industry through securing more exposure for the country.
She said the campus would be located on Camp Street in the recently-constructed IPA building, where they rented five of its six floors. The 9,000 square feet area would have a state-of-the-art recruitment centre, which Solomon-Orlick said would be “super hip and super colourful,” since they were targeting a millennial workforce of 1,500 to 2,000 persons.
The first floor of the campus was scheduled to be completed by the end of the July, and the company was expected to move over 120 people from its current building on Middle Street to the new campus.
