Editorial | Shore up BPO sector

When policymakers and the captains of Jamaica’s business process outsourcing (BPO) companies hold their annual conference later this week, it will be in an environment vastly different from what they are likely to have imagined.

Donald Trump, America’s president, has turned the world topsy-turvy with tariffs that threaten to undo international trade and cause global recession. In this period of uncertainty, with the world’s bourses in turmoil, firms are busy assessing – and recalibrating – their operations. What services they outsource, and under what circumstances, will undoubtedly be part of this review.

As higher American tariffs erode market access for goods, it is not unlikely that countries already in the BPO business will seek to offset some of those losses by being more aggressive in offering BPO services. Put another way, the global business process outsourcing sector is likely, in short order, to become even more competitive, accelerating trends unleashed by the advent of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).

Therefore, despite the confidence expressed last month by Wayne Sinclair, the president of the Global Services Association of Jamaica, for the continued expansion of the island’s US$900-million BPO sector, Jamaica faces serious challenges if it is to maintain its place, and achieve growth, in the business, which was projected to value over half a trillion US dollars ($525 billion) by 2030. That implies a more than nine per cent compounded growth rate over the next five years.

According to some analysts, with an estimated 60,000 people employed in BPO operations domestically, Jamaica, in its current configuration, is at, or close to, its peak in the BPO business.

NOT UNSKILLED EMPLOYMENT

The problem, they say, is that the island does not have the workers with the quality of training for the types of jobs that are emerging in global outsourcing as new AI technologies take hold. This situation demands a new conversation around the BPO sector, centred on how service providers in Jamaica must prepare to take advantage of the opportunities opened by AI.

The first, and most obvious issue with respect to the future of the industry, is that many of the lower-skilled backroom jobs that firms used to outsource to lower-cost jurisdictions can now be done competitively with AI technologies. That, potentially, means a loss of jobs for traditional service providers.

But at the same time, some BPO firms are integrating AI and other automation technologies with the management and service skills of humans to enhance the quality of services offered to their clients, and their clients’ customers.

These range from using data analytics to personalise services, to ensuring the security of clients’ data – and everything in-between.

The point is that the new, and future, BPO job is not unskilled employment. Indeed, much of the work that Jamaicans already do in BPO companies are actually jobs that would otherwise have been done in the offices of some of the world’s major corporations in developed countries. They require critical thinking, skills in comprehension and the ability to communicate clearly, mainly in English.

URGENT PLAN REQUIRED

With the industry’s increasingly rapid, technologically -driven evolution, BPO workers will need higher-level skills, and the appropriate behavioural attitudes (soft skills) and work ethic, to do the types of jobs that are becoming available in business process outsourcing.

Against this backdrop, it is a barrier to Jamaica’s growth if a third of its students annually leave primary school unable to read and comprehend at their grade level, and 40 per cent do not meet the requisite standard in maths. Or, if at the secondary level, two-thirds fail at maths in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate exams, and nearly a quarter fail English language. These outcomes underline a crisis in Jamaica’s education system that demands urgent, ongoing attention.

That notwithstanding, facing the danger of losing ground and being left behind, Jamaica’s BPO sector requires an urgent plan for the next new phase of its development and growth. This may require special courses, designed for potential BPO employees in English, maths, coding, work ethic, and emotional intelligence.

There is supposed to be a multisectoral task force on the BPO industry. Maybe after this weekend’s conference there will be new urgency in its work.

With Donald Trump complicating the world, time is of the essence.