BPO/SSC is the abbreviation from Business Process Outsourcing and Shared Service Centre and means performing business processes for global corporate clients.

Nowadays BPO/SSC is used by almost all the largest corporations in the world as well as more and more medium companies. It means that most of the products and services we use in some way are serviced by the BPO/SSC industry, in areas as accounting, logistics, IT activities, customer service or handling complaints.

The Romanian economy is slowly shifting into a service-oriented one, including IT services and all outsourcing businesses, registering one of the highest growths from all components of the GDP starting with the first half of 2016.

Why Romania?

The recent development of the Romanian economy has followed the trend of the Central and East European region, registering a 7.1% fall in GDP in 2009, followed by a 1.3% decline in 2010. This was accompanied by a significant increase in the budget deficit and a depreciation of the domestic currency.

In addition to the cost aspects, investors are attracted by the availability and qualifications of the Romanian labor force. These factors have been perceived as key advantages of investment in Romania, particularly in labor-intensive sectors. The good quality of the Romanian education system and sound knowledge of foreign languages have allowed Romanian professionals to meet the growing expectations of companies both locally and abroad.

What are the benefits of working in the BPO/SSC industry?

Because most of the companies chose to externalize some of their services, the projects are always diverse and the opportunities to develop new skills are numerous. Because millennials fundamentally think about jobs as opportunities to learn and grow, most companies focus on training fresh graduates and people without experience in a specific area.

Their strong desire for development is, perhaps, the greatest differentiator between them and all other generations in the workplace. All the companies require foreign languages competencies, most of the times English also being needed besides the process language (depending on the project: French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish, Turkish, Russian, etc.)

There are 4 types of growth that BPO companies are providing: financial growth, career growth, professional growth, and personal growth.

Most employees will be motivated by the possibility of increased income, especially when it’s tied to their performance. But this isn’t the only way companies make their employees happy, they also focus on their career growth, offering them more significant duties, more impressive job titles and bigger and more aesthetic offices.

Even if they’re not part of a big corporation, the most driven individuals will still want to move up in the ranks of their organization. If they’re serious about their work, employees will want to improve in their field. Most of our clients offer ways for employees to sharpen their skills and knowledge, such as conferences, mentoring programs, online courses, or even tuition reimbursement.

While it may seem like personal growth has nothing to do with career development, many employees are motivated by factors that are completely unrelated to work. With the increasingly blurred line between private and professional lives, it makes sense to encourage employees to pursue their personal goals. They take care of this by giving flexible work schedules, the freedom to work remotely, and social gatherings outside of work. Some companies even have spaces designated for relaxation with games: pool, foosball, pit ball, video games, etc.

Most of the BPO/SCC companies understood the needs of the different generations offering them attractive salaries and opportunities to grow. While their motivation for leaving may vary, some people might have switched companies because they believed they had little to no opportunity for growth. Having different projects in various areas, BPO/SCC companies offer employees, besides financial stability, the opportunity to switch between projects and develop new skills.

Managers need to be more proactive and thoughtful when it comes to opening conversations about growth and development with their future employees. These conversations could go far in helping them understand that they have a place in the company, now and in the future.

Businesses in every industry can now outsource non-core processes while applying more resources to core business functions. As the BPO industry continues to develop, we should expect several interesting trends to surface this year. Businesses across all industries have adopted BPO because business process outsourcing solutions provide an array of opportunities for cost reduction and business growth.

If you are interested in working in this industry, visit our Careers page and chose the job that suits you the best.

*For more information about this topic you can visit our partner’s website (www.absl.ro). They have amazing reports about the BPO & SSC industry.