How long have you been working for Convergys?
I have been with Convergys for about a year, but I have been in the industry for 11 years.
What’s your primary function as a Sr. Operations Director?
I look after approximately 4,000 people within Convergys’ Philippine Operation –Pbcom, CVG1 and Commonwealth, so that’s 14 accounts.
Can you tell us about the career path of your employees?
In a short span of three years, you can be promoted from an agent to a Sr. Operations Manager. Because of the growth, we are experiencing rapid promotions as opposed to the U.S. and Australia where you still have to wait for a span of eight to ten years before you get to be promoted.
What are the challenges facing your industry now?
The problem being faced my peers in the industry is the lack of management depth. There are very few talented and experienced people out there who can take on the leadership roles. There are a lot of people who got the skills but they don’t have a very firm management ability.
How do you respond to the challenge?
In the absence of experience there’s always training. Convergys probably got the best training ground for its junior leaders to junior managers—team leaders and all the way up to operations manager. We send some of our best leaders to the U.S to be trained by some of our best trainers there.
Convergys currently runs training programs call MDP (Management Development Programme) which allows our best front-line agents to be trained in basic skills needed to become a team leader. [What is] basic for Convergys is light years ahead of our competition. We train our junior leaders in financials, continuous improvement using lean six-sigma philosophy and guidance, metric management, action planning and more. It is a course that sets apart our team leaders from the industry competition and allows them to succeed in their next role, and set them up for success in the future.
It does not stop at team leader level; we train our managers in seminars ranging from management retreats to mentoring with their global peers in a structured course handled in our US corporate offices. Our commitment to people development is not just a catchy battle cry or meaningless verbiage on a newspaper ad. It is done because it is something that the company truly believes in. It is our commitment to the training of our people that enables us to manage our talented agents.
Our training is our edge; our execution is a direct consequence of the effort we apply to getting the right leader with the appropriate skills to do their role. With an absolute growth rate of nearly 350 people per month, we cannot afford to do anything wrong with our team.
Convergys Philippines is a working example of its mission, in outthinking and outdoing the competition and adding value to its client base.
What is your most fulfilling experience in your career?
Watching people grow. You can see that people have changed their perspective of managing people and the way they interact. That’s more rewarding than anything.
How do you remain competitive as one of the leaders in your industry?
Have integrity for a start. A lot of companies either have integrity but then they may fall short especially in terms of leadership. Here at Convergys, you’ll find integrity to be a core value.
What are your plans for the future?
We’re still weighing up whether we should expand in Metro Manila or go to the other regions. It truly depends on how much pressure the client wants or how much pressure the client puts on us. But the industry is still growing because it still has a lot of capacities to grow.
How about your personal plans?
I would want to train as many leaders as possible. In my mindset, Convergys has some of the best and brightest individuals in the company now, and those guys will be the industry leaders because they are being taught patience here.
What advice can you give to the young professionals who want to be Directors themselves?
Be patient. Don’t always go for the company that pays the highest amount, because they’re only paying the highest amount for alternative reasons –they surely are short of talent. What you will find is that the packaging, which is normally in terms of more salary, is not always going to deliver you satisfaction.
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